NHS, Brexit, Paying for medication

Not a chance. All political parties signed up. Any deviation is political suicide. Will have to pay if you're not a uk citizen but that's been the case for a good few years. It does need massive reform but that's another debate

There are no plans to scrap the NHS and replace it with US style of health care. That is ridiculous scare- mongering.

People who are on continuous medication will end up having to pay for it

It wouldn’t surprise me, the exemptions mean that some people dont pay for any perscriptions...even if it doesn’t relate to their medical issue

But it would be such a minefield to tit around with I doubt much will happen

There may be a lot wrong with the NHS, but as far as I know we were 'saving the NHS' during the worst of the Covid pandemic.
If the NHS were to change, why would we have a US style Health system, instead of a French or German style system

Sorry should have added That a lot of illnesses dont get the exemption

My friend was paying a small fortune til she started doing the prepaid prescription

The nhs is already being privatised. This will only accelerate after the transition period ends.

www.thelancet.com/journals/lanonc/article/PIIS1470-2045(19)30183-4/fulltext

The UK's exit from the European Union (EU) is arguably one of the worst self-inflicted harms any country has done to itself in peace-time. In aHealth Policy pieceinThe Lancetin 2017, and updated in February, 2019, Fahy and colleagues state that Brexit will have “negative consequences for the UK's leadership and governance of health, in both Europe and globally”. An editorial inThe Lanceton March 2, 2019, went further, emphasising: “There is no good news for the NHS (National Health Service)…in all scenarios, depletion of the NHS workforce is inevitable, care for UK nationals living in the EU is uncertain, and access to medicines, vaccines, and devices hangs in the balance”. Indeed, the provision of diagnostic imaging and radiopharmaceuticals for patients with cancer is one key specialty in which the consequences of Brexit are multiple and potentially catastrophic.

On March 5, 2019, the UK Royal College of Radiologists (RCR), in collaboration with the British Nuclear Medicine Society and the UK Radiopharmacy Group, issuedpractical guidanceto nuclear medicine physicians on how to manage Brexit in a no-deal scenario. The advice states that there might be delays to deliveries; nuclear medicine teams should try to keep their workloads light in the first week post-Brexit; teams should consider the use of alternative radiopharmaceuticals where possible; and certain patients should be prioritised over others. These are drastic measures. The UK Government has stated that, “in the event of a no-deal, the UK's major radioisotope suppliers have committed to 6-month air freight contracts as a contingency…rather than run the risk of road transport delays”. Inevitably, this contingency raises major concerns about the increased delivery costs and who will pay for them, and the problems caused by the time of day in which a delivery is made for radiopharmaceuticals that need processing on-site prior to use.

The RCR guidance also gives specific advice about radionuclide therapies, and notes—rather worryingly—that it is only aware of one supplier that is confident of being able to continue to supply therapeutics on a specific schedule after Brexit. A 1-day delivery delay, for example, could reduce the activity of some radiotherapeuticals by as much as 20%, thus rendering them unusable. The potential for medical error or waste of radiotracers and radiotherapeutics are therefore manifestly high post-Brexit.

And, if these challenges in access to essential reagents weren't enough to destabilise health care in the UK, new developments in the increasing privatisation of the NHS certainly will. An announcement on March 6, 2019, stated that the Churchill Hospital in Oxford, UK, will no longer carry out its own PET-CT services; rather, the tender has been given to InHealth, a private company. Patients will be transported by ambulance to the company's locations for their scans. Shockingly, NHS England has invited profit-driven companies to bid against NHS trusts for PET-CT services in 11 different regions across the country, including major teaching hospitals such as King's College Hospital in London and the Christie Hospital in Manchester. This latest move could exacerbate the global shortage of radiologists and creates uncertainty about what becomes of establishedimagingteams in hospitals that will lose their service. Most importantly, privatisation of frontline patient services necessitates a moment to reflect on whether this is truly in the best interests of patients and what consequences it might have on the safety and quality of care. Short-term, fragmented, financial gains often do not translate in to long-term advantages in complex health-care systems.

People who are on continuous medication will end up having to pay for it

? I am on continuous anti-psychotics and when I lived in England, U.K., I paid for it every two weeks. I think only some parts of U.K. have free prescriptions, like Scotland.

Not even bojo would be stupid enough to do that

I think he may have unplumbed depths of stupidity cabin

I think only some parts of U.K. have free prescriptions, like Scotland

No, some illnesses have free perscriptions some dont

Its not the medication as such

I think people a deluded if they really believe the nhs will not be sold off. Tory MPs have already voted down an amendment to the government’s trade bill that was intended to protect the NHS from being included in any future deals.
www.theweek.co.uk/nhs/63360/privatising-the-nhs-pros-and-cons

Alternatively they could make some drugs free so for example thyroxine but you have to pay if prescribed antibiotics. It would be easier to administer as then it would be the drug not the person who is exempt.

There are no plans to scrap the NHS and replace it with US style of health care. That is ridiculous scare- mongering.
ROTFLMAOPMPL
Read en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Britannia_Unchained

Is there a reason why this has been posted in Feminism Chat?

Er, isn't this a more immediate problem?

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3999661-How-many-people-have-been-failed-by-the-NHS-during-lockdown

Where does it say anything about scrapping the NHS? And even if it did - it's not Conservative policy.

So far as privatisation some of you seem confused about the concept of services being provided to the NHS and a private service to patients.

You are confused about what privatisation means.

Yes, both myself and Stephen Hawking must be deluded...
voxpoliticalonline.com/2017/08/26/after-hunt-attacked-over-nhs-privatisation-we-all-knew-hawking-wouldnt-let-it-lie/
Care to enlighten us Dido

weeping

I will enlighten you. There is no plan by the current government to 'sell off' the NHS. In fact, any attempt to reform or improve the dysfunctional behemoth is politically impossible. The last Labour government did incur PFI liabilities of $222 Billion and rising. But hey. Given the gargantuan increase in government spending and UK debt, those eye watering figures seem almost inconsequential. Meanwhile, the ongoing failures of the NHS can't be acknowledged, discussed, addressed because of the quasi religious fanaticism with which it is regarded. In the era of Covid, the mass clapping hysteria contrasts queasily with the inability of people to access basic medical care. See the thread linked above.

I agree there is no plan to sell it off but creeping privatisation will be the unfortunate consequence of the need to make trade deals with partners who are in a much stronger position to negotiate. I suspect the main impact will be on the higher prices the nhs will be forced to pay for drugs but it is also likely that the nhs will be locked into contracting out clinical services to private bidders.

Yes the nhs has many faults, but the way to resolve them is to move closer to the european model of health care rather than the US model which is highly inefficient and inequitable.

The engineering of the two minutes clapping suited the government's agenda of detracting attention from their own failings and was depressingly reminisant of the two minutes hate.

Labour, Tory and Unions have been culpable in the mess that is the NHS and none has the ability to recognise how to reform in the best interests of UK health. The NHS has many great features but has way too many failings £2.4 billion last year in lawsuits says this organisation is not working.

GP practices, as I am sure everyone knows, have always been private businesses. They are partnerships with partners taking home a share of the profits. However more and more of them are being taken on and run by the NHS, often paying rent to the original GPs who may own the premises.

Drug companies are almost universally private business and account for a significant portion of the NHS spend.

The NHS also has huge amounts of debt to be repaid to private companies under the PPI scheme introduced by labour.

Currently the NHS is renting up to 90% of private beds in the UK to deal with Covid.

There has always been a huge link between the nhs and private businesses. But I fail to understand why anyone would think we would adopt the US system.

Our memories are very selective. As BovaryX points out Labour's bright idea of PFI has resulted in masses of debt.

I have a feeling that the first party to farm out to the private sector was labour too, and I'm (was) Labour.

We cannot be selective just because of our tribal loyalties if we ever want some sort of unity