To wonder what the NHS will be like in 10 years?

National Insurance was designed initially to pay for ALL benefits, so pensions, benefits, etc. It wasn’t there just for the NHS!!!

The nhs just gobbles up money and productivity is poor and there is no value gained from the money spent.

Doctors have the best return on their degrees. The best salaries, best pensions, and 100% employment. No other degree gives graduates as good a return. That’s why there’s so much competition to get on the courses. Look at IFS data.

But we won't go for a European model, will we? We'll go for the US one.

Agree 100%

We need to lose this mindset of not wanting to pay for the services we want!

Far too many people want "someone else" to pay for the services we want.

Anyway, lots of people don't pay any NIC, so it's a bit of a red herring. It needs scrapping anyway and income tax rates increased instead to make up the shortfall!

If we moved to an insurance based system, would we see a reduction in NI payments? seen as a portion of that is essentially NHS costs. I doubt it.

Unfortunately, that's exactly what we could end up with unless our stupid and useless politicians put their big girl/boy pants on and come up with plans to scrap the NHS in it's current form and move towards a continental/Canadian/Australia system instead. It's pretending the NHS is fine and all it needs is a bit more money that will ultimately kill it and leave us with a US style healthcare system.

Lots of other countries have insurance backed/co-payment systems where they can get (far better) treatment for medical conditions at low/minimal cost.

We don't see French or Germans saying they wished they were in the UK, do we?? And the French/German people with medical conditions are getting treatments (probably better) than us in the UK.

This. The one thing we must avoid is an American style system. There are better systems out there.

We need to have a semi private system. Anyone who isn’t receiving any benefits needs to pay towards apppointments. £10 to see a GP or you buy an annual pass like you do with prescriptions. Again, contributions towards all other care, remove NHS care for some conditions including gender reassignment, invest in social care to get people out of hospitals. Get rid of tuition fees and reintroduce some kinds of grants for all doctors nurses and some AHP’s.

Nail on the head.

We need some brave and visionary politicians to tell it how it is and move it to a more European co-payment/part insured system.

The NHS WILL die if politicians continue to pretend to the public that all it needs is more money, because that's not the answer at all. We could, again, double or treble the NHS budget (Like Brown did) and it would still be unfit for purpose unless we actually reform it.

And yes, it's never been the envy of the World, and the World was basically laughing at us at the opening ceremony of the London Olympics!

TO be fair I couldn’t get any of those 20 years ago. So you were very lucky

Even five years ago I wouldn't have had access to a private GP appointment and I wouldn't have considered a private hip replacement. I could also get my ears syringed on the NHS, warts removed and NHS dentistry and chiropody. Oh also physio. All that is gone. In only five years!! Most of the NHS will be gone in another ten years

It is only prob for the current generation ie growing number of older people currently But the with the fall in the birthrate next generation should be ok So who knows

Look at what has happened to NHS dentistry. That's what I fear will happen all too quickly across the rest of the NHS. I needed to have a wisdom tooth removed - it was causing frequent infections for which the NHS prescribed antibiotics. Waiting time for NHS dentist to take it out was 18 months. Or have it done by a private dentist in 2 weeks for £400.

My dh has a musculoskeletal problem for which he requires surgery. It gets progressively worse. It has taken 17 months for him to get the possibility of a telephone consultation with a specialist (so far it has been waiting lists then email questionaires and emailed photos). The consultation invitation letter also stated "this is not a life threatening illness and you may prefer to live with the continued deterioration". God knows how long it will be until he can surgery. Or course he could go private (ironically with the same consultant) for £6,000. We will not do that but the progression of the problem impacts more and more on how he functions in daily living.

However, the NHS is under intolerable pressure: the increase in what is possible medically, the costs of medication, the amzing (but expensive) things we can do for very sickly babies, the costs of healthcare for the increasing number of very elderly, but sadly also the massive increase in metabolic diseases - some of which are lifestyle related (poor diet, lack of exercise etc).

I think it will be even worse than it currently is, or be better because either taxes will raise to pay to it, or more services will be privatised/funded differently.

I can see the NHS charging post point of access. Its not sustainable based on ageing population and lack of contributions from the working age population. It will become a 2 tier system. The less wealthy / elderly will be OK whereas the average peson won't.

But I do believe medicine has gone too far in terms of treatments offered. Sometimes it's very inappropriately extensive.

I like the NHS & hope it doesn’t go. I’ve only ever used a hospital once & that was to have my baby but when I’ve had bloods/vaccines at the Drs, I’ve found it fine & efficient.

I am not suggesting that the NHS doesn't work. It works as a crisis service, brilliantly. It's much less good at preventive care, and IMHO, that's where there is a mega-fuck-ton of work that needs doing. GP's asking patients straight out why they weigh 10kg more than at the last consultation. for example? Is there an illness, or is the patient just over eating?

The nhs has issues, but it’s still very much preferable over an American style healthcare system and less is spent on it per capita than the US system. Once healthcare becomes a profitable business is a slippery slope to rising costs. Some of the European models could work, but I still believe that with proper funding and some restructure the nhs is viable long term.

there is now a push for as much care to happen at home as possible, reducing hospital stays and in turn costs. The vision is (according to my manager anyway) for only the sickest patients in to be in hospital and for hospital at home scheme to be wide spread with community rather than inpatient rehab. Long term this could save a lot of money if they role it out affectively. Ultimately though it just needs more money and sufficient staffing.

though if it’s something serious I do think the nhs still works. My FIL had some symptoms which could have pointed to a very aggressive cancer. By some weird coincidence his brother who lives in France also had the same symptoms at the same time. The nhs was just as quick and efficient as the French healthcare system, which i was actually really reassured to see. Yes, there’s waits for routine stuff (sometimes, dd2 had a routine appointment come around very quickly after a referral recently), but when it counts they’re still pretty good.

@Makemeanothercupofteaplease That's absolutely what I don't mean. Across most of the EU, there are insurance schemes for healthcare that work around how much you earn. Everyone makes a contribution to the healthcare they need, based on what they earn. It won't be nothing, but it could be 10 euros for a doctor consultation, or if you are seriously ill, it could be 100 euros (plus tests) if you are seeing a senior doctor. I really think Wes Streeting is starting to understand that not all healthcare can be free when it's asked for.

I agree wholeheartedly with @CoatOfArms - I’ve seen the NHS fail two family members spectacularly and quite frankly am sick of pouring my taxes into an inefficient and wasteful organisation whose services I can basically only access in an emergency! As such I’m voting with my feet and moving to what I hope will be a much better system.

I don’t think the nhs as we know it will be around in 10 years.

Our council owned leisure centre has started offering memberships that include seeing a private go whenever you want. As for our local gp you can’t get an appointment, to even get an e consult you have to download two apps, ask for four codes, prove who you are with photo, address and signature id, (once on an app and once in person) and provide your email, and phone number, plus fill in a form to accept that you may see upsetting information within the apps regarding your medical file. You have to have an enconsult, followed by a telephone consult in order to be assessed for a f2f consult. Not exactly easy! No nhs dentists, podiatrists, hearing provision for 30 miles. It’s like you are being herded towards private medical care and away from the nhs at every possible opportunity.
As a result we have an ever growing number of private practices ( Dr and other services) springing up.

Hopefully, structurally reformed in order to make it less dysfunctional, less wasteful, less inefficient, provide better services to the people who pay for it and be generally fit for purpose. Currently, it is very far from this.

Wes Streeting is showing promising signs that he actually gets it, and understands that the rowing yet more £billions into an unreformed NHS would only lead to more waste, more dysfunction and worse services. Will he get the chance to actually try to implement some structural reforms? We’ll see…

As other people have said, I don't think the NHS has been the envy of the world, unless you are poor and have no other choices. In which case, I understand that it has an appeal; it's free. But it should be limited to quick care for immedicately life threatening and quickly solved conditions: septis, a cardiac arrest... but an ACL replacement or a hip fix, probably not included. Most of that should be paid for with assistance of insurance, non-profit-making as in most of the EU, but with YOU paying in for what you expect to take out. There are people who think someone else should pay £000,000 for the latest miracle drug. I don't like to be the party pooper, but that person is not going to be me.