People would be happy to pay more tax if it went directly to the NHS

People who keep saying ‘it needs reforming first’, what do you want to happen if you or your child needs A&E next year?

Reform isn’t an immediate thing, especially in an organisation of that size..l

Nope not happy to pay any more tax at all. There needs to be widespread reform in this country.

I would however having worked within the NHS it needs reforming first as it will just get swallowed up in the bottomless pit otherwise.

Alexandra2001 We can reassess how feasible it is at massive expense to prolong life at all costs.

@Alexandra2001 ,

‘Labours Wes Streeting has, at every opportunity, been banging the reform drum, he has been to many EU countries and looked at Japanese, Aus and NZ healthcare systems to learn what we can do better with the NHS.’

https://labour.org.uk/missions/nhs/

So this is Labour’s urgent plan, all sound and fury, signifying nothing! Long on witter, very short on detail-in an election year.

But what does Wes Streeting plan to do? What has he learnt from all these trips?

@DaisyHaites ,

No, that is totally wrong.

Medical technology and our expectations of medicine have changed beyond belief in the last 30 years.

MRIs, PETs didn’t even exist until recently, and the idea of the state helping infertile people to have babies would have been considered ridiculous. We also treat older people and the demographic as a whole means people are older and need more treatment.

If we want modern medicine, we have to pay for it. The NHS has massive inefficiencies but also massive economies of scale. I don’t believe, on an international measure, we compare that badly in terms of overall efficiency.

I accidentally voted YANBU.

YABVVU. It’ll just be spent on more ‘HR equality/gender (aka trans) advisors and more pointless surgeries that should never be done on the NHS.

Spending is the highest ever. Number of staff are the highest ever. It’s all being sucked somewhere - and not to the benefit of the taxpayer. More money = more wastage.

No the whole thing needs to be reformed. It doesn't need more money it needs to be run better.

Just give it directly to Baroness Michelle Mone and all the other Tory cronies.

@Newbutoldfather Do you live under a stone?

Labours Wes Streeting has, at every opportunity, been banging the reform drum, he has been to many EU countries and looked at Japanese, Aus and NZ healthcare systems to learn what we can do better with the NHS.

@Lampslights on people struggling with CoL, well, if a poorer worker cannot get timely treatment, they will be off work and will then face even greater hardship, good healthcare should be a priority.

What country is this please?

There was a stat on the radio the other day that said NHS spending was the highest it had ever been in real terms (and as a proportion of GDP I think) and staff numbers were higher than ever.

That indicates a productivity issue rather than a financial issue. So yes, while I think the NHS may need better funding, I’m not particularly keen for it to become a black hole that just swallows cash, which I think is the current risk.

It isn’t make the NHS more efficient and then allocate more cash. They both need to happen simultaneously.

If we don’t provide more cash, the system will definitively fail, although arguably it has already (hours to wait for category one ambulance, someone dying unnoticed in an A&E waiting room).

And Labour not even discussing what they want to do to fix it.

People who fear the American system, don’t, as we already have it. Your average NHS hospital (with some honourable exceptions) has become a Blue Cross hospital and those who can afford it pay to be treated better.

The only difference is A&E and ambulances. I believe a private A&E is opening in London and I am sure someone will open an emergency private ambulance service soon….

Our budget on the Isle of Man was released a couple of weeks ago. This is what the government have decided to do. Increase of 2% on income tax rate to go to the Health Service.

People on a whole are not happy. Yes our health service has become absolutely shocking in the last 10 years and everyone what's an improvement but what we are not happy with is us tax payers having to pay more tax during a cost of living nightmare when the government have wasted 100s of millions on complete crap.

They go over budget on practically every project (one project of the top of my head started at something like 11m and is now close to 70m)! Zero accountability.

Such a privalged point of view op in a col crisis when so many are struggling to make ends meet.

@Alexandra2001 you are right of course and all of that needs addressed. I do wonder if there’s a societal aspect to it too though?

@ConJob ,

Yes, but there were many ways around it, such as company cars, and even school fees, being tax deductible.

And the cash economy was huge. I remember my parents had £20k in a hidden draw in the 1970s!

People don’t pay such high taxes.

One reason the NHS is getting worse is because of crumbling buildings, old medical equipment, poor IT systems, staff sickness & lack of adult social care in the community.

Medical Inflation is also far higher than consumer inflation, yet funding doesn't account for this, real terms NHS spend is set to fall.

Rubbish! The top rate of income tax in the 1950s and 60s was 90%! This was then cut to 75% in 1971 but was kept at 90% for investments.

NHS received 181 billion last year 😮 no more money until they have a shake up. My sister worked for NHS and freely admitted to skiving off and said everyone did it!

I wouldn't pay more into the NHS until they overhaul the whole system.
So much money is wasted on pointless bureaucracy, useless IT and crap managers.

If I see the evidence that more money means better services first. Until that happens then no I absolutely would not be happy about that.

The city councils have been starved of money for at least 13 years. The NHS, ditto. More or less everything, ditto.

@Toooldforthis36 ,

Yes I do, and you are right, it is a massive improvement, but not all hospitals upload results to it, and some only do it months after the relevant test.