Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think the time has come to abolish the NHS healthcare model

561 replies

OptimismvsRealism · 25/08/2024 18:00

Free at the point of use also means denial of care to a lot of people. What torture to know that new medications are arriving regularly (eg lecanemab) but it's only for the very wealthy.

The UK is different from how it was in 1948. We should be brave enough to move on from then.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
11
OptimismvsRealism · 25/08/2024 18:14

BrainNotAvailableTryAnotherOne · 25/08/2024 18:01

And what model do you propose instead?

Something like the many European systems that allow patients to see a doctor quickly.

OP posts:
SauviGone · 25/08/2024 18:10

I agree, it needs razing to the ground and rebuilding.

As soon as you say this though, everyone starts going on about America and how you’ll be asked for credit card details before they’ll load you onto an ambulance, blah blah blah 🙄.

We need to look at some of the other countries that provide superior healthcare to us and have a total regroup and rethink.

Unfortunately no government has the stomach to admit this so we limp on…

User3456 · 25/08/2024 18:10

We need healthcare that's free at the point of use. America has a horrendous system that compounds inequalities. Fund the NHS properly.
That is all.

Guavafish1 · 25/08/2024 18:09

Not really! It needs to be more efficient with better managers and targets!

insurance based is a complete scam… you just have to look at Americas health care system. People died because they can’t afford cancer treatments or in debt due to medical bills.

If you don’t like the NHS … you don’t have to use it… you can go private with a private GP, private hospital and private treatments.

user1471538275 · 25/08/2024 18:07

Lecanemab is a very expensive, not particularly effective (max 27% in one year reduction in proteins) which has huge and serious side effects (1 in 3).

Just because some drug company has made this, and paid for adjacent scientists to 'test' it and are desperately trying to market it to recover the R&D costs doesn't mean it is a good drug for the NHS to pay for.

I despise the lobbying by pharmaceutical companies to get ineffective drugs into the NHS.

The NHS needs reform but it definitely doesn't need to pay even more money for ineffective medications.

DadJoke · 25/08/2024 18:07

On the basis you earn six figures, this really doesn’t surprise me.

Saintmariesleuth · 25/08/2024 18:05

The NHS and other UK health services are in need of a significant overhaul. I think the principle of having a free, accessible health service should stand as much as possible, but the current model isn't working.

It's worth noting that whatever happens to health services, nothing is going to work particularly effectively unless we address social care provision at the same time.

MasterOfOne · 25/08/2024 18:04

What a ridiculous, simplistic and reductive argument you have made.
I can comment because I am on the receiving end of NICE not approving a drug that would benefit me and thousands like me across England.

The NHS is an imperfect system that definitely requires investment and improvement.

Who do you think can fund this particular drug... and all those before and after?

Surely the argument is proper funding for the NHS and also looking at how pharmaceutical companies price their drugs?

ncforcatquestion · 25/08/2024 18:04

Well they would need to increase low wages and benefits so private health care is affordable

SnakesAndArrows · 25/08/2024 18:03

How much are you prepared to pay?

BrainNotAvailableTryAnotherOne · 25/08/2024 18:01

And what model do you propose instead?