It wouldn’t be a bad idea if we paid for GP appointments?

But then where just talking about privatising the nhs as a whole which is a terrible idea

If you're going to charge then you need to charge everyone.

It can be proportionate to income and can be taken directly from next month's benefits so that people can access care.

It would be ridiculous not to charge the groups that are the most frequent users of GP services for their time (especially when they are also the wealthiest cohort in society)

It is perfectly normal in many countries and promotes responsible use of services. We have very irresponsible use of resources in the NHS.

There are plenty of free services available that people should be using before they visit the GP.

I'm up for the European model of low charges or co-pays across the health service.

In Sweden for example you pay more for A&E than GP

Because if someone has a fixed income from their pension and can't work a bit of overtime to earn a bit more, they are likely to decide to skip getting their pills to save on a tenner that they'd rather spend elsewhere, and end up costing the NHS way more than the £10 prescription charge. We all start falling to pieces a bit after 60 and we are cheapest and easiest to keep healthy if we don't hesitate to seek (appropriate) help when we need it and take the pills we are prescribed without having to penny-pinch.

hmmm. I’ve sometimes wondered about this, but tbh the majority of patients that I see are either under 16, or over 65. I’d guesstimate in a “normal” GP day, maybe an absolute max 30-40% of patients are working age. And a significant number of those wouldn’t have means to pay…

plus I really worry that the disincentive to come to the doctors would exacerbate socio-economic inequality.

plus if I see 25 patients in a day (which is frankly exhausting, as they will all be complex), then that’s £125 (at £5 per patient), which isn’t really going to go far.

The max you pay in any year is £115 - once you hit that amount it's free.

GPs are paid pretty well already.

This^
I wouldn’t mind to pay but I would want better access certainly.

I think it would clog a&e up even more. Pay for gp or go to a&e for free what do you think people will choose.
I don't actually believe there are many wasted gp appointments. You can't even get an appointment without a valid reason

I mean it comes out at £10 per month

They work a similar system for drugs - you pay the full cost up to a certain sum, then you get discounts 25%, 50%, 75% until its free

I think this is a good idea. It seems very pragmatic for a functioning society.

However, I'm speaking from a fortunate position of being able to absorb these costs without a worry. There presumably would have to be exemptions for those on low incomes, pensioners etc.

And then given the relationship between poor health (mental and physical) and poor economic wellbeing, I wonder if the exemptions granted would then negate any wide-scale benefit of the scheme?

Why are prescriptions free for the over 60s? That seems ridiculous

The people who are put off by a charge would be the ones who really need to be seen. Yabu.

We do need more public education for understanding when to try a pharmacist or self care or dialing 111 rather than asking for an appointment. Often the people on here complaining about how difficult it was to get a GP appointment could have resolved it with a chat to a pharmacist.

Until I got to the bottom part with the free card, I was thinking I'd very quickly be bankrupt in Sweden!

My son was an inpatient for 308 days when he was finally discharged at the start of this year. It began with an A&E visit.

He now has constant hospital appointments, weekly physio etc.

What happens in Sweden if you can't afford the £115 in a year? Do you also have to pay for children?

So what about when the dr is wrong and dismissive and you have to keep going back do you still have to pay?
It would start at £5 then april would come round and it would be £7.50 and before you know it your paying £50. If you want to pay for a gp pay for a private one but there are many of us who use the nhs a lot and need it.

Be careful what you wish for.

In ireland we pay from 60 to 75 depending on the GP per appointment in my family.Then a 100e A & E. Then a capped amount for hospital admission per night.

Unless you have a GP or medical card. I pay 4k a year on top of that for private health insurance and dont even get me started on dentists.

This! Like all things health care/public services, the high volume users are significantly net takers so would get it for free anyway!

Alternatively we could put an extra 'improve the NHS' tax on those lattes and cappuccinos, as then it would be targeted just at the people who could obviously afford it ?

The people who no show are likely to be the people who claim to have no money.

Would cost more to administer the system than returns gained.

Look at the Swedish model. NHS is not fit for purpose.

works well in other European countries. The NHS is broken. We need to look at doing things differently.

Moving to a new system would involve cross party consensus & everyone paying more tax. It should happen but I can’t see it.

One person not having the money and putting off seeing a GP and then ending up seriously unwell in A&E a few days later would wipe out any income gathered in their city that week easily.