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

60 is not a pensioner though is it?

I work as a Community Nurse, I cannot tell how many people stock pile medications. I have been in so many houses where I have had to throw bags and bags of meds away because they are out of date. Many folk have repeat scripts issued every month on rotation - this has to stop it is an outrageous waste.

I also agree everyone should be paying for prescriptions - buy a medical card if you have to each year to keep costs down.

I spend zero on take away coffees, and I wouldn't be able to swap a latte for a GP appointment. I know many can, but equally many can't. It just will put people off seeing the GP sooner rather than later and cost far more in the long term.

No.

It'll only be the working poor who pay.
The wealthy already pay £50 to see a private GP rather than go through the NHS version of GPs.

Not an easy option - a quantity of people arriving illegally have communicable diseases like TB and other health conditions acquired over a couple of years - or a lifetime - of living pretty rough. Plus conditions much more prevalent in their places of origin but unusual (trickier to diagnose and treat) to UK medics. Plus needs for interpreters. The NHS is a massive pull factor for all immigrants, not just health tourists. So policing health tourism is just another layer of admin we probably don’t have capacity for.

I agree. I think those who take an appointment and don't turn up (not the odd time but more than once, say) should be made to pay. It might make them think twice.
And health tourism is already not allowed, it's just that some NHS trusts can't be bothered to try to police it properly. Which astounds me.

Or an undiagnosed condition with multiple symptoms but you can only discuss one per appointment, as is current practice.

Wouldn’t make any money. Most of the people who come into work are from your exempt list.

I mean the reason we can’t all get appointments is because GPs surgeries are over stretched. So add payments to their workload. Sounds an utter disaster to me.

I think 6 free visits per annum should discover most things where the GP is on the ball and refers for comprehensive tests.

The battle is probably not with GP, but with hospital/laboratory diagnostics which would remain free for everyone.

Many people don't have a spare £10. It's fine saying they can claim it back but if they don't have the money in the first place they carnt go. This will put many vulnerable people at risk

I think it’s a perfectly good idea. As you say, the really poor shouldn’t have to pay - but yes, plenty of people can afford it.

Saying that, with 9 million people ‘economically inactive’ - many due to health reasons - the first problem would be that the majority of people who need care would not be able to pay and it would function as a tax on the Very Squeezed Middle.

So while I approve in theory, the government would need to stop squeezing businesses and making employment too expensive for them and encourage some people back into employment before it would be fair.

Being in work doesn't automatically make people well off and easily able to afford the basics - as clearly shown by the huge number of people in employment who still rely on UC to make ends meet every month.

What about people who have to battle for a diagnosis, often for months or even years, though? Or people who suffer from many different health issues, not all of which can be necessarily linked or ascribed to one central condition?

I think there's a fixed idea in a lot of people's heads that everybody is binary: either 'an ill person' to be pitied or 'a well person' who might have the occasional blip. It really isn't that simple.

Any comments on the points I've put forward about the impact of once free health services now being charged for in the UK? Or are you going to simply tell me I'm wrong without addressing the points that indicate I'm not?

For people in work, yes I'm with this idea. Concessions for some demographics. yes but no government has the bottle to do anything like it..The NHS, and GP access will always be sacred.

Covid proved this is a bad idea

Covid stopped people seeking GP, esp vulnerable and elderly. They waited until conditions became advance that they had to seek urgent medical help - costing nhs more in treatment and services that wouldnt have happened with earlier access.

I said that follow up for discovered conditions would be free. That would include chronic illnesses.

If ordinarily well people have used up their annual free allocation, then they pay per visit after that.

I think it's only Cuba now that has completely free healthcare, not sure. My suggestion might not work, but at least it's thinking of something. And something has to be repaired in the NHS.

Yes - whilst there undoubtedly are some willfully selfish people out there, I don't think some folk realise just how privileged they are when it comes to assuming deliberate negative behaviours on the part of many others.

Then you would need an appeal system for situations where people are simply too ill to go or circumstances have overtaken and they're in hospital.

Often people who are on low income and who are also ill or disabled are overwhelmed by life admin. This is putting an extra burdon on on those who are the most in need, to claim back the money. Or in the case of people who don't have capacity, on their families or carers.

Quite. Essential healthcare isn't a treat, like Alton Towers, where you get your share of the fun and then step aside for somebody else's turn.

It's ludicrous to say that everybody else gets the same allowance, whether they actually need or want it or not. It's like saying that somebody with type 1 diabetes can only have a third of the insulin pens that they need to be able to eat a normal and healthy diet, so that two other people who don't have diabetes can have 'their fair share' of the rest of the pens to puzzle over what on earth they're meant to do with these things.

But you say it yourself: However the majority of people still manage to access healthcare when they really need to

What about those who aren't in the majority?

They should charge £10 an appointment paid in advance and those on low income can then claim it back.

Those who don't show up then can't claim the cost back. This alone will save a fortune for the NHS.

The NHS is struggling and something needs to give.

That's simply not true. There are very, very few countries left that have a fully free health service and they work perfectly well, often better than the NHS. It is ridiculous to say a free heath service is 'vital to the health of the nation', it's not even close to being true.

No. A free NHS is vital to the health of the nation. Any charges incurred always result in poorer outcomes. We already have people not collecting medications because they can't afford prescription charges, skipping eye tests and not updating their glasses, making them a risk on the roads, and for many people the dentist is only an option when the pain is unbearable and the tooth can't be saved.
It will also be another means to make people with disabilities and long term health conditions worse off than those more fortunate with their health.
GPs will no doubt prioritise the patients paying extra, over the already paid for, just as they prioritise other things that bring in money. You can't get an appointment for weeks at mine but I could rock up for a flu Jab or an incenticised 'screening' tomorrow.
GPs should be the service that takes the load off more costly interventions. Start charging and people will be even more likely to go to A&E or call ambulances so it will be false economy.

The exempt from payment people you mention in your OP are the vast majority of customers at the GP so hardly any appointments would end up being paid for anyway.