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

It would be an excellent idea as, hopefully, it would reduce the number of people making unnecessary appointments. Sadly, I suspect that the costs of administration probably make it a non-starter.

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER

Every time MIL comes out of hospital (she's a frequent guest) she comes home with a new list of medications, these include paracetamol, ibuprofen, laxatives, iron tablets, the list is endless. These prescriptions are then put on repeat by her GP who I doubt even looks at what they're prescribing. Half of them she won't touch because she knows better than the doctors but she won't cancel them because they are free and they might come in useful one day.

The end of normal? My aunt would be lying on the bed, holding on the bedhead bars and crying in pain from her teens onwards. I know of this condition as it is in my father´s family. That it takes so long to diagnose is because it is a disease that only (obviously) affects women. The gender bias in medicine at its best.

No, it's not. When I had an early miscarriage in Australia, I didn't bother losing paid work time and paying the $100 to see a doctor. The NHS website said nothing could be done.

After my second miscarriage, I had a D&C because it wasn't a complete miscarriage and there were still bits inside me.

I'll never know if the first miscarriage caused the second. I have had children since so I try not to think about it.

But I will never choose money over health again and luckily I can afford now to safeguard my health.

Paying for doctors appointment will kill poor people who can't afford them - the very people the NHS was set up to serve. If you can afford it, you go private but leave the NHS alone!

How about an optional payment?

We have a lovely local kid-friendly museum, it's council run and free to get in, but there's a donation box that says Suggested Donation £5. They've recently added a card payment thing so you can just swipe it to pay a fiver. It's completely optional and there are no staff hovering to see if you pay.

If there was a similar card payment machine on the wall in my GP surgery, A&E or hospital outpatients, with a sign saying Optional Donation £5 per visit to go to the NHS as a whole, I'd happily pay it.

I can. Pay for fewer wars, for a start.

You cannot shoot every idea down because if you made it charge 10 times as much it would be a bad idea. The system currently is failing. If you’re counting on a government that can pay you a pension when you retire, or if you want healthcare in that retirement, something has to be done.

And any cost , however small, would be used as a gateway to successive future rises. We’ve been there and understand the concept.

It would be a terrible idea.

“Free at the point of delivery.”

No one gets a gp appt unless they need one these days with econsults surely? id also worry about the low income cut off. There's often people who don't get support who actually still need it.

Yep that’s the system here in jersey and it works well. Pay for GP but onward treatment if needed is free.

Haven’t they mostly stopped prescribing very cheap and readily available items like paracetamol now?

When I had shingles the GP didn’t prescribe stronger painkillers - she told me I could easily buy them at any pharmacy. (Not off the shelf, I had to ask.).

A older friend of ours used to stockpile an assortment of free prescriptions - I once counted over 60 items in his bathroom. More than once they were mostly thrown out by a visiting ex-nurse friend.
He was very tight with money and I know would never have taken so many items if he’d had to pay even £3 each.

When he died he left well over £1m cash and 2 houses long paid off. (Dh was executor so I do know this.)

I’m not saying he was typical but I dare say not unusual.

I don't have to think about it.

Last year my son was diagnosed with cancer.

About 1,645 children aged 0-14 are diagnosed with cancer every year in the UK.

The NHS is far from perfect but it saved his life.

Statistically speaking, I probably won't be the only parent on this thread who will hear ''The test results are back, I'm really sorry but your child has cancer'' at some point.

Childhood cancer doesn't give a fuck how healthy your child is, how active they are or how they've never tasted alcohol in their lives because they are obviously far too young.

Maybe some people should think about how if that is their child one day, how they would feel if they had to pay for appointments, especially considering how many appointments a child has if they are fortunate enough to survive cancer. Especially if you lose your job when your child is in hospital as I did.

I already pay a fortune in tax, why should I keep paying?

Some people really do seem to despise poor people, don't they?

I would be one of the ones who’d struggle to pay and so get more poorly without access to help. I earn just a bit too much for help for prescriptions, dentist etc but those fees are a noticeable chunk from my budget. And once things attract a charge they quickly rise to become unaffordable for many people.

Quite. It's neither a new take nor one that is nuanced nor considers the complexities of healthcare.

I have to request my sons medications which are all on repeat prescription when we start to run low on them. They are reviewed regularly at his various appointments.

This was discussed last week and I stand by opinion it penalises the chronically ill and disabled.

I would like to see more proactive healthcare and I would pay for that, for example my husband followed a common path.

Hpylori ->heartburn->ppis->heartburn->b12 deficiency ->neurological issues.

This could have been nipped in the bud before one problem spiralled into the next even bigger problem, whilst not actually fixing the original problem.

But there isn't time for education and there isn't time for discussing the pros and cons of medication and what to do to mitigate the worst effects - in this case a depletion of b12 because the situation has been created and allowed to continue where it couldn't be assimilated.

Maybe if people payed there wouldn't be signs on the wall declaring 10 minutes and 1 symptom only when we know that so many illnesses are multifaceted and drawing together the seemingly disparate symptoms would result in more complete understanding.

The people who use most of the appointments would be exempt so I don't see it being a huge money raiser or saving missed appointments.

I would have to pay and wouldn't mind paying but I have only seen a GP 3 times in the last 24 years (excluding maternity where I would presumably be exempt in this scheme). £15 isn't going to go too far in saving the NHS.

Spoke to a pharmacist the other day who told me that if everyone paid £1 for their prescription it would raise more money that charging a few people £9.90. The amount of people receiving free prescriptions due to age or income is 95%.
MIL receives paracetamol for free, it would cost 35p from Tesco.
The amount of unused medication returned to pharmacies when old people die is frightening, doctors keep prescribing and the patients don't take it for some reason. It has to be disposed of rather than going back into stock.

Yes, it's remarkable how many people who are privileged to enjoy mostly great health - with only the very occasional isolated, easily-resolved health issue - are happy to throw some of the most vulnerable people under the bus.

Many people who have frequent appointments find parking charges at hospitals and GP surgeries, or regular bus fares to get there, prohibitively expensive and a real barrier to them - let alone any new charges being brought in for the actual appointment.