NHS now saying stuff is free.

As others have suggested, it seems to be that they mean free at the point of use and they want to make sure that no one is out off attending because of worries about paying.

Not everything NHS is free though. Prescriptions, eye tests and dental checks are charged in some places. Makes sense to make it as clear as possible to encourage more people to get themselves seen

I’ve not paid a shit ton of money compared to the treatment received and I’ve been a high earner for ever, without until last year much need for the NHS.

But

Two child births
One Ruptured Achilles requiring surgery
Triple negative breast cancer

It was probably much more cost efficient than having to pay for all of the above.

I would also imagine this might be helpful to people new to the UK who are not used to health checks being free?

Just had travel vaccinations (for Morocco) free at GP

I am an EU citizen and when I went to first hospital appointment my first question was that how much was this. In my country you pay low fee for every appointment.

We pay for it, a shit tonne of money a lot of which they waste. Other countries medical services are irrelevant, we're entitled to decent health care.

If you paid £50 for a steak in a resturant and were served tripe, would you accept it because in some countires, people could never afford a steak, or is that completely irrelevant to the service you have paid for?

I agree with you about cancelling appointments etc, but people are absolutely entitled to complain.

They're just trying to encourage people to go...and that's why they're doing it in the arse end of nowhere. What does accessabily matter?! 🙄

This thread really shows how entitled many Brits are when it comes to healthcare. They take it for granted, not bothering to cancel appointments and just no showing up, and here moaning because they've used the word 'free' when they have to pay to travel there.

Honestly, it's really poor taste when you think of the numbers of ladies who die of breast cancer in countries when mammograms are payable.

Be fucking grateful?

Yeah, shut up woman and be grateful for a service you are funding when is functions, because more often than not it does not.

I don't think anyone thinks you have to pay for mammograms, who are all these people that think they cost money on thte NHS?

No-one.

You are right OP, this is deliberate language.

It’s free at the point of delivery, the mammogram costs you nothing when you’re having it done.

Im glad I had my mammogram in December 2024, followed by surgery, 13 rounds of chemo, 10 radiation to be told it was gone in January 26.

ill take the free at the point of delivery any day.

But I, in London, did get a letter sent by text and email inviting me to my appointment-using dare of north to open it.

the location wasn’t convenient compared to the hospital 15 mins walk away so I went online and waited until they released more appointments the following week and swapped to a better one.
all very easy to do.

Yes, there will be some who'll never adapt to apps etc. BUT, there are plenty who could (who use apps for other things), but have already found the myriad of different apps used by different trusts, even different departments in the same hospital, to be hard to navigate and express their preference of "paper" or phone calls rather than risk using the apps only to found there was no notification of a new message or that the message or appointment was put on a different app to the usual one that they don't know about etc.

Our GP surgery has different apps, one for repeat prescriptions and a different one for trying to get an appointment. They don't actually make that clear. They used to use the same app, but suddenly the ability to make appointments was turned off, so, patients would just assume you couldn't ask for appointments online anymore. It's only by ringing the surgery does the receptionist tell you about the "other" app. It's not mentioned on the surgery website, no links to apps etc.

It just doesn't make sense when DH's oncology appointments are sent by letter, even for his routine blood tests, but when the oncologist refers him for an x-ray, scan, or to a different dept, all within the same hospital, the appointments are a random mix of phone calls, texts or emails.

Make it make sense! Then perhaps more patients will be more amenable to the apps etc., well preferable a single app where you can actually see everything!

it isn’t free. My NHS contributions have paid for this many times over

Are you a really, really high earner because if you have had many mammograms, given birth in NHS hospital, had vaccinations, GP appointments you are highly unlikely to have made sufficient payments to pay once let alone multiple times over. Check out USA healthcare and see what bills you can expect if our NHS wasn't free.

Nothing wrong with stating the hopefully obvious fact that its a free service but the point maybe that if the appointment is 3 buses and a train away (we are not all car drivers), then is effectively isn't free and the distance can have financial ramifications too.

We have long waiting lists and whenever I see my GP, and need a hospital procedure, I get asked if I would be willing to travel so I could perhaps get an earlier appt elsewhere and I say yes. I think if this decision is being made for you with check-ups, that is wrong. Perhaps every patient should be asked by their GP for use going forward, if they would be willing to travel for preventative treatments i.e mammograms etc and the system directed by this response.

I do not drive and can't necessarily afford to take extended time off work for the appts, and yes I know employers should let you have time off for medical appts but its not always as easy as that and the pressure is for me to pay money to reduce the time I am away from work. And then there are the people who are physically, financially or emotionally not able to deal with extended travel for none emergency treatment.

I agree there is rooms for a few tweaks in the system to minimise inappropriate appointment allocation which would hopefully reduce those failing to turn up for appointments.

I hate this "you should be grateful" attitude. It's things like that that means awful experiences get normalised. "Be grateful: it's free".

I am amazed at what people can find to be annoyed about.
Not everything is a conspiracy. The NHS just want people to keep their appointments- or change them if necessary.

It's part of the messaging that the NHS is "free" so think yourself lucky and don't complain about the poor treatment, admin foul ups etc!

Well they are hardly going to go into depth explaining about national insurance etc stop nitpicking.

Our trust is in the process of trying to do away with post for appointments. Last year it spent £850,000 sending out appopintment letters and that's only 1 hospital.

Problem is there is a lot of resistance from patients to changing to any technology based communication. There will be a percentage of patients who will have to continue to receive letters in the post.

@Gribouille

And I can see that 'free' is just to reassure people who've had to pay for eye and dental checks and might think this has a cost too.

Which is exactly the OP’s point.
Its a nice way to also make people used to the idea that not everything is (or is going to be) free.
You don’t need to remind people things are free when it’s considered normal. You wouldn’t have found that word in NHS communications 5~10 years ago.

It’s probably been contracted out to a private company as part of the initiative to clear waiting lists. I’ve had a few letters like this with them emphasising that it’s ‘free’ or ‘There is no cost to you’ and it’s always appointments that have been contracted out. Some people might see the name of a private company or private hospital and refuse to go because they think they’ll have to pay.

Except that
1- letters are often very late
2- nowadays theyre asking you to confirm you’re happy with the date and time. If you miss the confirmation window, that’s it. You’ve lost the appointment.
3- nothing is stopping you to write said appointment on your calendar straight away if you receive it be email. Or you could immediately put an alarm on your phone todo so if you’re checking emails out and about.

All the private appointments I have had email has been used.

they attach a word doc which is password protected normally with either your date of birth or some such.