NHS now saying stuff is free.

You're reaching to take offence.

Oh. OP I understand where you are coming from. Language used is subtle but there it is. Free. No need to say anything about that . And it isn’t free either.
A mobile unit would seem a better option.
Phone and ask if there is one that would be a better option for you. I wouldn’t mention the wording.

The difference is you don't have to pay beyond your tax/NI contributions, Reform will change that.

@MixMaxChop
I'd be annoyed at the location of the service. Can you change it?

There's a mobile unit in my area, & I've been able to change from near where I live to near where I work as the days/times were more convenient.

As an aside someone that I know attended their routine mammogram, was surprised to be diagnosed with breast cancer, luckily it was caught early and she is now in remission. I'm not saying this will happen to you, just that I'm really grateful for the NHS for providing them.

They aren't, they abandoned that.

You do know that Labour first started the privatisation years back?

Surely the more worrying thing is that there are (supposedly) people out there who don't know that the NHS is free.
Why don't they know this? Who has put the thought in their heads that they might have to pay? Everyone but the most ignorant recently immigrated would know this, and even most of that group would know.

Or, actually there are not any such people out there, everyone knows the NHS is free, and that this is just a form of marketing, virtue signalling to distinguish themselves from the private sector.

It sounds like you're moaning about the location being inconvenient. Which I fully understand.

I don't drive and was sent for a mri scan at some bizarre hospital I'd never heard of that seemed to be near enough abandoned, an it cost me about 90 quid in taxis. I've also had to refuse a bone scan as it was hours away and I had spent all my money on the taxi to the MRI!

But saying it's 'free' is just to try and lure people into going. I wouldn't think that part to be particularly sinister.

Free grabs the eye

put free on any marketing material and there more likely to read it

It's free because they're giving your data to Palintir.

You are being deliberately obtuse, OP and your points 1&2 are somewhat contradictory.

If it’s at a hospital where you have to pay for parking then it’s not free.
In my area there are mobile screening units set up on supermarket or shopping area car parks where parking is free, far better than the hell of trying to find somewhere to park at the hospital.

It is to emphasise that there is no cost to you at the point of delivery. I see loads of ads for health checks, screenings and treatments from commercial providers which aren't free. Hearing tests and advanced retina scans are just two that I've seen this week.

Yy.

If truly accurate it would read "We have sent this letter by second class post. Prior to it reaching Royal Mail it was in a plastic collection tub for three weeks. This ensures that it will reach you ten days after your appointment at which point you will be discharged from our clinic because you are a lumpen proletariat time wasting degenerate who is single handedly running the beloved heroic health service into the ground by your persistent refusal to attend and take any kind of responsibility for your own health".

You know perfectly well what they mean by free - I would also suggest it’s to encourage take up.
if you can’t get to the location they’ve given or at the time, give them a call and ask for it to be changed. That’s what I did when I received mine recently. It was changed with no issue.

People will be voting in the guys who will privatise the NHS, cause they ‘don’t want multiculturalism’, so we might as well start getting used to the idea.

It would be ludicrous to think that people are not going because they're assuming that there's an unmentioned fee that they're going to be stung with when they turn up.

The NHS is mostly free at the point of delivery and people know when it isn't (dentistry).

If someone is concerned that it will cost them money, they could ask.

People won't be going because they can't be arsed, are too busy, don't have childcare, are worried it will hurt/be embarrassing stripping off in front of a stranger/worried that they'll get bad news so rather avoid the issue. Not because they don't want to pay a non existent fee that there's no suggestion that exists anyway.

@MixMaxChop are you saying that there is absolutely no scope to change the appointment to a more convenient location or time? I find that surprising. I had a similar letter last week and there were options. I’m happy to travel to receive potentially life saving screening.

The NHS has to try to accommodate everyone. Not just you. If you want a more bespoke service you do have the option of either not taking the screening up or accessing it privately, which will definitely not be free.

They're describing it as 'free' because, although you happen to know it's free, not everyone does and making that clear from the outset encourages take-up of the service.

So, YAB ridiculously U.

Why can't you just be grateful you don't have to pay extra like most people in other countries have to do? It is free at point of delivery. Do you really care about arguing semantics! A bit of a waste of time and energy!

I get what you're saying. But I think the aim here is to make take up is as high as possible by using crystal clear, unambiguous and simple language so there can be no doubt that they will not have to pay.

I think this trumps pedants saying "hurummph - hardly free is it? Seen the tax I've paid over the years? rah rah rah" as much as it might nark you.

Surely people know how the NHS works, as in free at the point of delivery for just about everything?

I take more of an issue with: We have made you an appointment in a hospital that is not local to you in the arse end of a city that does not have any access from the railway station and parking is strictly limited and none of your previous mammograms have ever been in this city before but that’s not the point and I will add 'we have assumed that you are free at 11 am on a Tuesday in 3 week's time for a non urgent appointment' instead of implementing an online choose and book system that would make it so much easier for everyone. We have contacted you by letter because the post is cheaper and more reliable (not, obviously) than email, which just about everyone else now uses as there preferred form of communication for such matters.

when i went for mine last time, the nurse said on average a third of bookings don't turn up - maybe making it clear it's free (at point of scan) might help address that?

honestly. no big deal.