What should the NHS not fund?

[Username721]

Saw a thread on IVF for lesbians and some people felt that IVF should not be for anyone on the NHS. So it got me thinking.

Is there anything you feel should be exclusively private treatment? The ones often debated are things like weight loss surgery, cosmetic procedures, treatment for avoidable illness such as smoking-induced ones, liver failure through alcohol abuse, drug rehabilitation…

Thoughts?

@Tropicaliyes I was not an in patient ever. A picc lune was fitted as a day patient. It was planned treatment for an ongoing issue. I was never an in patient. I never had a bed.
Only rule was you needed an outpatient appointment weekly for dressing changes and to see how you were getting on. Picc line removed at an outpatient appointment as well in an ordinary consulting room.
There is a whole team in my local hospital that do this. The district nurses even go to peoples homes to prepare drips if people have issues like arthritis and can not do it themselves.
Maybe some hospitals are better at doing this than others? I do not know.

Non essential plastic surgery. Of course some is essential like burns victims and breast cancer survivors. But not those saying they suffer with body dismorphic disorder whatever that is and want to change parts of they're body.

I also think asthma meds should be free it's essential we are able to breathe to live after all.

Anything trans related. It's lunacy that should be privately funded if one so wishes.

Any kind of trans body modification including puberty blockers. What they need is mental healthcare not assisted self harm.

IVF has an horrendous failure rate and there are massive risks

www.nhs.uk/conditions/ivf/

Sorry.

IVF should be considered on a case by case basis, but the increasing age related failure rates have to be considered

This thread is depressing, and exactly what the government want.

Us all divided and our eyes averted on this kind of thing, while they chip away at our wonderful services.

Our country is in a striking rebellion right now, because our doctors, teachers, rail etc are being treated appallingly.

The money is there, we saw that during covid, but the Tories want us fighting like this so they can give it to their mates and swerve the much needed services.

How sad that there is a bun fight on who is more deserving of treatment. Very sad.

Tattoo removal, you made the decision, get on with it.

Bloody hell, this is a nasty thread, even by MN standards. All these posters wanting to deny fellow humans healthcare.

We could all relieve a lot of the burden by eating unprocessed food, drinking less, losing weight and exercising. People of the UK treat their bodies like crap and then expect the NHS to fix it.

It really isn't. £77,000 per year (never mind inflation) per person, could cost the NHS £6,600,000 per person over an average lifetime based on a 5 year old with asthma. That is ridiculous. Where do you think that money comes from? No one ever pays enough NI to come anywhere close to that amount. And the NHS reckon 400,000 asthma sufferers could benefit from this drug. We can't spend millions on every one of them. That money could be better spent in the NHS.

IVF/fertility treatment, obesity treatment and gender reassignment.

Infertility is a medical condition. Counselling will never sort out blocked fallopian tubes, endometriosis, failure to ovulate, sperm issues, PCOS... The list can go on and on.

What a terribly sad and disappointing thread.

Agreed. It's batshit in a league all of its own.

But on a population level, we need to keep the birth rate up, or stop it falling so drastically, and all of these children funded by IVF will be subject to the same tax as everybody else, and some of them will become doctors, nurses, teachers, etc.

So actually, the overall cost to the country is small, and maybe even an overall benefit

Adults should need to have an appropriate amount of NI contributions to get treatment.

Immigrants and people who have spent years living abroad should need to pay a lump sum to register with the NHS.

It really wound me up to hear a woman go on about her sister returning from South Africa after 50 years for health reasons.

I'd stop paying for anything trans related so many of those people will end up regretting what they did - and either want the NHS to undo or sue.

@FlyOnAWing yeah I think just like I was saying with fertility treatment and it being a postcode lottery thing, each hospital is allowed to make up its own rules to a certain extent and I remember for me whenever Picc lines were brought up, it was an inpatient stay needed… That in itself shows it’s not needed.. down here it’s always made out like these things are so specialist they can only be done inpatient but argue enough and suddenly it can sometimes change! Big issue is that I’m in London and almost all of our hospitals are Teaching Hospitals so I guess they feel they benefit more from inpatients than outpatients as they can’t train students if your not there!

The district nurses are the ones that do Home healthcare and who I was referring to earlier.

different trust most certainly run differently. Most of the teaching hospitals around here are roughly run the same though as I decided when I didn’t like one hospitals treatment to try a different one just to find most were alike! Once I left London it got slightly different but you still see or hear of people being treated in hospital when it can be done somewhere else which would be cheaper

@Tropicaliyes There are criteria for who can get a picc line as an outpatient. Some people have to have it as a hospital stay here as well. But it is about judging the level of risk.

sponsored parachute jumps is one thing that could be banned to save money - they cost the NHS more than they raise

And not smoking, not taking drugs, bringing up our children in safe households where they are properly supported and develop good levels of self-respect, confidence, attend school every day, are literate and numerate.

The point is many people make bad choices in life.

When the NHS started treatment options were much less sophisticated and cost much less. It covered quite basic care- painkillers, anti-biotics, GPs, operations, hospital stays, false teeth, dentistry, elastic stockings.
Now it covers a huge range of peripheral treatments/services and incredibly sophisticated and very very expensive drugs and treatments and diagnostic machinery.

It can't keep covering everything unless we all pay more and the NHS begins to work differently. NI at current levels is not anywhere near enough money in the pot.

But the country CAUSES these asthma conditions by massive pollution

Bring the pollution levels down would be a better way of saving money on asthma, rather than leaving people to die of it.

Do you drive a car @LuluBlakey1 ? If so you are part of the cause of the problem

And for the people who can't afford it they either abort or give birth in a field if they find themselves unexpectedly pregnant? Riiiiiight. So when the mother is bleeding to death once she's given birth does she just die or can she ring for help 🤔? What about the baby in this scenario, no healthcare for them either?

Cosmetic surgery should be self funded, except reconstructive surgery after either an accident, cancer or disfiguring illness etc.

Ivf I think is right lesbian couples don't get funding, they don't have anything physically wrong that needs "fixing" so why should they have it funded? Straight couples should get 3 goes if both doesn't have kids, even if 1 already does. I've no issue with that.

@FlyOnAWing apparently all patients need it inpatient here.. This was something asked when it came up a few years ago, it was something I didn’t agree to anyway as ultimately it would have been a temporary solution and I actually needed a port-a-cath in my chest instead of a PICC but like I said I don’t go to the hospital for my illnesses anymore and do it all myself at home and struggle along.. I don’t agree with the way they work and would much rather pay to go private if needed.

How can you argue against maternity care for women? Are you a woman? Can you honestly imagine telling another pregnant woman that she is not entitled to any maternity services? Maybe the baby she is carrying will pay more tax in their lifetime than you will.

If we want people to pay for damage self inflicted through alcohol, smoking, sugar or processed food, surely the point to do that is when these products are bought.

Raise taxes sky high on alcohol, sugar, processed food, margarine, vegetable oils,

these are leading to medical problems, so collect the money to pay for the medical problems at the point of sale

I think it's disgusting I have to pay for severe asthma medication until I die when I was literally born with it, I've been hospitilised over 30 times in my life due to it with nearly half of them being life threatening and have to live with this forever...yet it isn't seen as important enough to receive funding and makes me feel like I'm not of value as a human being. I didn't cause this myself, I'm constantly fearful that if I loose any medication etc. that I could die why is this fair?