Would you pay to see the doctor?

[justasking111]

The IMF has said that the government will need to raise taxes. One way is NHS charges. This will be means tested I should add. It's being covered in the financial times, telegraph and others but hidden behind a pay wall. I don't know how to archive, if anyone else does please do.

I don't know which one I would choose, it's a thorny problem.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/07/25/raise-taxes-working-people-charge-for-nhs-imf/

Well political parties should look at why that is then, how they reach young people not just acquiesce and let the extreme right move in.

But they don’t do any of this in band 1 care. Ours do ( mI should say did) very minimal scale and polish very occasionally and no fluoride vanish. The fillings are done very quickly snd material is rubbish, my last two only survived a few months. So ime £27 just for look at my mouth is not a small amount.
And the main thing that we don’t have NHS dentist anyway they all left in my area so the system is definitely not working even with us paying. Over years we payed not a small amount for all these check ups but got very little back.

My last dental check-up including X-rays and a hygienist appointment and a fluoride treatment was about £200. £27 seems a bargain excluding the hygienist.

But you had treatment do you think someone looking in your mouth for 30 seconds saying all good see you in 6 months is worth it

Yes. It would cut out the time-wasters and people coming in to moan about non-health related issues.

In what scenario is someone who is mobile (ie hasn’t had a stroke affecting balance), breathing and can safely get into a car going to die without an ambulance.

Ambulances aren’t free taxis for getting to hospitals. The perception they are is what causes so much trouble.

But people don’t always know what a minor ailment is, sometimes they aren’t. My dh had a bad sore throat recently and was feeling really poorly but we weren’t sure whether he should visit gp as a sore throat is often listed as a minor ailment. In the end we filled the online form in as he was feeling so bad, this then is triaged by the gp and they can give phone advice, email advice or a same day or up to 2 weeks appointment. They gave him a same day appointment which I was suprised about as a sore throat is classed as a minor ailment, he saw the doctor who then sent him to a and e, and he ended up having to go on an antibiotic drip due to an abscess on his tonsils, apparently this can be life threatening as can cut off your air way if not treated,

And this is exactly the point im making ambulances are not taxi services. If you are dying get an ambulance. If you cant afford a taxi that is for you to figure out by calling a neighbour or friend.

But they are actually as the hospital transport picks up oncology patients for chemo when there is no-one to take them, and they do take elderly, infirm patients home. This is probably where the confusion lies for some people.

@youalright it's worth it as you are paying a highly qualified professional to check your teeth and gum health.. Prevention is better than cure. It frusrates me in the UK that people are unwilling to invest in preventative healthcare.

No i absolutely would not pay. This is opening a can of worms. Where does it end? We already pay towards the nhs

They are not emergency ambulances

This is why I pay it but also moan about it as £27 for 30 seconds is insane. At least when they find an issue or do an xray it seems more value for money. Im just blessed with good strong teeth so its annoying

Not ambulances that are sent by calling 999.

Some people are just muppets.

We do if pensioners are means tested which they are our neighbours both ex and public servants good private pensions plus state pension say they pay income tax on their total income.

Yes, I do think there should be a payment and that we need a social insurance model like those in France, Germany, Austria, etc.

Principally because it might improve funding but also because it would alter the balance of power. At present we have a situation where far too many healthcare professionals think they are doing the subordinate public a favour by providing a "free" service. It is a key factor in allowing sub optimal standards to embed. The NHS is built on gratitude and too many people think they must be grateful for standards that are suboptimal at best or poor at worst.

My GP practice does not do me a "favour". It provides a service for which I pay handsomely via taxation. Too often, the fact it is "free" allows those running it to design the service for their needs rather than for the needs of the patient. As a petson who works full time (as hard as most GPs), I'd be happy to pay a premium for an appointment before 9am or after 6pm, booked in advance.

The bureaucracy of the NHS is absurd. For 35 years I've had free prescriptions across the board for everything, not just the essential Levothyroxine. DH got free prescriptions the minute he turned 60, we both now get free eye tests. It's ridiculous. We are both still working, both earning over £100k and even when we retire will have a combined household income in the top 5%. We don't need free prescriptions or free eye tests. Free access should be for those who need it.

In relation to dentistry, our lovely dentist, who we have always seen privately, withdrew a couple of years ago from NHS work. Not for financial reasons per se but because the treatment allowances are so pitiful they can't provide people the quality services they need and it compromises the professionalism of doing an acceptable job with the time and materials allowed. The final straw, however, was not that but the heavy handed bureaucracy of the commissioning bodies that made the administration of claiming for the work disproportionate, difficult and officious.

I'm in Australia and pay to see a GP, and for an ambulance. Bulk-billed, i.e. free GPs are like hens' teeth.
The problem for the UK is the NI contributions. They don't exist in Australia, it's just tax, unlinked to eventual pensions.

Oh, and the Australian state pension is means-tested.

I receive a partial UK state pension, but like others outside the UK, they are outside the triple-lock, which pisses off the Australian government big time as it means more Poms qualify for the Australian state pension. I pay UK tax on private pensions.

In Wales everyone gets a free prescription but our health board are now scrutinising repeat scripts every month and dropping them so you have to argue to get them reinstated. It's quite interesting at the pharmacy these days when people kick off because they didn't get X this month.

I should have said I go private as I have health insurance. In Australia, you get walloped by tax if you don't have private insurance.

Have a bloody good think before you think private is the way to go.

I think paying even a nominal amount makes people more likely to attend appointments.

Or being charged for not attending.

Despite all the complaints about how hard it is to get appointments, 10-20% of people still don't bother to turn up to health appointments.

Again exemption would not apply if it's means tested.

I know of an elderly gentleman who lay on the living room floor for something like 6 hours with a broken pelvis after a fall

There are also imo significant issues with 56 day prescribing. I have been on the same dose of levothyroxine for 20 and 10 years respectively. One prescription a year would do it for a medicine that is as cheap as chips. Before a Dr jumps on to say it's essential to keep a long term medical Ci diction under review, no GP in 30 years has ever inquired how I am feeling on my dose of levothyroxine and I can count on one hand the number of times a GP has referred me for my essential annual blood test. I get it if I ask for it, not otherwise.

In the above circumstances 56 day prescribing wastes practice and pharmacy time and more importantly, wastes my time. However, the time if the patient is irrelevant because we have no perceptible value from a funding perspective.

Having paid my taxes for 40+ years and not troubled the NHS much, I now have to pay even more when I may need them more.. sounds a bit unfair

And if I need to go into a care home will have to pay another fortune unless the local authority pay the bare minimum in some doss house of a care home and I some seen some when looking for homes for my mum.

Which wouldn't happen if people didn't use ambulances because the dont want to pay for a taxi. Poor bloke