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/

No exemptions benefit sanctions to extend to missed appointments.

The wealthy probably use private GPs who are available out of hours. That won’t change.

No exemptions benefit sanctions to extend to missed appointments.

it would never happen

We don't even have infrastructure to actually implement most of this.

Yes I already do.

i’m disabled and it’s very difficult to get even routine care. I go private for secondary care and for physio, hydro and blood tests regularly. It’s the only way to get them.

Not if it’s the same service I’m currently receiving.

There are procedures that they now refuse to do on the NHS, so private is the only option. I have developed unsightly varicose veins and I hate them, but the NHS wont do varicose vein surgery. So I have saved up and will get them blasted at a Vein Clinic. It’s interesting because I have friends who are overweight and sedentary and have developed type 2 diabetes- they get everything thrown at them for free, including mounjarro.
i am pretty healthy, so am punished. I even use a private pharmacy for UTI meds, as my GP refuses to let me have them at home. And anyone who suffers with UTIs knows the thought of sitting in a waiting room is horrendous.

I have a disabled child. Re those saying there should be a charge for missed appointments. I e had two appointment letters come through AFTER the appointment date in the last year. A couple others I’ve only known about because I’ve had text reminders with no letter ever arrive.

a more holistic approach would be better too. I have experienced being referred repeatedly between departments without actually being treated when the problem doesn’t fit neatly into the scope of that department but overlaps. Such a waste of money and not good outcome for the patient.

I also think if we want to save tax payers money we should look at all public services again hollisticly. My son has high care needs but does not have severe learning disability. This means there are no local schools able to take him as the specialist schools only take children with significant LD but mainstream cannot meet his support needs. So he has kit got a school place. He’s given inadequate education via alternative provisions which I have to take him to and support him during for an hour or two here and there. I know multiple families in similar situations due to the profile of their child’s need. It would be cheeper to open a school locally to cater to this type of need than pay for individual children to have alternative provisions and home tutors etc! Children like this who have no school place require a parent to give up work. often this means a family has to rely on benefits partly or fully in the case of single parent families. Parents of disabled or special needs children also have higher levels of divorce from the stress so there’s lots of single parent families being supported by the state because these children are not given the education they are legally entitled to. I lost everything because my son has no school place. I cannot afford to pay off my mortgage so pay interest only and I cannot afford to pay into a pension so when I’m too old and infirm to care for my child the state will still have to support me into old age.

then I have to read comments on threads like this about how working people have to pay for me and my children and may as well give me the shirt off their back. People like this are ignorant about the reality of access to education or care for disabled children and adults who require care. It’s offensive to blame us for the failings in the system. I miss being more than a carer, I miss my career, I miss my social life and I fear for mine and my child’s future. My family costs the tax payers thousands and this is not my choice. SEND education and promt treatment before illness become so disabling it ruins life’s and futures would be the choice of most in this situation

No, they should tax the fucking billionaires.

Or we could just properly tax corporations and billionaires……

Like others have said all should be charged for missed appointments - no one exempt as a lot already see it an as entitlement! Plus text message for appointments rather than letters which take ages - also potential for video calls for certain dr appointments

Going back to the paracetamol some is for elderly and disabled as they can’t go out and get but also home care staff won’t give paracetamol unless prescribed which causes a lot of waste. So again better for people to pay for it if even nominally.

Ambulances should be for blue lights/ emergencies only, where a paramedic is needed to make sure you make it alive to the hospital!

Also again with the elderly relatives im seeing a lot them being sent to A&E when not necessary, causing them a long wait which distresses them and causes delays to everyone else.

should contraceptives for over 25s be chargeable again nominal £1 fee?

It's hard enough being disabled. Bit fucking unfair if they start charging for medical care, it doesn't take a genius to work out which group of people are going to need to pay more frequently.

A more holistic approach is definitely needed I had a work colleague in tears this week as she feels like she’s banging her head against a wall - they look at her body in singular areas - cardio, muscloskeletal etc etc not at it as a whole - she has multiple diagnoses for different conditions- all consultants contradict each other too!

Yes but I'd expect to be seen faster than those not paying tbh

I could of written this

Yes, I already do pay as I live in a country which has a charge to see GPs. Children are free, and people on low incomes pay a reduced rate.

I have a fantastic gp, and really they fit people in brilliantly.
My mum, who lives in the next town over it is impossible. And that's with me helping.
If I could just pay £60 or £80 for a private gp for her, I would. But there is no private GP.

Also in Australia and pay to see the GP. Generally around $95 with a government rebate of around $45. I find if you have follow up appointments for the same condition they will bulk bill (no charge to the patient) as long as these appointments are in close succession, if some time has passed you’ll be charged for the first appointment again - it can vary between surgeries. On the whole, we can get appointments easily, don’t feel rushed and can discuss multiple issues at one appointment. There are concessions and children are usually not charged for.

@Vivienne1000yeah I know someone with recurrent tonsillitis who had to pay privately to have them removed as they couldn’t get them out on the NHS. So many examples like this is really not acceptable. The point is research shows in countries where private healthcare isn’t really a thing then the public healthcare is of a better standard. So if you couldn’t pay privately to have your varicose veins done the NHS would have to do it.

A small fee, of say, £20, yes. But for that, I’d expect an excellent service. An online booking system that actually has appointments available, or if you had to call, it didn’t have to be at a specific time and you had to wait a couple of minutes at most, then, you’d actually be given an appointment same day or within 48 hours - what a dream that would be!

Other countries manage to do it fine as several have posted on here.

If surgery's ran on time, and returned money wasted on prescriptions that don't work, then this may be worth doing.

This was often touted as being a way to prevent people from missing appointments, but even then once you have been it should have involved giving the money back.

Yes . I do now if I can’t get a NHS Dr appointment

Yes, I would pay and have done so to see a private GP, but for the elderly I cannot see it working. My In-laws when they were alive had so many appointments ongoing, they never knew where they were and yes, appointments were missed as they couldn’t keep up. I would like to see smaller village type GP’s for the elderly, as I’m sure with more better individual care, this would help considerably, I also would expect over 70’s to pay. I was in my GP practice recently and it was sad to see many elderly having to come in, clearly unwell trying to arrange an appointment, as this is the only way they can and what they’re used to doing.

Yes I am happy to pay for an appointment and there shouldn’t be exemptions. Having read the thread, whilst most surgeries now have the patchs form to complete for an appointment, people do bypass this and turn up at the surgery requesting an appointment or call and get one over the phone. So they need to make the system more uniform.
I am happy to pay if we can keep the existing model for what happens beyond the GP surgery where we don’t have caps on life threatening treatments, long term treatments etc.
Agreed most countries have some sort of co pay and really the current model isn’t sustainable.

I think a higher NHS surcharge could be considered, international students requiring to pay and have insurance should be considered and actually recouping funds when people are not eligible for NHS treatment needs to be enforced. Everyone could purchase the prepaid prescription certificate it’s extremely good value for money for those who require regular long term medication, I’ve had it and don’t have a problem getting it again.

Also this appointment letter business is ridiculous. I am signed up to paperless appointments, I get an email to say my appointment has been updated and text reminders. I still despite being signed up to paperless get a postal letter. How inept is this? Maybe we could start by scrapping physical letters altogether as a small step?

Someone above said charging more to earners above 80k. No let’s stop expecting others to pay just on the basis of how much they earn we don’t know their circumstances. If society needs to be fair then everyone needs to have participation even those on lower incomes. Higher earners already pay more in many ways not just through PAYE. The most vulnerable should be protected but I don’t think it’s as simple as those on state support don’t pay as it’s circumstantial.