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/

We do, but it's not ringfenced for medical care, it just goes into one big pot.

I’m not sure I would want to pay a doctor however, I would start charging for missed appointments, using ambulances as taxis, going to A&E for non emergency services etc.

So the NHS gets the money it needs for people knowingly or inadvertently abusing the system.

Yes but only after some of the stupid ways in which cash is wasted is resolved. I am under the care of a consultant at the moment. Have been for 5 years. They insist on everything by letter. So, for example a routine appointment comes by letter and I can’t make that appointment so I phone to change. We confirm date and time over the phone and they send another letter. I query a blood test result by email, they respond by letter. It’s a complete waste of resources and postage.

I get not everyone wants email but I would be surprised if the majority dont want email. From the start confirm preferred methods of communication. Note the file. There will be thousands of ways to cut back and work more efficiently. That’s before DH and his heart attack and him having care over three hospitals in different trusts. That is a mind boggoling waste of resources but for another post.

Unless you are not breathing or cant move you dont need an ambulance.

That's nonsense. How does one even call an ambulance if they are not breathing?

This would end up the same as everything else. Those on benefits get it for free and those not on benefits get presumed as having a bottomless money pit and get penalised. I hate the idea of paying for healthcare because I’m in that middle-group who isn’t on benefits, but isn’t wealthy.

*edit as I accidentally said childcare instead of healthcare

no not at all,
i avoid the dentist and the hygienist due to cost

I’d pay. I think they should introduce a charging list like for dentist. Define treatment into categories so charging scheme is clear. Children, pregnant women and those under minimum income (I think something like £900 a month) exempt like at the dentist. Charge people when appointments are made, reform the appointments booking system so that people have to agree. I was told I’d missed an appointment I had no idea about as no letter received.

A family member, member of the public, friend colleague. You do realise people do stop breathing right?

Certainly current pensioners did not pay enough to fund their pensions. Loads of stuff that was previously free on the NHS isn’t anymore - eyecare, dentistry.

This is the issue & then throw in the fact we are ageing.

I need the hygienist twice a year but haven't seen a GP for 5 years. I'd rather the dentist was free!

@youalright you do realise people stop breathing when they are by alone? It's ok for someone to call an ambulance before they get to the stage of not breathing....

Pensioners can be relied upon to vote. If the triple lock is scrapped, it'll be a question of whether Labour is the opposition after the next election, let alone the government.

Only if they give antibiotics without appointment. Quite often you know if you have a urine infection, ear infection etc and literally just need to see the Dr to confirm it to get the meds you know you need.

Personally I wouldn’t be able to afford it so would end up suffering.

No.
But only because I don't think the NHS is capable of naming charges to anyone without it costing twenty times more than they'd collect.

And it'd be unfair as there would be exemptions for categories of people making it unfair and an additional burden on the squeezed middle.

How much do the NHS charge people for services now that aren't entitled to it free? Oh wait.. I suspect I know the answer to that. One trust adds it up and then quietly puts the figure in the bin and no attempt is made to collect any money.

who is it a health service for?

Yes and them people die. For what reason cant you get a taxi if you breathing and mobile. Ambulances need to be purely for category 1 calls so that they are available when needed

You can already get prescriptions for some things from pharmacies.

Pharmacy First.
Conditions they can offer prescription medicine for are:

• impetigo (aged 1 year and over)
• infected insect bites (aged 1 year and over)
• earache (aged 1 to 17 years)
• sore throat (aged 5 years and over)
• sinusitis (aged 12 years and over)
• urinary tract infections (UTIs) (women aged 16 to 64 years)
• shingles (aged 18 years and over)

https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/pharmacies/how-pharmacies-can-help/

For what reason cant you get a taxi if you breathing and mobile.

You can't understand why someone might be breathing but not able to call a taxi? Category 1 doesn't just mean not breathing & not mobile, do you understand that?

So what reasons if mobile and breathing would you need an ambulance

I would also argue category 2 patients can call an ambulance. Fast care is imperative for strokes for example.

Depends if it ends up like prescriptions where only the privileged few actually get to pay
90% prescriptions dispensed are exempt. Can see most appointments ending up free and the same old culprits having to pay.

I might as part of a complete overhaul moving to something like European insurance health system. I don’t think the NHS is sacred and change doesn’t have to mean America

It would not work as it is in terms of saving money unless it is not means tested and no upper age limit, no medical exemptions. As an example prescription in England and same model for appointments

Some are rich no problem either prescription or appointments

Squeezed people now try to work out which drugs they can afford- but don’t have money to get the prescription for a year to make it cheaper. So if paying for appointments do they really need to see the doctor or pay the gas bill?

However very few people who get a lot of prescriptions actually pay and there is a bureaucracy to deal with- people that are sick and disabled are more likely to be poor so means tested benefits.

Currently children and state pension age don’t pay prescriptions There isn’t a particularly logical financial reason they shouldn’t pay for prescriptions or appointments if parents can afford it or the pensioner themselves. Would a government do this or make these people pay for an appointment?

Then there are medical exemptions for prescriptions- you could scrap those in relation to prescriptions and GP appointments. (All prescriptions now free as I was told it would cost too much time and money to work out which is my epilepsy related medicine and which for depression)

However that would increase that squeezed group and mean more people in A&E due to for example epilepsy and diabetes.

Also cancer was recently added to the prescriptions list

I wonder whether there might be a rise in claims against GPs or individual practices if a patient repeatedly pays to see a GP, and the GP repeatedly fails to diagnose or refer for specialist testing.

My late wife visited our GP 5 times during the course of 8 months with a specific, increasingly severe symptom. On each occasion the GP insisted it was the side effect of a medication she was taking for something else, rather than investigating. It turned out to be pancreatic cancer, which killed her. She finally got a diagnosis when she bypassed the GP and took herself to A&E, which again we’re dissuaded from doing for other than accidents or emergencies.

If I was paying to see a GP I would want to come away feeling I had been listened to and taken seriously, and have some degree of confidence in the outcome of the consultation. That should be standard, really, but it is not my experience.

But i wouldn't call someone having a stroke as mobile but yes category 2 aswell. People waiting hours for ambulances dont need ambulances.

heart attacks, strokes. heavy bleeding. An ambulance is not just about getting one to hospital, it's getting treatment at home & on the way to hospital too.

Yes this is how I feel, once again those in the middle category of not wealthy but not poor enough get screwed.