to ask Conservative voters what they think will happen to the NHS

[MyBeautifulSquid]

if they stay in after the GE?

Not gonna lie...I am a Labour voter. Not wanting a bunfight or trying to goad anyone ...I genuinely respect everyone's right to vote whatever way they think fit. However I am genuinely terrified of the prospect of losing the NHS ....like most people I am an ordinary earner just about getting by day to day, I cannot afford private healthcare, and doubt I ever will. I have friends in America...I have seen how the US system works.

My Facebook is a bit of a lefty echo chamber and lots are very active so I am constantly being bombarded with doom and gloom articles etc basically saying we will lose the NHS if Labour don't win.

Anyway like I say really don't want a fight, I am genuinely interested and do want to hear from the "other side" what they think.

Labour have been riding on the back of the NHS dream for far too long - they absolutely have no more swing than Tories when it comes to "saving" our NHS.

This pregnancy is my first experience of the NHS and 20 weeks in I have added maternity cover to my healthcare insurance. The inefficiencies in middle management is just ridiculous - the whole model needs pulling to bits and starting again. It has spread so far from its mission.

Mother I don't think we should charge for kids to go to the GP, just as we don't charge for eye tests whilst they are in education, but we cannot keep funding the bottomless pit of the NHS. There needs to be a rational debate about what we fund and how we fund it. I needed an ultrasound...didn't have to go to the hospital, I went to a practitioner in Overijse who has his office in his home. For a cardio check up, I went to the MCH clinic in Wezembeek (have a Google), which again, means less waiting and an appointment when I wanted it. That same clinic is where my bloods go from the GP, and I get the results the next day.

Just before we moved back here in 2014, ds needed a heart ultrasound for his annual check up. We went to a clinic beside the local hospital, which did a lot of the routine ultrasound work, contracted by the NHS to do so. We were offered an appointment there within 4 days, as opposed to 3 weeks at the hospital. I fail to see why people are so opposed to this, if it frees up time in the hospitals to deal with more serious needs.

User - you are talking utter bollocks. Most gps I know have had massive pay cuts in the last 10 years as they try and keep the businesses afloat with income streams being cut left right and centre while having to provide more and more care that was provided by the hospital. Most get in by 7.30 Am and leave about 8-9pm. Oh and Saturday surgeries were forcibly removed from individual practices round here at one point as someone on high decided they could do the service cheaper...

You do know the US system let's people die from easily treatable things if they cannot pay right. In the US until Obama care employers did not have to offer health insurance and insurance companies did not have to cover things like diabetics so unless you were independently rich and had no long term health problems you were screwed

The wonderful thing about the NHS is that you don't need to have cash to access it at all, it is free at the point of need.

But it is still funded by the tax payer and there is a shit ton of public money invested in it, therefore...

Outsourcing various services, well it starts to look like a business, and businesses are run for one reason, to benefit their shareholders. It is not what I want to see for our hospitals and clinics.

I think due to the investment required - it does need to be run as a business - quite clearly the current model is not working. The NHS make decisions that make absolutely no sense from a business POV, their admin is abysmal and they waste money. Running it like a business would ag the very least stop the mindless waste of resources.

I hope the Tories will sort out the inefficiency and waste and NOT throw more money at it.
Also there should be a way of getting rid of staff who play the system, take maximum sick leave year after year, or are just crap at their job.

I was in the out-patients last week. I saw several people wheeling around large trolleys of massive patient files. Seriously in 2017 how much money must the NHS waste on people shuffling paper around. Has the NHS never heard of a computer?

@JamieXeed74 I was in the out-patients last week. I saw several people wheeling around large trolleys of massive patient files. Seriously in 2017 how much money must the NHS waste on people shuffling paper around. Has the NHS never heard of a computer?

To be fair, this is probably the system which causes the least worst damage.

The NHS can't for the life of it implement anything IT related without making a massive balls-up of it, going vastly over time and making the original budget nothing but a laughable punchline of a bad joke.

Plus they have to keep a lot of people doing something or it would look like they were being paid to do fuck-all....

I haven't decided which way I am going to vote yet so can't answer as a Tory. However, what I can say is that up until 2 years ago I lived in other countries who didn't have an NHS. The last 2 countries I lived in forced companies to pay for medical insurance for every employee. Those not in work etc. received treatment at the public hospitals free of charge, in hospitals as good as our own.

In the UK there is a serious amount of wastage going on and I don't agree with a lot of what the NHS pays for. I'd like to see a mixture of private and public. Even though I can now get treatment for free, we pay £50 a month for our children to have private healthcare. Some of you may think I am mad, but it feels normal as I have done it for the past 20 years overseas.

Anyone else just heard the R4 You and Yours discussion of staff fraud in the NHS? MIllions. And that is just the people they catch.

It's already happening.

• Sexual health services were sold to Virgin (oh the irony!) about 5 years ago
• mental health is also in the process of being sold.
• Many hospitals are tendering out laboratory services to private labs whereas usually they are in house.
• Teresa May said in her last interview she want good quality social care that people pay for.
• Waiting list targets have been abolished for non-emergency services

It's not going to happen, it has already happened.

I certainly wouldn't want the Belgian maternity care system in Britain - each antenatal appointment took at least 3 hours of waiting and waiting around in the hospital, lack of pain relief during the birth, heavy focus on medicalised ways (more money for them!), complete disregard of the patient (both mum and baby) because doctors know best, etc. And 4000€ for the privilege!

I'd have my NHS birth over that any day.

If it was privatised but funded the same way, we would get a lot more for our taxes

In a perfect world, yes, but in the real world that's simply not true. Correct me if I'm wrong but our ratio of cost to health is better than almost all other health systems in the world.

I think they'll start charging non UK citizens and actually chasing them and their home country for payment, like they should but currently fail to do.

Of course you then have to pay someone to send the bill. You also need someone to count the exact number of tests/procedures/temperature checks taken.

I was in the out-patients last week. I saw several people wheeling around large trolleys of massive patient files. Seriously in 2017 how much money must the NHS waste on people shuffling paper around. Has the NHS never heard of a computer?

Yes, but if your other systems are not computerised then you are sunk.

I'm 50, my more recent notes are electronic but older ones are on paper, as are test results, old X-rays are on film, sonograms are print outs or may be VHS.

Also paper doesn't disappear if the power goes out.