To think we should all just pay 1-2% income tax to help fix the nhs

[Ieatcake]

Lots of health professionals are saying it's like a third world country. We need more beds and more money for socialcare. Not many would even notice a tiny tax rise and it would help fix it ASAP.

Training doctors takes 7 years, it’s not as simple as giving NHS more funding

With that orange moon-faced toddler just across the pond playing his pathetic war games on Twitter, we need Trident more than ever before.

Whats most worrying is that it's not clear whether we'd need to aim them East or West right now!

Wastage is the problem with the NHS, more money is just going into a black hole. cut the red tape the layers of management and pointless wasting of the money they currently receive and you'd see a massive difference. Run it like a proper business(minus the profit making).

Here's another, if you want more Doctors, stop training them to go and work in the private sector, tie them into a contract where they work for the NHS and the NHS only! so you can't go to a private clinic and see the same consultant who you would've seen in 8 months time in his NHS clinic! I have one job and would not be permitted to use my skills for another employer at the same time so why on earth do you allow doctors to?

Wasn't the National Insurance intended to fund the NHS?

I do agree though that it's vanity to keep taxes low whilst our core services are suffering. Unfortunately, it's been 10+ years of underfunding so even tax rises now will take years before we see a positive impact.

There may still be efficiencies to be had, but there's only so much you can cut.

National Insurance funds pensions. Taxation funds the NHS

National Insurance funds pensions.

It all goes into the same pot. Don't forget Labour twice added 1% to NIC to "save the NHS"! (it didn't work the first time, as the NHS just wasted it, so they had to go back and get another 1%!)

Haven't RTFT but inefficiencies and bad procurement waste a huge amount of money.

Blood test to check anaemia/iron levels. Need gp appt to ask for blood test. Another appt with special nurse who comes twice a week to take blood. Third appt to get results.

28 yrs ago I had pneumonia when I lived in Israel. Appt with gp, sent straight to hospital for X-ray to confirm. Results read minutes after and prescription issued. No waiting a week for results to be sent to GP - and potentially needing more medical attention - and needing another appt to get medicine.

Went for chest x Ray last year here. Sent to local walk-on clinic now run by Virgin. Fine but heard nothing for ages so made another appt with GP. Oh, our 2 IT systems don't match so I don't get notifications of results. But luckily he knew how to link with their system and found the results!

How is this efficient?! In an era of such technology, how are systems so horrendously inept. I know there are huge issues around medical information but surely... just imagine all these extra GP appts being duplicated around the country and that's nothing compared to the inefficiency in hospital, with numerous occasions of personal info being written down by at least 4 nurses. Why?

And this:

The PFI scandal that erupted in Gordon Brown’s time is a big problem, though. Facilities and services implemented under his and Blair’s tenure are set to cost £300bn in repayments alone, never mind the ridiculous supply contracts which were welded to those contracts.

Also the head GP at our practice says he's become a business manager rather than a doctor because he has to run it as a business now, rather than using his expertise as a doctor - is that good use of all the years he spent training.

No. We pay too much tax already. More tax will just encourage more people to use creative accountancy.-

he has to run it as a business now, rather than using his expertise as a doctor

Most GP practices have been "businesses" for decades, owned and run by partner GP's. No different to any other business really. I run my own accountancy practice, yet spend a lot of my time doing admin and management instead of preparing accounts & tax returns. Sounds like your GP needs to delegate more work to other partners and the practice manager and admin team!

Or the government could start taxing internationalcorporates properly on their UK earnings #justathought 😡

Agree with all those saying it is nowhere near as simple as creating another few million (or even billion) pounds, the whole system needs a complete overhaul.
I've been saying it for 10 years of more - there needs to be a commitment from all parties to meet with NHS staff and social care staff to look at the realities of the all the jobs. Listen to people on the frontline. It needs commitment a lot longer than one Parliament, so needs to be cross party led. You only have to watch something like the documentary series they've been showing last year about West Mids Ambulance service, and look at the low % of time those paramedics spend doing emergency, critical or life saving care. Or watch 24 hours in A&E and see how many people just turn up there when they've neither had an accident, nor is it an emergency.
They need to talk to GPs (or trainee medics) and find out why not enough people want to do the job, and put that right so that fewer people go to A&E unnecessarily.
They need to face up to the fact that SO many millions is wasted in missed appts and in people calling ambulances when they really need help getting up after a fall, or, quite frankly they are lonely and want a cup of tea. They need to put in regulations about dealing more quickly with people who call ambulances 165 times a month.
If my (newly built) hospital is typical, they need to put in different heating zones so people attending out patients appointments aren't melting in the heat because they have the building so hot, all the time.
There are just SO many ways money is wasted, and yet still they are making both Nurses and Drs work ridiculously long shifts, when they have such responsibility for their decisions.
But the crux of it is we need to take Party politics out of it, and look at it as a whole nation.
Of course every thing can no longer be free at point of delivery, as medicine can do so much more than was ever imagined 75 years ago, and there are also so many more contributing factors to people being ill, plus heightened expectations of what medicine can 'fix'.

I am happy to pay more as long as it goes towards frontline staff and facilities and not into a black hole. I would also like to see lots more streamlined services, where GPs, hospitals, consultants, outpatient clinics and related services all have access to information they need without the need for the huge amount of bureaucratic stuff that goes on in the background. Why do I need to repeat myself again and again by filling in forms at every opportunity just so someone can input this stuff and then it’s not referred to ever again.

Also every time I try to get a GP appointment, I am told there are none available despite there being at least 10 GPs registered. I image a busy waiting room but whenever I do go to the surgery there is no one else waiting and my GP is wandering around behind reception having a chat while I see the locum

ShotsFired - £202 billion we spend on Trident... enough for 4 Brexits or fixing the NHS once and for all.
And tell me, in what way could it be classed as an effective deterrent? If anything it's made others develop their own arsenals.^^ It's been no deterrent at all!

I'm not with Jezza on many things but I'm with him on this.

Heads off to plaster it on the side of a big red bus...

*imagine

We need to sort out cuts to social care. Cuts to other areas have left the NHS mopping up the mess.

Meals on wheels, agency carers, CAMHS, adult social services in general- it all needs to be funded.

So agree - a local sexual heath clinic near us recently closed down. Our GP was lost for words!

*It's not accidental, this is how the tories want it.

If you voted for them, this is what you voted for*

This

God and what about mental health care? How much would the ambulance service and A+E be helped if there was a proper approach to triaging and treating mental health patients in the community (as opposed to a hospital ward)

CushionCovers exactly. Dismantling the NHS has been their plan all along, they've made no secret of it.

YANBU - but I don't think it even needs us to pay that much. I would help in any way I can though to get it off it's knees but I fear it's too late

ShotsFired - £202 billion we spend on Trident

Handy use of figures provided by CND there. Beautifully impartial.

I got figures from FullFact. What is CND?