To think NHS gp's should work like NHS dentists

[Gaballout]

It's so hard to get an appointment. Why don't GPS run like the NHS dentist to stop time wasters and people not showing up.

So charge people a small amount for an appointment and if you're poor you don't pay (just like NHS dentists).

The NHS is under funded and tax rises they just won't bring in. This could bring in millions a year and there's no outcry about NHS dentist costs.

My GP is great, open seven days a week four n nights until 8pm, can book an appointment online, last time I called for an appointment I was offered one an hour later! I was at work asked for one a few days later. I'm in a densely populated address of the South east. Oh and the receptionists are friendly, polite, very helpful and call you back. It's not a dream I promise you it's real!

Well given that I only tend to have to see my dentist once ever year at most for a check up and then a follow up if anything needs doing, paying for a dentist is fine as far as I'm concerned - this is an NHS dentist so charges aren't that bad.

However, I have had to see my GP several times over the last 6 months or so for one or two different matters so having to pay for those visits at point of contact, might make me think twice about going if I couldn't afford the pp's suggested £15 and that would, I'm pretty certain, result in further problems as my untreated condition deteriorated.

So where do we go from there? I don't get my lesser conditions treated because I don't want to spend £15 for every visit to the GP, but soon I might need an ambulance to take me to hospital because my untreated heart problem has lead to a heart attack.

Do I get an ambulance free of charge at the point of contact, as is the case now, with all the fantastic treatment I would get from the paramedics also free and then the very costly and equally fantastic treatment at the hospital - talking from a fairly recent experience here - is that free too, or am I going to be charged for that?

And what if I can't afford to pay. Do I not get the treatment?

And off we go down the American heath care route.

It's an appalling idea.

£15 an appointment would be damaging to the poorest people in society and cost thousands more when a small problem isn't nipped in the bud.
I don't think people miss appointments out of laziness. It's more likely people with MH issues, emerging memory problems or people who have had a health crisis and had to go to hospital.

I don't think there should be a charge as it would cost more to the NHS in the long run when people put off a appointment then later get seriously ill and get admitted to hospital when it could have been prevented if they could have afforded a GP appointment.

I do think there should be a donation box if people want to pay something but they shouldn't feel pressured into doing so if they can't afford it

I'd be screwed! We earn well on paper and don't receive any help (apart from DLA for DS) but they don't take into account living in a far away hospital for 6 months of the year so me being self employed don't get paid for those times, our childcare bill for the other 3 children skyrockets for those times so DH can still work and I have to pay to feed me and DS whilst on the ward, DS has very disorder eating but also can not afford to lose weight so I'm buying food costing me £20 a day so for a 3 week stay (standard admission time) it's £420 just for food, that's DLA gone then where does the £2k in wages I've lost and the extra £500 we've spent in child care get taken into account? ... it doesn't so we end up on our arses trying to recover the rest of the year. If I had to factor dr visit costs into that I simply wouldn't go, I already have to pay for prescriptions for an ongoing thing I'm dealing with,

If people were made to pay then they would want maximum time with the GP about every condition and they would overrun on time.

I missed a midwife appointment at my gp surgery because I was in the operating theatre having a section.

"Fair enough in those cases as you can usually provide evidence of the admin error."

How the hell could a patient ever provide evidence that they never got a letter? Or for people like me who don't have our own letter box?

"My GP is great, open seven days a week four n nights until 8pm, can book an appointment online, last time I called for an appointment I was offered one an hour later! I was at work asked for one a few days later. I'm in a densely populated address of the South east. Oh and the receptionists are friendly, polite, very helpful and call you back. It's not a dream I promise you it's real!"

Bully for you. It's completely not like that where I live.

I've had upwards of 250k worth of nhs treatment not including primary care/bloods or 3 surgeries.

I remember talking to an American in the oncologist waiting room and him saying how grateful he was to have been here when he was treated.

Penalising those who are seriously ill/disabled as they have to see GPs on a regular basis

Yeah great plan.

Our local dentists only take on free nhs patients they won’t take on anyone who isn’t entitled to free treatment. I know a few adults who on take home have enough money to afford to pay the £25 independent fee but in reality that’s more food for the house or gas and electric so they’ve neglect to go.

I think dentists should be more like the gp if I’m honest. Free at the point of service. Even my wealthy in-laws say they can see the dentist situation leading to a few generations of people with terrible teeth before something finally happens.

Do we really want to return to a society in which sick children die because their parents can't afford a doctor? Seriously? That's what my dad grew up with and he never ceased to be grateful that we've moved beyond that.

I've paid NI for 47 years and used the NHS very little in that time. As far as I'm concerned i've prepaid for the rest of my life. It's a ridiculous fantasy, OP. Putting your idea in a manifesto would - quite rightly - be political suicide.

I don't think there are that many people who currently pay for prescriptions and I would think that most of them wouldn't see the gp that often. It would probably cost more money to implement than it would save. Also if a and e continues to be free I think a lot of people would just go there instead which would cause another set of problems.

I didn’t think nhs dentists were allowed to charge for no shows anymore

I'm in Scotland and don't pay for prescriptions - I would prefer to but apparently it costs more in admin than they'd make from charging people.

How the hell could a patient ever provide evidence that they never got a letter? Or for people like me who don't have our own letter box

Clearly you didn't read the rest of my post.

I don't think there are that many people who currently pay for prescriptions and I would think that most of them wouldn't see the gp that often.

I pay for my prescriptions and go through stages where I need to a lot. My family also all pay for theirs and spend a lot on medicine.
A friend of mine has arthritis at a young age and spends a lot of money on the things she needs.

Better way would be to pay GPs "per appointment" instead of annual payments which are the same whether they see you or not. You can guarantee they'd soon find lots of appointments to offer if they got paid for each appointment.

So would everyone be assessed the same, regardless of age? Or would the elderly automatically be exempt as with eg, prescription charges, bus passes, tv allowances etc etc, even if they can well afford and are the biggest service users of the NHS?

This is how it works in loads of other countries with far better health outcomes than us, so I’m not sure I buy the whole ‘it was stop people going to the doctor about important things’ argument.

There should be a punitive fine for missed appointments like there was for library books £10 or so, but if you have any unpaid fines, you can't receive anything other than life or death treatments until they're paid.

It's take a generation or two, but people would adjust their habits.

I don't think there are that many people who currently pay for prescriptions
Eh? Anyone over a famy income of about 17k I think? Feel free to correct me but certainly DH on 18.5K and me on carers we pay for ours.

Oh for god sake, another thread from people who are financially comfortable and just can't understand how some people struggle. Do you have any idea how fucking grindingly depressing it is to have to watch everything you spend and always get the cheapest. How depressing it is when things other people take for granted are impossible or extremely difficult for you? How hard it is to make friends when you can't afford to do the social things they do and it is too humiliating to explain why you can't go?
it is not just people on benefits who struggle - working people struggle like this too. And now we have fear being ill too, eh? Or getting a chronic condition that means a lot of doctors appts?

Well said. I'm sick and tired of the attitude of the OP. I know, let's go back to workhouses and treating poverty as a crime eh?

You are living in a bubble OP.

About 90% of prescriptions are issued without charge, presumably begcause the majority are for children and pensioners.