Will Boris now fund the NHS properly?

[Moominmammaatsea]

Today’s papers are reporting that Boris can’t thank his doctors and nurses enough and that he is crediting the NHS with saving his life. AIBU to wonder if the PM will now have a change of heart and fund the NHS properly and reward all its workers with the pay rise he voted down before?

Ultimately the Tories want to sell it off, it's part of their model and ideology. It's no safer in their hands than it ever was. Unfortunately all the chummy 'Boris' stuff (we never called Blair 'Tony' or Cameron 'Dave') leads us all to see him as far less right-wing and dangerous than he is

Great post.

As some others on here have already said, it is grossly mismanaged.
I'm hoping this whole situation at the minute will make trusts realise that most middle manager are totally unnecessary, and have a mass cull.
Pouring more money in isn't going to solve all the NHS issues.

@midgebabe Didn’t David Cameron promise that? I’m pretty sure he did... in the pre 2010 Conservative manifesto. Big tax evaders would be stopped?

@Babamamananarama... I hadn’t thought of that. And of course, Johnson’s landslide victory at the last election was on the promise of Brexit but also, pumping millions into our service sector (to turn around the fucking mess of austerity)? He has the perfect “Ahh well, no magic money tree now...it’s all gone on Covid” excuse.

GP surgeries are mostly private businesses owned by the GPs., As are dentists, opticians, etc., even those doing mostly/wholly NHS work

I don't think these have been privatised , they were never wholly part of the NHS to begin with.

The Tory's are a party of low taxation // the British public are very reluctant to pay more taxes compared to countries which seem to coping better in this crisis like Denmark or Germany

Surely the question should be will people be prepared to pay more taxes themselves ( on any earnings over 30k ) to support more funding for the NHS?

Why only over £30K?? Everyone needs to pay more tax, especially after the economic slump caused by Covid. No one should be immune. We'll ALL have to pay more after all this is over.

That includes pensioners, low paid, etc. There's no way that "middle earners" can bear the brunt, they are already heavily taxes with nic, student loans, workplace pensions, child benefit claw back, etc. We need to incentivise people to work, not penalise them.

The days of low tax are over. Everyone will have to bear some of the pain of recovery, not just to fund the NHS, but to pay off the huge debt being taken on to keep the country functioning.

After WW2 there was a shift to the left in this country, Labour won the election despite the love for Churchill, as voters realised the need to continue state support that had kept the country going in wartime to rebuild the country. This is why the NHS was originally set up. I think the same will happen again with many people relying on the state to get us through this time, especially if it does go on for months if not years.

There is no limit to the amount of cash that could be spent on the NHS, and also no way we can have a sensible debate in this country about alternative models based on superior systems in Europe, Scandinavia etc so good luck with it all.

@PositiveVibez... indeed. He has been spun as the cheeky chappie Churchill-esque Buffon/everybody’s mate/incorrigible “good old Boris. When actually, he comes from the class who do what they like/rules don’t apply to them (they’re for the masses...not the leaders of nations). This was demonstrated again for me by the simple (in every sense) statement by Stanley Johnson’s statement “If I want to go to the pub, I damned well will” or some such.

British public are very reluctant to pay more taxes

Most people will come out of this crisis with very different mindsets.

Many will realise taxes will have to rise.
Same as many will realise travel needs to reduce.
Likewise, we, as a country, need a bigger manufacturing base.
Free movement of goods and people needs to be reduced.
People will spend less on non-essentials such as coffees

The World will be a very different place in a years' time.

Bloody hope so.

There's always money to bail out bankers. There's always leeway for offshore funds to utilise tax loopholes.
It's not that we don't have money, but that the money isn't being directed to the right places.

Why would he? It's working great for him.

I hope you are right user, and I think you might well be

Why would he? It's working great for him.

income tax in Germany starts at 14% and highest earners are taxed at 45%. There's an additional 5.5% solidarity tax and married couples can be taxed jointly if unequal earners to reduce their tax bill. Comparing that to the current UK tax system - the numbers are pretty similar. Infact, we pay more since we also pay NI. Management and better procurement would create enormous efficiencies in the NHS. It doesnt need more money throwing at it

But spending on health care, relative to GDP, is lower in the UK than in much of Europe, certainly lower than France and Germany, and (iirc) Ireland.

The UK must be wasting its tax take on other stuff, although I'm struggling to think what that might be. It's certainly not on education or local government services, and benefits have been slashed.
Crossrail and HS2 can't account for all the difference.

The NHS is already funded properly, spending on health has gone up steadily by at least £10 billion over the past decade.

Until someone has the balls to say that there needs to be a top to bottom investigation and revamp and re haul of the NHS, and a long hard look at what we're prepared to treat and to what capacity, then nothing will ever change and we'll constantly be berated with the misinformation that the "NHS is underfunded".

If you have a bucket with holes in the bottom do you just keep filling the bucket with water, or try and fix the holes, or get a new bucket? And given that any talk of changing the NHS is met with shrieks of "privatisation!!!" then nothing will ever happen regardless.

Why over w limit such as 30k?
Because I think it's daft to take money off people and then give them tax credits back. Inefficient.

Money is not the whole answer, it is the waste within the NHS

How about charging to sort out the drunks in A and E on Saturdays?

Be interesting to see the numbers post CV19 as well

If people want more money spent on the NHS, that is a good thing but please don’t complain when taxes rise to source that money.

If people feel that strongly, write to your MP, they have just had a £10K allocation to cover WFH expenses

Post CV19 world, it is not just the U.K. that will be having a bumpy ride as the money spent not just on the NHS, has to be paid for

Management & procurement need sorting first - too many administrators on 6 figure salaries

Oh come on, meaningless soundbites from Boris Johnson to prove “we’re all in this together”.

If people feel that strongly, write to your MP, they have just had a £10K allocation to cover WFH expenses

How is that different to the way GP surgeries needed to be bribed to force them to open Good Friday/Easter Monday - something they should have been doing anyway.

The NHS will eventually be whittled down, parceled off and privatised.
So - you'll be like Americans - paying 40,000 dollars to have a broken bone fixed.
That is the Tory wet dream and it WILL happen because ya'll voted for it.

And anyone who thinks that an insurance system will mean that this isn't a problem would do well to read Lionel Shriver's "So Much For That", a (very readable) novel that shows how flawed their insurance model is and how it devastates lives.

Medical bills are the biggest cause of bankruptcy in the US, by quite some way.

Surely a weekly clap will suffice. They don't need money.

It's exactly the same with schools. Huge amounts of money are wasted, partly because of poor management, partly because of a small number of staff exploiting every opportunity, and partly because efficiency is often seen as a dirty word

Do you have a link for those opinions you’re presenting as facts?

Would be amazing If they did

Sadly I doubt they will.

Austerity is going to hit and it’s going to hit hard so I suspect the nhs will be thrown to the wolves again

We are going to be taxed like fuck to pay back all this spending and services are going to be cut like we’ve never seen before.