To rant because this NHS is not a charity

[Monty27]

Wtf is all this about having to donate to a service that is national.
The clue is in the name:
NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE
and breathe 😭

There wasn't an ageing population back then

We're all ageing. There was always someone at death's door needing medical care. it just used to happen a bit earlier in life

nor was there an epidemic of obesity, diabetes etc.

-but there was far more smoking-related illness and heart disease about.

We also allow people to openly abuse it

Full Fact attributes 0.3% of NHS expenditure to health tourism (I assume this what you're wittering about) - but around half of that is British expats who come back and get treatment they're no longer strictly entltled to! Can't be treated by those smelly foreign doctors, can we.

Most people would agree that the current model is not sustainable.

Show me an alternative model that doesn't entail people being denied access to healthcare due to poverty, and I'll listen. Until then the NHS is no better or worse than any other other. I accept that there are some inefficiencies but these happen in most big organisations.

Life expectancy in 1948 was around ten years less so there was definitely an ageing population. TB and heart disease were major causes of death, now it’s cancer and dementia - the NHS doesn’t bear the cost of the latter.

I agree, OP. Boris Johnson and his pals should be feeling ashamed that people are having/ trying to rescue it with charity.

@allthewhores. Yes yes yes.

Assuming that economically unproductive means tax payers, 20% of all tax payers are over 65.