I don’t want to pay less National Insurance, I’d like a better funded NHS

[CormorantStrikesBack]

🤷‍♀️

obviously I appreciate I’m in a position to think that, but I’m not on a huge wage. I’m glad if it helps people who are struggling but I’m also worried about the nhs, school funding, etc.

They don’t seem to be managing now, I can only imagine it will get worse. There are councils going bankrupt and cutting services, respite care, libraries, etc.

id rather carry on paying what I’m paying than risk such services been funded even less.

Currently sat in a&e with dd who has severe chest pain and shortness of breath. She has cardiac damage already. Been here an hour and not triaged.

I couldn't agree more.

This is yet more confirmation that the Tories don't care a jot about the health service, their defunding is a choice not an inevitability.

Most other OECD countries have mainly state funded healthcare systems of some sort and they are not all in chaos or meltdown.

Whatever the next government do they have to sort it out. We cannot have people dying on trolleys in ED or on their own floors waiting 2 days for an ambulance. The NHS is on a war footing, with escalation being the norm. How is this situation acceptable whilst they are reducing NI?

Just look at the railways after being privatised. There was promise of low costs and great service due to competition. How did that work out? We concurrently have the EU’s most expensive and shittiest train service. The same would happen with NHS. They haven’t got a clue. How do EU countries like France, Germany have great state based healthcare, and great rail? It can be done.

Agree with you. I would be quite happy to pay more if it was guaranteed to fund more healthcare staff being hired and that they stopped paying fortunes to contracted out services.

Totally agree the NHS is a bottomless pit and throwing more money is not the answer, the answer is an efficient management and cutting the waste. As kdramaqueen suggested perhaps charging a small amount to see gp to stop people not turning up for their appointments, since it's free they don't care and can book another one, same for hospital appointments when it's free people don't value it the same as when they have to pay for it

I don’t think you were being rude at all OP.. so,E,people have a funny idea of ‘rude’ 🤷‍♀️

*jasflowers · Today 07:45

rwalker · Yesterday 21:37

The nhs wastes an astronomical amount of its existing budget
think we should address that first before we start throwing more money at it*

*Can you link where you got this from? or is it an opinion?

I was talking to a HCP yesterday, she couldn't understand how alcohol duty is being frozen, she explained about Alcohol acquired brain injury, very common, then there is now an Alcohol dependency unit in her hospital, to help people who go cold turkey whilst in hospital... all this was never dreamt off in 1947

We need preventative health care in this country, too many people are in Hospital or are ill with things that could be prevented/limited*

The problem is HCPs are all trying to save money from their own budget so don’t look at the damage they are doing the NHS as a whole

How many go to the GP and are able to discuss their symptoms (plural) and the Gp then sends them for a blood tests or other tests for what you, the patient think is wrong with you and other possibilities it could be. Even to just test for what you suspect would be a step in the right direction and when the test results comeback you get to see the doctor and are treated or referred on.

What we see now is the culmination of putting off people instead of listening and treating them.

My dh didn’t get diagnosed with bowel cancer by his GP. Despite his 30 appointments he had in the previous 6 months
He had to take a spot in A&E when his symptoms got so bad he could hardly walk.

So the GPs surgery were patting themselves on the back for not having to pay for a couple of tests and now his treatment would come out of someone else’s budget

They seem to miss that they are all part of the NHS and as a whole someone having to spend 9 months in hospital and several complicated surgeries instead of a one night stay and a simple operation is going to be incredibly more expensive than a couple of tests
You ask for limiting problems. But you have to take on board a GP won’t send someone for a test to limit a patients disease but instead put that patient off till they become someone else’s cost

Dh’s chemo again is an episode in waste.

Dh would arrive for his chemo appointment, and the trolley with everything needed for his chemo was laid out

The first thing a nurse did was to throw the bag of chemo on the trolley away and get another from the fridge as they had laid the bag of chemo out first thing that morning and they couldn’t use it when dh came to his appointment as it needed to be kept refrigerated till used

They did this with every single patient every single day.

The waste in the NHS is unbelievable and you don’t have to spend more money on getting reports to know that. You just have to open your eyes

Any increase l might get in national insurance will be eaten up by my dentist going private. No Christmas chocolate for my family... Plus energy cap rising so no Christmas lights either... The millionaires will be able to take extra flights in their private jets to get their teeth whitened in turkey...

Hope your a&e visit ended well op

*croydon15 · Today 20:17

Totally agree the NHS is a bottomless pit and throwing more money is not the answer, the answer is an efficient management and cutting the waste. As kdramaqueen suggested perhaps charging a small amount to see gp to stop people not turning up for their appointments, since it's free they don't care and can book another one, same for hospital appointments when it's free people don't value it the same as when they have to pay for it*

What happens if you go to the GP and you get charged for your appointment but you have to go over and over without being taken seriously
If money changes hands for these appointments then GPs will need to actually treat their patients as patients and not leave their patients to end up in A&E and become someone else’s problem

80% of NHS Spending is on the over 55

If you want the NHS to survive in its current form then the pensioners need to start paying in for their very expensive care (that they never paid for).

All developed countries have their retired folks pay in for their healthcare (US & Canada)

The UK does not, which is also precisely why it is disintegrating under the weight of the cost and time required to care for the medical issues of rhe over 65 crowd.

Still sat in a&e. Some people in the waiting room have been sat on plastic chairs waiting for a bed on a ward for two days.

The statistics don’t show that to be the case. The biggest cost to the NHS is obesity.

https://fullfact.org/health/how-much-nhs-budget-spent-people-over-85/

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/may/18/obese-patients-cost-nhs-twice-much-healthy-weight-study

I said 55.

You posted an article on the over 85s

Which has nothing to do with what I stated

The chart shows spending across all age groups. 60% of health spending is on under 65s. As you can see if you’re capable of reading a bar chart.

*BouncingJAS · Today 21:20

80% of NHS Spending is on the over 55

If you want the NHS to survive in its current form then the pensioners need to start paying in for their very expensive care (that they never paid for)*

So what did my taxes and national insurance go towards paying for.

I can’t think of a single thing I have ever got from the NHS without a huge fight or cock up

Their not listening nearly killed me at 14 years old

Their not listening has meant I have spent over 11 years of my life in agony. (Imagine being in constant agony from today till 2034)

There not listening has meant I spent 60 years of my life in complete discomfort with my skin falling off because they refused to send me for an allergy test which when I finally got one because I had to go to A&E looking like an acid attack victim I found out I am allergic to all shampoos, body washes, detergents and cleaning products among the page and page of lists of what I tested and was going to be allergic to

Prescribed me medication for years that now says that can only be prescribed once

A lot of these things I had to save up to get a private diagnosis or die. Or threaten the GP to get him to send me for a single test.

Of course over 55s are likely to have more money spent on them

It’s like being surprised that old cars breakdown and new cars don’t.
One day those new cars will be old and need the help as well

Thing is @Yalta, it’s not even true. It’s one of those made up “statistics” at which MN excels.

The data from that article is from 2018

I suggest you improve your rather middling google skills.

Hint: the UK population is aging

I will leave it as an exercise to the reader to deduce what that means for healthcare spending.

Its not difficult.

The over 55s are much more costly now in terms of healthcare vs 30 years ago.

We now have much higher life expectancy vs 30 years ago as well.

So the healthcare cost of 10 years vs 20 years is huge at 65.

Its the reality the UK is now grappling with.

2018 is five years ago, not ten. I suggest you do some research, it’s much more credible than inventing figures.

That they never paid for? What are you taking about?

This

Do I really need to take out the sock puppets?

Its a simple thing.

I was in A&E for 10 hours before getting the opportunity of 28 hours in a variety of chairs before getting a bed. Good luck, keep hydrated.

*infor · Yesterday 22:42

CormorantStrikesBack · Yesterday 21:40

Still sat in a&e. Some people in the waiting room have been sat on plastic chairs waiting for a bed on a ward for two days.
I was in A&E for 10 hours before getting the opportunity of 28 hours in a variety of chairs before getting a bed. Good luck, keep hydrated*

I wonder how many of those people in the queue in A&E are there because their GP refused to treat them or send them for tests and refer them on and instead just left them to get sicker and sicker until A&E was the only place to go

There isn't huge amounts of waste in the NHS, not more than you d expect in any other large organisation.

People think that getting rid of a few 100k managers will help, it wont.

WE need to start taking responsibility for our own health a little more, the UK is one of the fattest nations on earth, our kids are over weight, we eat and drink too much.
Add in we are also an aging population, underfunded NHS by head of population and its a miracle it treats anyone.

If i were to change anything, it would be getting part time staff to go FT.... but they will cost, better childcare esp.