To think the time has come to abolish the NHS healthcare model

[OptimismvsRealism]

Free at the point of use also means denial of care to a lot of people. What torture to know that new medications are arriving regularly (eg lecanemab) but it's only for the very wealthy.

The UK is different from how it was in 1948. We should be brave enough to move on from then.

I think the only thing that private American systems do better is the preventative stuff, our NHS would do well to adopt some of those practices.
Annual health check ups and fitness plans/dietary plans for sure.

In terms of efficiency per £ the NHS doesn't compare badly at all.

We need more capacity in the system. People complain about managers but don't realise much of their time is spent making a system that doesn't work function: there aren't enough beds, ward 1 you need to discharge the least sick person. ward 3 has shit conditions so has no staff today, wards 1, 2 and 4 need to run short staffed to send them a nurse each. And don't forget the endless chasing of social care..

It's shit, it's shit for patients and shit to work in. We do need proper overhaul of social care, but I am starting to think that the only way staff will be treated properly is with some privatisation. A better answer would be more tax but I don't see that happening.

It’s the waste though too, not just bad management.Not just materials but staff. Why are we paying £££££ for agency staff, training doctors who can’t get jobs after unis etc.

Until you need the NHS in a major way which can happen to anyway you don’t realise how lucky we are.

From personal experience they are good in life saving situations but chronic conditions and preventing them, nope.

See I don’t recognise this. When I lived in the states health screenings were compulsory for most insurance policies, however most insurance policies didn’t cover them, even if it was a yearly screen for an existing policy. So lots of people had no choice but to let them lapse and accept if they were diagnosed with something that would have been picked up during a screening they wouldn’t be covered.

YABU. Private insurers also have access to the same research as NHs does for new drugs and treatment. . Do you really think they won't exclude use on grounds of cost vs benefit as NICE does ? They are less likely to fork out that the NHS.

We need a cross party review and stop the usual suspects on these sorts of threads blithering on about the US model (again).

Calmly look at European models rather than worshipping at the altar of the NHS. It’s broken. I would like to personally see a co payment system. It’s seems to work well in other countries.

Yep. But that eligibilty at the lower end needs to be tightly controlled otherwise we end up in precisely the same situation again

I’ve had different experience. You couldn’t have prevented my dc’s chronic condition and she’s had good care( excellent at times) that has enabled recovery. I couldn’t even begin to list the amount of ways in which the NHS and only the NHS could have facilitated this, the amount of players that weave together.

That has really surprised me. It is really useful to hear from somebody with real life experience. Other healthcare systems seem to be glorified and I thought Germany was one of the top systems.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64216269

The much lauded French system by Farage and co seems to be having similar/ it’s own issues anyway.

Most European countries health care systems are struggling because of aging populations & low birth rates.

There is also a wider problem of young people & high housing costs, wage stagnation which doesn’t necessarily encourage a career in health or even staying in the country where you were born.

@R3dSho3s I have had excellent and crap, it’s very inconsistent imo. But it’s good you have only had a positive experience.

You can afford private healthcare. What do you expect to happen to those who can’t?

We’ve had incidents of crap but the overall model and good/ excellence we’ve experienced in the NHS outweigh an alternative model and the pressures put on the NHS.

I have had experience of the private system when younger and trust me my experience of crap within that system was far worse than anything I’ve experienced in the NHS.

I’m not English & as I said previously I prefer the French model which also isn’t perfect. I don’t think anyone expects perfection, what other alternatives do you have experience of @R3dSho3s

This is such a ridiculous and ill-informed comment that it has angered me. You cannot obtain critical illness cover if you have many diagnosed chronic illnesses. Those of us who were born disabled or were diagnosed as children did not get that option. Shall we just die off to save a few pounds from your taxes? (Which, by the way, I’m sure the government will find another way to spend so you would likely never see the benefit anyway.)

Oh, and by the way, lots of us also work and pay into it just like you do, before you try and pull that one.

• We could make getting hold of basic medications easier. I need monthly Asthma inhalers but can only get them on prescription so a Dr has to give permission each time. Perhaps reduce it to only the yearly review but if meds are working more could be given at one time.

Easier to get antibiotics for things like urine infections. If someone knows what's wrong they are taking an appt away from someone with something more serious that needs checking.

Make social care and hospital care run alongside better so people ready for discharge can leave and free up beds quicker.

On the whole though I have no complaints about NHS, they have cared for my parents with different illnesses well.

I’ve only had experience of a top private hospital in the uk years ago. The amount they charged for tiny things like blood tests was insane. They then bungled my care and my husband was left to bundle me into our car to get me to the local NHS hospital for high dependency. They didn’t even have an ambulance. They sent flowers though. 🤔

These people had the choice to pay for critical illness insurance, but chose not too.

What a load of crap, it must be amazing to live such a blinkered life!

One of my friends had a stroke in her early 20s and another had a form of leukaemia. Critical illness insurance is extortionate for them or excludes many conditions. Then what about people who are born disabled?

@R3dSho3s ah ok, I was talking about other country models. I have had experience of France & Ireland and minor experience of Spain.

The NHS Healthcare model actually needs to be reinstated. At the moment, it is a privatised system to all intents and purposes, but funded by governent. It is also deliberately being starved of cash to bring about people saying we cannot afford it.

What needs to happen is for Trusts to be abolished, the purchaser/provider split removed, and the link with social care reinstated. By removing competition, services can be provided much more cheaply as the paperwork is slashed and the layers of management removed.

There's loads more I could say, but once the privatisation is done (it only takes the stroke of a pen) people will find that, like all public services that are privatised, the private services are far more expensive.

Look at how well the privatised utility services work for everyone except their shareholders, and see the future of healthcare.

I don't think Lecanamab should be available. Its effects are limited, for the costs involved.