We need to start charging for NHS services

[Fragmentedbrain]

£15 for the GP
£20 for A&E
NHS routes to paid-for fast track treatment
Options to pay for nicer rooms

We need to stop putting working people on disability benefits for want of a functioning health service it's barbaric

While I agree, the trouble with having it free for UC recipients is it will swing the balance even further in the direction of it not being worth working. A motability car and free gp appointments when someone working as a cleaner doesn’t get either? The unintended consequences will
be massive.

I would expect better service if I had to pay. Pay extra anyway.

Because I already have have to pay. Once in tax then again in insurance and cash to make sure I get proper medical care because the NHS can’t manage it.

The NHS can provide shit care and a shit service because they know people mostly have no choice.

Bit of competition might change that though.

All these people with health conditions really don’t need to see a GP every 2 weeks. No wonder the rest of us cannot get an appointment. Most health can be monitored by other health professionals and obviously a view needs to be taken on exemptions.

Don’t we pay for it already with our taxes?

We already pay via taxation. And I’m pretty sure it went up a few years ago specifically for the nhs.

Plus we also pay for;
Prescriptions
Dental charges, including emergency

We already get a barrage of abuse if patients turn up late and we can’t ’squeeze them in’. Charging for a DNA would just magnify the problem and put busy staff under even more pressure to see late attenders, usually to their own detriment ie, missing lunch, getting off late, running even further behind.

Those suggesting prices like £10 or £15 for a GP appointment are living in a strange bubble. If a charge is introduced it would be much more than that. £70 or £80 at least.

And a refundable deposit scheme? An administrative nightmare.

It will mean people going sick, and getting worse because they can't afford to see a doctor.

It would affect people on low wages with disabilities and chronic illnesses in a dreadful way and would be ableist.

Penalising the most vulnerable in society for both being sick and being poor. Which are inherently linked.

Private means run for profit. I pay the council for a parking permit, I pay TFL for a tube ticket, doesn’t mean they are private services.

Portugal has an NHS but you have to pay a fee for appointments.

If we want a healthcare system we have to pay for it, currently we are not paying enough. Somebody has to so why not the people who are actually using it.

For which you could get a private one.

Which I suppose is the point - reduces pressure on NHS.

So the NHS will be for those that can afford to do that and get it for free in some way.

The thing is not to “pay” for the GP but to discourage people who decide they fancy seeing a doctor for a chat because they’re bored / lonely and also discouraging people from not bothering to show up when they’ve decided they CBA to get out of bed or are too hungover or have something more fun to do. £10 is 2 pints. Most people do have £10 if they’re ill. And if they don’t and are on benefits, they don’t pay.

The Channel Islands have £40 odd charges for a GP appt and very few time wasters.

We have just waited 6 months for psycho therapy, which will now begin 9 months post referral. If we had known the wait, and known who to go to we would have paid, even if it meant selling something, as it is super urgent. We also would have happily paid eg an NHS practitioner who was willing to do it in overtime whilst we got to the top of the list.

I would definitely support a third option, call it NHS fastrack or whatever. It would ultimately speed the current NHS wait lists and is needed. I don’t think it would create a hierarchy of care that isn’t already apparent. There is already a massive difference between those who pay for private care and those who cannot. I can’t afford private healthcare but am grateful for all those who do, for easing the burden from the NHS!

They could make a start by charging international visitors for healthcare like we have to if we go abroad . Also charge for missed appointments, I know people will bang on about poor , disabled , vulnerable etc but you can’t finance a society by the minority .

This level of fee would cost more to administer than we'd raise.

Not if your GP is the one moonlighting as your private GP?
What incentive do they have to get through the requests for appointments?

I've had 2 GP surgeries who've both had from time to time walk in waits. They work - because you get a constant stream of people to see and those ill enough to wait will.

We also need to start charging the NHS for every appointment cancelled at short notice.
My husband has been struggling with a health condition this year, and twice in quick succession he's been cancelled on for key specialist appointments with an hour's notice.
He's a self employed subcontractor, so every appointment means a day of lost wages (£250),and he's prepared himself mentally and physically for 24 hours on the lead up.
Every time he has an appointment, he's given vague information by text about the appointment location. He calls to find out more, but noone answers the phone. He therefore arrives at the hospital 30 minutes early to figure out where on earth he's supposed to go. All of the hospital staff are clueless, as he's sent to multiple different departments to find the right one. He then has his appointment, gets home, and several days later the letter arrives with the detailed information about his appointment - after the fact.
If you were vulnerable or not particularly intelligent or capable, you'd be utterly lost.

Of course we do. Just like every other country on the planet. You are either covered by your employer if working, if too old/young/disabled to be working, the state covers it. Things which are "free" are not valued.

I am sick to the back teeth of this fetishisation of the NHS - it's the envy of the world, other countries are jealous of it, we need to chuck more and more money at it, clap for the NHS, all the "angels" who work there.

Just stop. The whole system is broken beyond repair and unsustainable.

And what are people supposed to do if they can't afford the sums you've quoted? Die, potentially?

Your so-called proposal is also lacking in logic. You want working people who need PIP (presumably that's the benefit you mean) to be unable to access it and you want them to have to pay for medical assistance??

About 4 in 10 people have a chronic condition in the uk, often these result in loss of earning power in a family.
charging for healthcare will exacerbate this and be ultimately more expensive.
Any children impacted by the charges will end up in an even worse cycle of poverty, illness and deprivation.

It's been happening for years now, first they took away prescriptions for things like calpol for children, then it was certain podiatry treatments, then unblocking/suctioning ear treatments, then NHS dentistry was affected... it will keep on like that slowly removing services.

People can't afford private dentistry now, people are pulling their own teeth, covid lockdowns were used as a method to remove a majority of NHS patients due to people not seeing them for 1yr, it won't ever roll back now.

Excellent idea. I am constantly perplexed by the dispensers at my GP surgery getting excited by my using the pay machine..... I seem to be the only one in the village who pays for prescriptions!

So, too many exemptions, too many time wasters, people don't turn up. I have a chronic condition but haven't seen my GP for years, I get the odd call or text, and an annual blood test.

I am paying for DD to go to a private GP. Would much prefer to pay for access to our own NHS GP.

Such lazy thinking.

Everyone bangs on about how wonderful the nordic countries are - how equal, how socially liberal, how amazing. Costs 240 Norwegian krone to see a GP which is about £17.50. 16 euros for a 10 minute appointment in the Netherlands. 30 euros in Germany.

Are 40% of German/Dutch/Norwegian families unable to work because of some chronic condition? Hardly.

Yeah I agree - in my country we have a similar system - everyone is happy. There is no strain, no shortage, everyone who needs to be seen, is seen. It will never happen here tho - this country won’t allow it.

You are being extremely unreasonable the point of the NHS is it is free at the point of entry.
Before the NHS people dies because they couldn't afford to see the doctor. The same will apply again if charging is introduced
Those fees might not seem much to you but many people would struggle to find the money and would rather remain sick than spend the money they planned to spend on food on a trip to the doctor

You are being extremely unreasonable the point of the NHS is it is free at the point of entry.

The point is - that that ethos of making it free for everyone is unsustainable, unaffordable and would have been fine in 1948 but not now. Societies change.