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

And if someone is in the care of the police, be it for MH or arrest, they are not wasting police time. The police are literally doing their job in those instances.

The only people advocating for such a change are either A, financially secure, or B, they would benefit from such a change, normally in a financially beneficial way to them.

The old 'I'm okay, Jack', I can afford £15-20 quid for a GP appointment, is mental.

I could afford to pay to see a GP and have done so privately for my children over the years. Last appointment was just shy of £200, and that was years ago. We are lucky to have private medical now. But I'd never vote to remove such freedoms and access to FREE healthcare from anyone. Where would you draw the line?

A couple of takeaways here for people who spout off saying crap like I pay enough in NI etc etc - take a real look at how much of your NI goes towards funding the NHS, I think it's between 20-25%.

Let's take a salary of 65k per year. Your NI would be approximately £3300 per year. We shall go on the higher side of 25% contributions towards the NHS, so that's £825 towards the NHS.

An uncomplicated vaginal birth in the UK costs the NHS approx £2250, that's not including visits for scans, extra night in hospital for baby if needed - NICU charges are anywhere between £1000-2000 per day (and that is NHS cost!) That is a straightforward, no-nonsense birth.

Now, look into private costs in the UK, anywhere from £6000+. Again, that's assuming no 'extras' are needed. Induction, that's £500 please, need an epidural, that's another £1000 please, need an extra night in hospital - can you sign this blank cheque please.

Anyone who thinks they pay more into the NHS than they take out is delusional and should probably visit one of the 50 or so mental NHS Trusts dotted across the UK and ask for some medication - if they can afford the visit, that is!

I didn't mention asylum seekers.

Do you drink OP. I bet that's what caused your kidney stones, guzzling back wine no doubt and wasting A and E time.

(Not nice to be judged by people who know nothing about you is it?)

I hope you are feeling better now and wish you well.
drunk abusive behaviour overweight people not looking after themselves is not helping hard working dedicated staff and an overstretched valuable service.

No I don’t drink

Not really the point I was making but while I'm here can I direct you to the quote button at the bottom of each post. Click on that and then you can reply directly to a particular post, otherwise it isn't clear who you are responding to.

We need to do away with free prescriptions, for all but chronic conditions. And stop them prescribing things like paracetamol that can be bought over the counter.

I wonder what our GPs do to justify their pay. The pharmacy deals with many minor ailments. The surgery triage nurse sends lots to A&E when phoning to make an appointment, before even getting to the surgery. Or else to the nurse practitioner .

The doctor, if you get to see him, refers to a hospital consultant. I’ve been registered with a practice for 8 years and never yet met a GP ..Even when hospital A&E referred me to a cardiologist, I never saw one…cardiologist just emailed the GP who sent a prescription to the pharmacist and phoned me to tell me that’s what he’d done so I knew to collect it.

We’re not a rich country any more. We’re up to our necks in debt. There is no money.

My kidney stones were caused by a vitamin d & calcium supplement I was choosing to take. So as it was personal choice, I should pay for the A&E according the that previous poster ;)

I'm not sure people have thought out the "people who visit with self inflicted illness should pay" thing!

That isn’t the case. If you get private healthcare it isn’t carried out during the doctor’s NHS sessions. My cataract surgery was carried out in the early evening after the surgeon had finished his NHS shift.

I can answer some of this for you.

Trusts: Each hospital Trust is basically a self run business, responsible for their own business as it were. So they receive their funding, and it is down to them how it is used and spent (this is very low level and not quite that simple).

Prescriptions: You can have all prescribed medications listed on the NHS app. This access can be arranged by your GP surgery. Other individual apps can (such as My Care or Patient Knows Best) can also feed into the NHS app if you give permissions. It's very handy and I have used when away from home having forgotten my medication.

One system: One part is - see Trusts. Each trust etc being an individual entity. Patient Information Systems are HUGE money (huge) and to move the entire country to one system would cost billions.
Another part is - this is something the NHS wants. But the public actually rose up against it. They don't want their information shared between hospitals and health care providers. There was a huge outcry about it. There IS the Spine though, which has your basic data, all prescribed medication and diagnoses on, as well as which hospitals you are currently receiving treatment at. All NHS clinicians can view the Spine, and all patient information systems currently used the NHS pull Spine information into the patients local care record.
If you are receiving treatment within the same Trust, they would be able to see all of your upcoming appointments within that Trust, but they wouldn't be able to see them outside of the Trust. This information isn't recorded in the Spine.

Bar codes: This is something some hospitals do. The bigger, fancier patient information systems work with this. So all medication, the patient and the bed they are in is recorded with a simple bar code. It's fantastic but expensive.

If you need appointments outside of work time, or not at pick up time, it's simply the responsibility of the patient to mention this.

Yes but they can only work a limited number of hours and so the more private work they do the less NHS work they do. A doctor doing private care isnt going to be doing NHS overtime. Also there are nurses, anesthetist etc as well.

Never apologise for being a career. It's an important job that requires a multi-faceted skill set. Be proud of what you do and demand the level of respect you so richly deserve - without carers the country would be in a far worse state than it already is - I salute you!

Nail on the head with all that. Complete absence of integration and joined up thinking must be costing billions and worsening outcomes for patients.

My OH has a nightmare with his ongoing cancer treatment as the GP surgery and oncology dept (just 5 miles apart) don't have any kind of "common" database nor information sharing. Oncologist regularly tells him to "ask his GP" for a prescription for a new (non cancer) drug or a scan/blood test, as she won't/can't do it herself, but can't "ping" through a request to the GP either. Then, of course, it's a nightmare contacting the GP, no appointments available, receptionist takes a message but they never get back to him, etc etc.

Same when the oncologist referred him to a more specialist hospital for a potential stem cell transplant. The new consultant hadn't a clue about the history - all he had was a single A4 paper letter referral with no test results, no summary of treatments to date, etc., so wanted to do everything again, including bone marrow sample, full skeletal x-ray, mri and ct scans, blood tests etc - what a monumental waste of time and money to repeat things already done in a different hospital in the same county!!

GP's are cutting down their NHS shifts so that they can do "day" shifts for private work, that's why so many are now part time, some of the ones in our GP surgery are only working one day per week.

Actually, a lot do.

All NHS consultants are contractually obliged to offer an additional PA (10% overtime) to their NHS employer to be allowed pay progression before they can undertake private work. This means for the large part only consultants way into their careers (14 years, top of payscale) work less than full time and do private work.

For context, I'll be 54 by the time i hit the top of my payscale. Not that I do any private operating since the insured fees are derisory, and nobody could afford what I do via self pay.

I don't think that's the main reason. Their days are very long so 3 days a week is probably knackering enough, especially if they have kids.

So working like dentists, because that's going swimmingly?

My dentist is in the next town over its going really well!

No I don’t drink

Anyone who is in favour of privitisation and payments is sick and twisted.

The NHS is the best bloody thing about this country. Keep your filthy mits off it.

Or £10 a month if you have a pre-payment thingy. Anyone can get one of those.

Yes, especially those who think you should especially be charged for self inflicted things.

I have been the overweight woman in the waiting room, eating something that was not a salad or a Slimfast shake. At that time, I was there because I broke my foot. Was nothing to do with my weight at all. You just got a tiny snapshot of that woman's life and decided she was there for self inflicted reasons, or there because she was obese.

When I am in A&E, I don't give a shit about the other people there.