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

Just fyi but you can go to pharmacy now for UTIs .

The current system isn’t working. Millions of pounds wasted on missed appointments and general administrative inefficiency, such as appointment letters arriving after the actual appointment. Ridiculous situation where you have the eight a.m. fight for appointments. Can’t pop in to the surgery to make an appointment, told to go home and phone for one. Repeat prescriptions for drugs that aren’t needed, just left in the cupboard, if they had to be paid for I’m sure people would cancel what they don’t need. We need to look at European health care models. They work well and often have better outcomes. We also need to abolish free prescriptions for the over 60’s. Most 60 year olds have more disposable income than young people, and we expect 20 year olds to pay. If you have a chronic condition which require numerous prescriptions you can purchase an annual payment card which reduces the costs considerably. I say this as someone who is over 60.

Oh good, another poster who wants a health system that would kill me.

Yes I did work for the nhs for a long time. They did try & get us to drop our pension in the 90’s I stayed in. They even tried to change the rules regarding pensions we are still waiting to see the effect of the McCloud remedy & what effect that will have on our pensions. I had no partner to bail me out or children so had to look after myself. You are really the generation above me my mom is above you she got advised to take the married woman’s contribution paying for it now in her 80’s. Women will be more effected if nhs becomes private.

This is the other thing I was going to mention- the NHS gets to such a point where it is simply not fit for purpose and so anyone who can afford to goes private.

I’d also argue that lots of even the top 10% aren’t solely using the NHS anymore (so salary of roughly £60k+), especially at GP level. My husband was unwell earlier this year, ongoing symptoms for weeks and really needed a GP & blood test to figure out what was going on. Called GP, got an appointment for 4 weeks later- that was the next one available. Instead he got a private appointment that same afternoon- in the same practice with the same GP- and for £240 had the appointment and bloods sent off the same day, results back and picked up medication 24 hours later.

We need to get the population healthier. People don’t know how to take care of themselves or their families. Cooking healthy meals for example: I know for people who grew up with cooking, it seems easy and like second nature, but some people simply were not taught. Even when I was skint I managed to eat healthy and get my 5 a day, but that’s because I know how to do it on the cheap, and I only know that because my mum showed me.

I am fundamentally against the NHS being anything other than free at the point of use. I would pay more taxes if needed. I am fundamentally against charging because if this had been in place when I was a child, my mum would probably have died of cancer because she’d have been preoccupied paying for mine and my siblings appointments. Even if children were free, many people (especially women) would go without drs appointments for the sake of their family. Think of how many mums skip dinner to feed their kids, it would be like that but with potentially life saving medical care.

I do agree with maybe charging people who misuse A&E. People who go in for a paper cut or whatever, but I feel like even that targets venerable people. The kind of people who are in A&E two/ three times a week are obviously venerable in some capacity.

There should be fines for missed appointments.

I think GP and A&E should be charged the same since GPs aren’t available 24/7 and they often refer to A&E because they have no appointments left that day.

There should be obvious discounts for patients who need regular monitoring or treatment, children etc

It's a wonderful principle but when the NHS was set up it was a different world.

• Lower population
• Much lower life expectancy, so we didn't have to find the money to look after a large population of elderly people in poor health
• No IVF, next to nothing in the way of fertility treatment
• Most medical specialisms have advanced enormously since then but the operations, treatments and drugs involved are extremely expensive
• Mental health was a taboo subject so people didn't readily admit to having problems and seek NHS help, and if they did they were treated as in-patients in the huge asylums, which are long gone
• People with learning disabilities and many chronic health conditions were also likely to be in 'homes'

What we need but probably won't get is a cross-party commission to look at health and social care from the cradle to the grave - what we should be entitled to expect, and a sustainable model of delivering it and paying for it.

Only if you're under a certain age.

I agree with poster suggesting to raise free prescriptions. 60+ isn’t even retirement age so it’s a weird number. But maybe it’s cheaper to have free prescriptions to encourage people to engage and take their meds than it is to let them get sick because they don’t want to pay and end up needing emergency treatment? I imagine that’s the rationale for free prescriptions in wales?

No. Because people on benefits will no doubt be exempt, the rich can afford it - so those two categories will still book all the appointments they need. People in the middle who don’t receive benefits but struggle to get by with the COL as it is, will avoid going, and serious issues may not be seen until it’s too late.

The problem is the all or nothing aspects of our benefits system and the cost of means testing.

Sadly, at some point we may loose the ability to pay in cash. If all payments are digital it makes it much easier to establish everyone’s total income. IT systems now have more and more data about us. At this point working out a person’s total income and who can and who cannot afford to pay for services will become much easier.

The winter fuel allowance is a good example. Setting the line at those on pension credit was too low. Moving it to £35k is, in my opinion is too high.

Dental prices, even if you are NHS, are high. Dentists should be paid fairly, including the cost of the surgery, materials, staffing etc. Annual check ups are preventative so treatment is given promptly, in the long run this is more cost effective. A tapered payment system based on total income would see some treated for free and others get % reductions.

If you do that, what's going to happen is that you'll have a yard long list of exemptions and the only people who end up paying will be the same ones who are currently propping up the NHS through their taxes.

I simply couldn't afford it if the costs were introduced. I work FT plus an additional PT job and I'm still too squeezed.
Charges being introduced are such a fear of mine. I desperately need to see a dentist with my tooth pain but due to cost I can't. I'd been saving up some money to go but then my fridge dying meant I had to prioritise other things.

I think a token sliding scale for those not on certain benefits would help. If you had to pay say £10 for A&E it might stop lots of the relatively young people in there just being sick. Then those £10 could go set out of hours gp type clinics.

I think the NHS should be strictly for emergencies too. No more thousands spent on sex changes, fertility treatment, cosmetic treatment. If you decide to have another child when you're already being supported with your current then you should receive vouchers for necessities like food etc rather than cash that can be misspent.

I already can’t afford to go to the dentist, so yeah, might as well have to suffer any illnesses that come my way too.

I'd also argue that it's not just the top 1% who are paying for private medicine. I and many of my friends have paid to see private GPs and menopause specialists after being fobbed off repeatedly by the precious, sainted NHS. My 80 year old mum - a former nurse who lives very frugally - has just paid £15k for a hip replacement because the NHS wait was 2.5 years. Lots of people have BUPA or similar cover through work - either for themselves or their family too. Yes you pay an excess but that's per treatment - a few years ago I had my hysterectomy privately and all we paid was £150.

As for the people who say that if the NHS moved to the same model which tehy have in nearly every other country in Europe they would just die, plainly ridiculous.

Prescription charges would be where to start.

2.7 million prescription items a day are dispensed in the UK. That’s 1900 a minute.

89% of prescriptions are dispensed for free in the UK. So of the 1900 prescriptions a minute, 1,691 of those are dispensed for free.

Cut the prescription charge down to £3.50 and make everyone pay it. That’s £6,650 a minute for the NHS, or nearly £9.6 million EVERY DAY.

If you have chronic health issues etc that mean you need constant prescriptions, it’s X amount a month. Tighten free prescriptions to those who genuinely cannot afford them.

I have cancer (meaning I can’t work, I get about £360 a month on ESA, my mortgage alone is £1600). I often get sent to A&E by my oncologist because it’s the fastest way to get my blood checked for sepsis when there is no capacity on the ward or in day assessment. My GP refuses to do any hospital blood tests. £30 or whatever per blood draw would add up fast.

I worked my whole life and hope to be able to work again. I grew up outside the UK in a private insurance system that was payment at point of service. I would gladly continue to pay my high rate taxes to make sure we have a robust, well funded NHS that is free at the point of care for everyone who needs it.

I’ve never looked at these figures in this much detail but if accurate this is really crazy.

I recognise aspects of this and it is inexcusable.

Haven’t rtft so you might have said. Do you mean for everyone or with exemptions, such as?

I could possibly pay it BUT I have a severe asthma. What if I had an attack and had no money? Just die??? I suppose that would save money in the long run…

Think the figures that come up on Google are from 2022, but it’s actually insane. My mum is 63, earns more than I do, but she gets her prescriptions for free!

I appreciate some of the prescription items in here will technically include those prescribed during hospital stays, and operations etc., so it’s a loose working. But it’s a huge drain on the system