NHS now saying stuff is free.

[MixMaxChop]

Dear Mrs Chop

Welcome to NHS breast screening. We would like to invite you for your free mammograms. We have made you an appointment in a hospital that is not local to you in the arse end of a city that does not have any access from the railway station and parking is strictly limited and none of your previous mammograms have ever been in this city before but that’s not the point.

Free??

A) it isn’t free. My NHS contributions have paid for this many times over.

B) Surely “free” is the whole point of the NHS

C) are they craftily prepping us to have to start paying for services now in a stealth move to privatise the NHS?

Ah yes! The old tripe about the only alternative to the NHS being the USA system. No mention of Australia, Canada nor European systems that work perfectly well and are affordable.

Oh rubbish. There’s a whole service called PALs who invite feedback on services. There’s no need to doth your cap. It’s fine to have an adult communication.

In the case of Europe most countries cost the taxpayer more as well as being part funded by co payments. It’s a funny definition of affordable.

They are for real complaints. Not silliness like this. But by all means clog the service with this rubbish.

The NHS works to its own mythical agenda. It’s a overfunded inefficient monolith. 🙄

No. They are not just for ‘complaints’, they are there to actually avoid this as complaints ARE time consuming, costly and don’t help the person in the moment. They are there to improve patient experience and feedback is part of this. They can take feedback,
acknowledge in a quick mail and pass it on to the group/department who can action it - if they choose.

now, this will really flabbergast you and all the others who are happy to bow and scrape and be ‘ever so grateful sir’; there’s even a publicly funded group called ‘health watch’ whose whole raison d’etre is do exactly that, take feedback on the nhs. One of the recent topics they have been investigating is hospital parking but they will also accept feedback.

Agree it's to boost uptake. A useful example of why that's a good idea.

My friend's husband from a SE Asian nation with very limited healthcare recently kept quiet about bloody poo for months. When he finally admitted what was happening he said he'd delayed seeking help as he was terrified the treatment would bankrupt the family.

It's so ingrained in his mind that you pay for healthcare. Poor guy has been through surgery, they've now discovered secondary in two other places.

That's why it's a good idea to be explicit that you don't pay.

absolute nonsense. Another Daily Mail reader who has been fortunate to have good health I assume

I thought Sarah Palin had wandered onto the thread....

personally I don't mind people criticising their experiences of the NHS - there is a lot that isn't right. The thing I find objectionable are the sweeping statements.... "the NHS is crap" ""overfunded" blah blah blah. Don't do the hard work for the parties that want to dismantle the NHS & then let their best friends make a shit ton of money from health care (see covid mask & PPE farce which Johnsons friends making a killing)

what makes you think she hasn't

If you don't like the NHS there's no reason you can't choose an alternative. The NHS is funded from general taxation, like education and roads, so you don't personally pay anything for it. I personally object to my taxes paying for grifters like Fartage and Tice but that's the price of living in a democracy.

This isn't true.

There are lots of things you can't get privately for health in the UK.

Unless you live in the right area (I believe there's now three in England) you simply can't go private for maternity services.

If you choose private care you can travel to a location where it’s available. I don’t suppose The Portland cares where you live.

Fartage? Really? What age are you... Who's Tice supposed to be, by the way...?

Richard Tice, deputy leader of Reform.

It’s ‘free at the point of use.’
We all know it’s paid for by the taxpayer.

So go private as opposed to simply offer some feedback? That’s proportionate isn’t it? Good luck with travelling to that private a&e.

The trouble with some feedback is that it is based on ignorance.

If the voting public elect Reform, it very soon won't be free whether we've contributed or not and noamount of current NI contributions will be enough to cover insurance. Add to tat we'll all need savings to cover any excess. It's going to be an even bigger shit show that where the Tories have put us.

feedback by its very nature is based on opinion and perception. This whole thread is about how different people perceive information. A decent service provider will always welcome feedback. The NHS invites feedback via PALs and Healthwatch - the latter you may be interested to know has a report called ‘cervical screening my way’;
there’s a reason the title isn’t ‘get screened and be grateful you fools’. @MixMaxChop hasn’t invented a malicious story or accused a member of staff of something. She’s not gunning for compensation or a dismissal. She has simply shared her thoughts - thoughts that many others agree with.

This I’m afraid. I’ve had recent treatment for two life threatening illnesses - one of them being cancer. I agree that not all experiences are the same but I couldn’t fault the the speed and efficiency of the treatment and the support I received from the staff involved. I think there are a lot of in appropriate sweeping generalisations here and many posters just jumping on the bandwagon rather than speaking from personal experience, which is a shame. The assumption that everyone has the same level of understanding and the rejection of the notion that the word ‘free’ is to reassure and improve uptake is typical of MN.

That’s been our experience too. Cancer treatment is the NHS at its stellar best.

"Free" and "Chocolate" are the two words that draw readers attention right away "Sex" works too, but not as much.

Jiggle that into an invite for NHS services.

No shit Sherlock. Of course we know that. But in this day and age all kinds of things drop through your letterbox from private healthcare companies offering various screenings at a cost.. There is also the really arrogant assumption that everyone who receives these letters will have the same level of comprehension. The use of the word ‘free’ simply distinguishes NHS treatment and makes it clear that there is no cost to the end user - hopefully improving the uptake of the services offered and ensuring that the letters don’t end up in the bin because people think they have to pay. This is a total non issue.