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?

Be fucking grateful?

Yeah, shut up woman and be grateful for a service you are funding when is functions, because more often than not it does not.

This thread really shows how entitled many Brits are when it comes to healthcare. They take it for granted, not bothering to cancel appointments and just no showing up, and here moaning because they've used the word 'free' when they have to pay to travel there.

Honestly, it's really poor taste when you think of the numbers of ladies who die of breast cancer in countries when mammograms are payable.

They're just trying to encourage people to go...and that's why they're doing it in the arse end of nowhere. What does accessabily matter?! 🙄

We pay for it, a shit tonne of money a lot of which they waste. Other countries medical services are irrelevant, we're entitled to decent health care.

If you paid £50 for a steak in a resturant and were served tripe, would you accept it because in some countires, people could never afford a steak, or is that completely irrelevant to the service you have paid for?

I agree with you about cancelling appointments etc, but people are absolutely entitled to complain.

I am an EU citizen and when I went to first hospital appointment my first question was that how much was this. In my country you pay low fee for every appointment.

Just had travel vaccinations (for Morocco) free at GP

I would also imagine this might be helpful to people new to the UK who are not used to health checks being free?

I’ve not paid a shit ton of money compared to the treatment received and I’ve been a high earner for ever, without until last year much need for the NHS.

But

Two child births
One Ruptured Achilles requiring surgery
Triple negative breast cancer

It was probably much more cost efficient than having to pay for all of the above.

Not everything NHS is free though. Prescriptions, eye tests and dental checks are charged in some places. Makes sense to make it as clear as possible to encourage more people to get themselves seen

As others have suggested, it seems to be that they mean free at the point of use and they want to make sure that no one is out off attending because of worries about paying.

Every missed appointment costs the NHS money so they’re probably highlighting its free so people attend

This link from Feb says 63% of women attended their first screening in 24/25, which is a 10-year high. The woman interviewed specifically says it’s free, so maybe some people thought it wasn’t free (like how most people have to pay for NHS dental checkup) and that was a barrier to them attending their mammogram.

Even if it’s not technically free because we pay for it in other ways, I’m not sure that matters in the wording of a letter. If you asked the council about bin collections, I don’t know if they’d say “you don’t have to pay separately for this service but it’s not technically free because you’ve paid for it in tax” they would probably just say there’s no charge, it’s free.

Can’t comment on the inaccessible location though, that sounds really annoying.

https://www.england.nhs.uk/2026/02/women-attending-first-nhs-mammogram-hits-10-year-high-as-thousands-more-cancers-found/

This place is in such an obscure location, wedged between a chicken shop and a Tesco Metro down an alley way that they send you a link which takes you to an actual photo of the doorway! I used to have to walk 5 mins to my health centre for my blood tests, i now have to pencil out a morning, it must be really difficult if you have to organise childcare or book a chunk of time off work.

oh dear god. Yes you are being sooooo unreasonable. I don't think there is any harm in reminding people that they will not need to pay for the mammogram in addition to their taxes.

Your whinging about having to go to a hospital that isn't local to you is so....... grrrrrrr........ I don't even have the words. Do you understand that having a centre for the scans on every street corner comes at a price & that maybe centralising them means that it can continue to be free?? (for clarity, free as in doesn't cost any more that you already pay in taxes). Or is this not about making best use of NHS money but making sure that you as an individual isn't inconvenienced. 😭

You're right to be concerned about the risk of the NHS being privatised & it will be if people insist on having home visits for mammograms or if Trumps-mini-me gets his way. If the latter, then you will absolutely have to re-mortgage your house for a mammogram if they haven't been banned by the misogynists

No, MPs said NHS should and Palantir said they would not back out because they're committed to the contract and the results their involvement have created.

They are trying to encourage people to go to breast screening. It is free to you at the point of service.

Some travel vaccinations are available on the NHS others are not.

see here for details:

https://www.nhs.uk/vaccinations/travel-vaccinations/

Can you phone the breast screening service and ask for an appointment more local to you? There are 2 hospitals in my region, one 15 minutes away and the other an hour away. They often send me appointments for ultrasounds in hospital 2 and if I phone I can change them to hospital 1,

All health systems are so different I can understand people being unsure whether treatment is free at the point of use. In a lot of countries you pay at least something for certain scans and claim back. Others you must pay.

Some NHS treatment isn’t entirely free - dental one of the main ones.

even if you are British it might be a bit confusing. Sometimes to get waiting lists down the NHS uses private hospitals so if you just google that tit may not be obvious it is free.

As regard tax for me as an individual the NHS is in a sense free. I earn and pay tax and NI but not consistently due to illness. I pay VAT. I will never be able to pay enough tax to cover my cost to thevNHS for the complex treatment I’ve had, never mind the everyday scans, eye tests etc.

i could at a pinch add in time I missed with my parents both doctors often doing overtime with a trip to the cinema interrupted and me sitting in the car while they saw a patient.

We all pay taxes etc in other countries
too but still have to pay to see a doctor.

It IS free.

just phone em and ask where they do them and choose one near you to suit. I can even do this via the NHS ap in my area

Ffs. Maybe research told them that some women (who weren't in the know) didn't realiae they were free at the point of provision. I would bet money that I know who you will be voting for in the next election.

The core problem is a lot of people - some who identify as being smart - equate "free" with "worthless".

A distinction that a previous boss drilled into sales staff by insisting that when they completed a sale (which was for a software system with training) rather than putting the training down as "free" they put it down as "£5,000" with a "£5,000" discount on the contract.

All of a sudden businesses started allowing their staff to attend the training with a 200% reduction in support costs.

Nothing is free. Ever.

We pay for it, a shit tonne of money a lot of which they waste. Other countries medical services are irrelevant, we're entitled to decent health care
Haha, many are not paying a penny towards it and many who pay a massive amount hardly use it. We ARE getting a very decent health care, only the Brits think they don't.

Making a fuss over the use of one word and moaning because a preventive measure is not available right next to them is massively disproportionate.

Using your analogy, it's paying £5 for a £50 steak and expecting a £100 one!

Is the NHS using a private company to supply this service in this case?

If it's at a private scanning centre then I think it's important that they reiterate that it will be free on the day.