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?

You have been "invited" one in a different place to usual. That might make you think it's something additional to usual care and therefore there's a charge for it. It's to reassure you there won't be.

It might also be by a private company who are supporting the NHS short term in order to get waiting lists down. It's to reassure you that there's no charge.

What a lot of comments!

Im talking about 'we' as a country, not individuals

this

What a nightmare! I'd understand if we lived in the middle of the countryside but otherwise it's such a pain isn't it?

why do you say "shit tonne of money a lot of which they waste" - such as?? do you actually have examples or are you parroting the Daily Mail & the right wing parties that want to close the NHS so their friends can step in & make an even bigger fortune?

You get decent healthcare but are too entitled to recognise it & as someone said before, you aren't paying £50 for a steak & got served tripe. You've paid £5 & got access to the best experts in the world. For now.

Javier Milei has tried to prevent civil servants in Argentina from referring to public services as free.

Yes. First of all look up the cost of all the medical nelegence cases against them.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/may/14/nhs-medical-negligence-liabilities-hit-582bn-amid-calls-to-improve-patient-safety

Then you can look at some of the other ways they waste money: https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/insight-and-analysis/blogs/holding-the-nhs-to-account-wasteful-resources

If youre ignorant of facts, maybe you shouldn't take jabs at other people just because they're better informed. And FYI, I actually love the NHS and want to keep it, i would have told you that if you had asked, rather than making nasty assumptions.

https://www.bmj.com/content/384/bmj.q524

“Just be grateful…”

Exactly the reason why the NHS is the way it is.

I was not making "nasty assumptions" but drew conclusions based on your comments. You certainly didn't sound as though you love the NHS & want to keep it. You sounded disparaging & demanding.

I am sick to the back-teeth of people badmouthing the NHS & making drawing their own conclusions that the expenditures you refer to are in the NHS's gift to fix. Underfunding & short staffing will lead to waste & errors.

There simply isn't a "shit tonne" of money going into the NHS in comparison to the demands made on it - but as someone who is so well informed, you will know all of this.

No, you made bigoted assumptions simply because I think the NHS wastes money.
There is no point pouring more money into a broken system, it needs to be fixed and yes, I'm very angry at the way its being run, is that allowed without being branded a right wing capatilist who wants to destroy the NHS?

Maybe try reading the links.

Anyway, I phoned the hospital and have asked them to change my location and they agreed to it so thank you to whoever suggested that.

This!!!!!

Same here. I was diagnosed with ILC (invasive lobular breast cancer) after a routine screening. ILC doesn’t form lumps and has no symptoms in the early stages - it travels flat through the tissues and because tumours are hard to detect on scans they are usually large when diagnosed. I had two - 10cm and 13cm. Didn’t even know they were there. If it hadn’t been for the mammogram I wouldn’t be telling the tale.

Mammograms and bowel screenings in our area are done via a private health care company, contracted to the NHS. They stress that these services are free simply because their logo is on the letterhead, and they don’t want people to assume it’s a private service and they’ll have to pay.

Your NI contributions don’t begin to cover what breast screening costs. And yes. Be grateful that you have access to life saving screening services that many women in other countries have to pay for, as well as treatment following a diagnosis - meaning that many die if they can’t afford it. The entitlement on this thread is utterly breathtaking.

They are trying to cut waiting lists, so offer people the first appointment (which can be further from you geographically), you can always turn it down/arrange at another NHS facility. But yes they probably will privatise elements of NHS treatment.

I wonder what would happen if appointments were free - but you were charged if you had confirmed an appointment and then failed to show... It happens to a lof of our clinic appointments...

Well first of all, you’d need to be 100% sure that the patient had received their appointment. And that it was clear.

Because just now, people don’t receive their appointment letters or tgey arrive late.
ive had ‘text confirmation’ sent with no indication what it was for etc….

Otherwise, yes. Thars exactly what HCP, (but also hairdressers etc etc…) do in private practice.

It may not be free for long. Depends on how the GPs vote. There is talk of introducing a means tested scheme similar to dentists. I'm looking forward to not being able to go to the dentist or the doctor.

It’s never going to happen. No party proposing it would get a sniff of power.

They are just trying to reduce any perceived barriers to people being able to have access to screening.. I actually cannot believe you have a problem with this rather than think how fortunate we are to have access to FREE AT THE POINT OF CONTACT healthcare... Complain by all means but YABU and you know it.

some people pay no tax and are still entitled to it. All « free » stuff comes out of taxation. Someone somewhere has to pay for everything

Yabu. It's worded that way to encourage people to take up the scan which might be worried they have to pay.