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?

it’s people like you who contribute to the failure of the health service with your genuflecting acceptance and complete lack of questioning.

Look at every single European health service before you start admonishing.

Germany, France, Sweden and Austria spend more on healthcare as a percentage of GDP and patients still have to contribute. It’s an irrefutable fact that services like screening are more accessible here.

Are they?

Like fuck they are mire accessible.

How long are the waiting lists? Months for every singe thing.

Not for every single thing. When you’re really ill the NHS is amazingly fast, even investigations are fast now - my colonoscopy was done six weeks after referral. No waiting lists at all for screening.

I live in a country with a mostly free health service (we do pay for some things) and I have never encountered this attitude of "we are paying for it" (which of course we are, via our taxes) so prevalent on MN. I agree with the pp that Brits do seem to be very entitled. All this talk of how posters have "paid for the NHS" - unless you are an extremely high earner I doubt the majority have paid nearly enough for the care received.

Incidentally, our free health care system was set up before the NHS was!

This is where we seem to be going atm. ‘Be grateful for your free mammogram’, ‘Be grateful you get a (rare these days) face to face appointment with your GP’ ‘Be grateful they offer you a scan for your gynae problem (even if you have to wait six months)’.

Whether we’re paying for it or not through our taxes is irrelevant. The NHS is, and always has been, a free service accessible to all, and just because it’s free, it doesn’t mean we should accept crap service. It used to be run pretty efficiently a few decades ago. If the government no longer want it to be free, then let them say so. It’s either free, or it isn’t. Personally, I think the NHS is no longer fit for purpose, and I think at least some of it should be privatised. I’d happily pay something to get a half decent service, as long as everyone else pays too.

Ours are in Morrisons car park. I thought that was standard.

I work in service delivery for public sector and I don’t like saying free either I prefer fully funded to show that it does actually cost taxpayer money so please don’t waste it!

No, it doesn't mean you should accept crap service, if that's what you are having to accept, but people like the OP whining about something so trivial is just pathetic, and the very definition of "entitled".

The first example of waste on that Kings article is waste of medicines ie people not taking what they are prescribed which is substantially
the fault of the end user.

The 2nd and 3rd are energy and single use PPE. The only one even vaguely in control of individual clinicians or even middle managers is the PPE. The energy is down to lack of infrastructure investment and old buildings.

The steak is more like you paid £50 expecting steak, actually got some roast chicken and so did the homeless guy begging outside.

This is said about the 30 hours childcare for under 5’s! It really yanks my chain! It’s not free it’s funded! And quite frankly it’s not funded properly!!

When I went to the gp with suspected breast cancer I was referred and seen by a specialist diagnostic team for a full raft of tests within 2 weeks. My treatment was actioned immediately on diagnosis. There are waits for elective surgery. People with life threatening illnesses are seen quickly. I received prompt lifesaving treatment free at the point of delivery by caing staff.

I value the NHS. There are issues, but healthcare that is free at the point at delivery and available to all is precious.

This thread is about a complete non-issue. Someone didnt like the use of the word 'free' (i wish this was the biggest problem in my life) and had a screening appointment in an inconvenient location. A simple phone call moved it. There was no problem. The fact is that all women can access free screening here. That isnt the case in all countries. It is a good thing.

Good for you, but this is an exception rather than the norm for the NHS.

And the thread was about the incorrect use of ‘free’ which is there to make service users feel gratitude and make them less likely to complain about bad service. It’s sad so many posters fall for it.

Odd. Two of us have experienced the same thing. A cancer diagnosis shows the NHS at its absolute best.

I’ve been in and out of hospital at least twice a year for surgeries and treatments due to congenital spinal disability. The latest was for a breast cancer diagnosis. Sorry but I don’t find great treatment the exception rather than the norm, and speaking specifically of the cancer diagnosis and treatment, I doubt I would have received a higher standard of treatment anywhere. I realise of course, that everyone has their own experience but sweeping generalisations like this aren’t helpful.

And the use of ‘free’ isn’t necessarily incorrect. As has been pointed out several times, in different areas of the country, services like mammogram and bowel cancer screening are carried out by private companies contracted to the NHS. I have received two recently, and both have made it clear that the service offered is part of the NHS and free at the point of delivery.

'Fall for it'?
I received life saving treatment. It was free at the point of delivery. I'd be dead without it.
Not one member of NHS staff ever implied I should be grateful for treatment. Not one. Instead they were caring & compassionate about how shit having cancer is. They made every hospital visit as good as it could be.
No one would suggest the NHS is without problems, but it is important to acknowledge positive experiences.

This thread is about a complete non-issue. Using the word 'free' to describe a service that is free at the point of delivery is not something to worry about

Couldn’t agree more. My cancer was diagnosed as a result of routine screening. I had a call back letter within two days and an appointment within five days of the original mammogram. Saw a consultant a week later and was on a treatment program and monitored every month on tumour shrinking medication until surgery later that year. Have been monitored regularly ever since and now have regular yearly mammograms as well as a full body CT to check for spread of the original tumour. I couldn’t fault the staff or the treatment, and I’m very grateful the screening service is on offer because without it, I would undoubtedly be dead by now.

Totally agree. MN is ultra hypocritical at times. You only have to look at any thread discussing benefits to see them being described as ‘free handouts’ when in fact they are paid for from NI/taxation in the same way as NHS treatment which people on this thread are saying is not ‘free’ because we all pay for it out of taxation. Well you can’t have it both ways, so which is it ?

I’m grateful for my ‘free’ mammogram. I had no idea I had an advanced breast cancer until I was screened. Without it I’d be dead. And I guarantee you that everyone posting in the same way as you have here would feel differently if it happened to them.

I see so much criticism of services on MN that I don’t hear in real life when it comes to mammogram. Everything from not wanting a male radiographer , embarrassment at being uncovered, to complaints as to why they have to flatten your boobs to do the scan. When you receive a cancer diagnosis, all of those complaints suddenly disappear and are replaced by one overwhelming thought - Is this going to kill me ? Now we have the non issue of the scan being described as ‘free’. Which it is, at the point of delivery, as with every other NHS provision.

I agree with this. My recent invitation for a breast screening contained the same language. I wrote to the sender and politely noted that the screening service was not free but free at the point of delivery having been centrally funded by taxation. I asked if they would reconsider the language used. I didn't get a reply.

However there was a booking link which allowed me to make an appointment at my convenience. I chose a local hospotal which never used to be an option and it was a much more professional, confidential and dignified experience than I had previously encountered in the mobile vans. Therefore I left a five star review.

I do think the association between "free" and sub standard services for which wenare expected to be grateful needs to be addressed. The NHS is not free and to imply otherwise is dishonest.

IME these letters/emails are worded so that all levels of competence can understand them. The word ‘free’ is what stops a lot of people binning or ignoring these communications because, as mentioned ad nauseam upthread, many of these services are contracted out by the NHS to private companies, and at first glance appear to be offering private medicine.

I think the NHS probably has higher priorities to allocate resources to than replying to such letters.

I take your point but wish they would manage their resources better. I've recently had three letters for the same appointment, which is also in the app. And don't get me started on EDI directors.

Only yesterday I missed a call from my local hospital. The caller did not leave their name or what it was about. They were checking I'd go for bloods before an infusion. The bloods are booked on their system - it isn't rocket science to expect them to check the system. I called back, the person who answered had to find put who had called and ring me back. The inefficiency is unspeakable.

Obviously we all pay towards the NHS but the point is , it’s free at the point of delivery, you don’t have to get your credit card or insurance policy out before the ambulance can pick you up or prove you can afford the hip replacement and subsequent rehabilitation or even pay to repair to fix the botched surgery that wasn’t free. Sometimes it’s also good to know that these screening services are there and offered, I’ve just had one for triple a screening, didn’t know they did it but not going to turn something down that could potentially save my life