NHS plans to charge for hospital stays

[kathleen567]

www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/jul/24/charge-patients-for-hospital-stays-to-help-fund-nhs-says-report?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

Looks like plans to charge patients for their stays in hospital on top of rising living costs/energy bills. Thoughts?

I've always thought that having more "clinics" would be a good start, i.e. like they have in several Med countries, basically "walk in" centres on street corners which deal with all the basic/simple stuff, like prescribing basic meds/antibiotics, basic wound dressing, minor x-rays, blood tests, etc. That would remove a massive burden from GP surgeries and A&E where you have highly experienced & highly qualified senior nurses/doctors (and expensive), doing pretty minor and tedious low skilled work and give them the time to concentrate on the more serious/complicated work that they've spent several years to train for.

We also need more NHS departments being "self contained", a kind of "one stop shop" rather than having several departments involved for simple things. Like when I first needed hearing aids - it was multiple appointments with different people across three different buildings (in fact 3 different towns), before I finally walked out with hearing aids - taking a total of 6 months between my first GP appointment to get the ball rolling and finally getting them!

When my OH needed them, he went to Specsavers - in and out, consultation, hearing test, issue of hearing aids, all within an hour in a single appointment. That HAS to be cheaper and less resources used than the disjointed NHS system!

Bit of a scaremongering thread title there. Its a suggestion by someone who has no say in what happens or in policy changes

I’d be fucked. On a bad year I can have around 200 stays.

Due to complications during my hysterectomy I had to stay 10 days and required additional and ongoing surgeries which all require a stay. Wonder if I’d be charged under these circumstances of the proposal was to go through.

Your state pension is not stopped. If you claim Attendance Allowance or DLA or certain other benefits, after 28 days in hospital these are stopped. We need to repay attendance allowance for when my late DM was in hospital for over 3 months. Waiting to hear still.

I believe when you go into a nursing home some of your state pension is stopped as we looked into this scenario and you get to keep a tiny proportion as spending money.

To the original op, self financing is slowly creeping in..

So if Tories privatise, its awful.
When Labour privatise, its mad not to.

Show me, other than a guardian article or opinion piece, where the tories say that they want to abolish the nhs.

No, that is not what I am saying. Do trying to engage brain.

Some privatisation is fine, because the contracts are beneficial in both directions and the standard of care goes down. Some privatisation is not fine because the contract is financially unsuitable and the standard of care is lower.

Regarding Tories want to privatise the NHS, look at the comments of some senior Tories e.g. Raab. It is not a secret they favour a private health care system.

I wouldn't trust the Tories not to charge for NHS stays. It would add to anxiety for some patients who would have trouble paying and many poor patients would avoid treatment - a neat way of reducing the backlog. But the Tories are disgusting enough to do it in line with their small state/ privatisation schemes. Next up: charging refugees to be deported to Rwanda.

I've just remembered the idea of charging for NHS stays was touted as 'hotel costs' during the Thatcher government but never happened.

Being rude doesn't win you an argument. It's just being rude.

That is exactly what you said.
Labour privatised. To be expected.
Tories privatise. It's not safe in their hands.

Where are the documents to say that Tories are thinking of going down the US style system? Raab wrote in 2011 he wanted increased competition in supply to drive costs down, over provision and medicine etc. He didn't say the nhs should cease to exist. The nhs already buys private supply. I had an operation done in a private hospital, my mum and dad both had eye operations in private hospitals, all paid for by NHS. All the doctors/surgeons involved worked in the nhs as well. Care was the same - but better food and drinks were provided!

The constant repetition in the media of the Tories wanting to get rid of the nhs is just a lazy overreaction based on nothing tangible but makes a great election slogan. But it's base in reality is on par with the ops claim that the nhs us going to start charging when in reality it's one ex nhs employee's opinion.

ha, ha good one. Because people stay in a hospital for pleasure. It's not like sick pay in this country is a joke, so you actually get 95 quid a week and have to pay for a hospital. I hope politicians will take this advice with a pinch of salt.

I don't understand why over 60's get free prescriptions in the first place. State retirement age is 67 almost. Those not working or too ill to work or on a low income can get them free anyway so that wouldn't change. If people are on a few meds they can get a pre paid prescription for around £10 a month. What is the problem ? I'm so grateful that my dh gets a very costly injection on the NHS that keeps his severe asthma under control and he would willingly pay some cost for that. It enables him to keep working and living a decent life and not claiming any disability benefits or out of work benefits or anything, so saves the state money that way too. He would be happy to pay prescription charge for it for as long as necessary.

I think there are enough staff…they are just incompetently and inefficiently used. Anecdotal but my last trip to the sick kids….lots of nurses (I counted about 8 in total) looking not very busy chatting away. Hardly any patients. Took 9 working days to get my hands on my daughters prescription because the consultant was not allowed to write the script himself….had to be requested from my local GP who I chased twice and the prescriptions person was off and no cover and then it got lost in the system between person a and b…meanwhile 9 more days of suffering for my daughter. What’s wrong with…consultant hands me the script in the appointment and I nip to the pharmacy on the way home…take maybe an hour. Like it used to. Two people involved. As it was…there were probably about 10 people playing pass the parcel. The patient is completely ignored as the NHS drowns in ridiculous inefficient procedures. Some patient focused process re-engineering is desperately required.

ZOMBIE THREAD

Your reading comprehension seems to be lacking. This is ONE PERSON'S idea, that he's put in a book. I'm sure the publicity will be good for his sales.

It's a long way from being a 'plan'.

Aaaah, shite. Another one.

Just hope when certain services are privatised the cretins that negotiated the PFI contracts aren't in charge.

That's what is wrong, you have individuals who haven't had to work within the financial constraints of private, profit making companies making decisions and negotiating contracts which are just not cost effective.

The amount of money wasted by using NHS Supplies is staggering.

Don't worry, Blair and Brown aren't in charge anymore.

Same for my DH, he has an injection for his RA. He also buys a pre-paid certificate for the other drugs he needs. Like your DH, it means he can carry on working (manual job) and contributing , and he would be a very miserable man if he couldn't work, also in a huge amount of pain.