NHS Privatisation/Reform

[JLArthur]

What does everyone think of privatisation of our NHS system? As someone that is in complete support of privatisation, paid prescriptions and appointments to alleviate pressure on our healthcare system I'm interested in what others think. I feel like we have no alternative, no money, not enough resources and skilled healthcare professionals are available, many are choosing to work over seas.

Unless you're destitute or an immigrant/asylum seeker in need of immediate medical assistance on arrival then we should be paying for the healthcare and prescriptions received. Whether that's paid for by private insurance policy or without. With private treatment you'll benefit from reduced waiting times, more time to talk to your doctor, less time in waiting rooms and you sometimes be assigned a case worker who will support you through treatments.

No, No,No!!!!

Absolutely not. We do not want to end up like the States.

I'm not sure how people paying for care will improve things?

You run the risk of people not seeking help until they reach crisis point due to lack of income. The majority of people are find the cost of living has increased already. Why should people have to make the choice between food or medicine?

The NHS can’t always be free, population growth is placing it under pressure that is unprecedented.

The alternative is the quality of care falling so low! We have influx of people and our system is struggling. The new arrivals and Brits need a better system of care and less waiting times.

I’d support a fee for a GP appointment- say £50. A fee for A&E treatment - say £200. A fee for ambulance use, maybe with a caveat of it being free if you are in a life threatening category 1 scenario…it shouldn’t be a taxi to hospital. But I don’t think we want to end up in a state where we have to fund everything ourselves.

Not a bad idea.

What about those with chronic conditions who will need prescriptions for the rest of their lives? How are they supposed to fund their treatment?

Through insurance, UC dedications if on benefits. Many countries have these issues but still have private healthcare that works. The standard dropping will be far more dangerous for us than having to pay something for healthcare and prescriptions.

I don't want an American privatised system but most of Europe seems to do very well with a combination of state funded and personal insurance cover so I would be in favour of that

Many European countries don’t have the population we do and that keeps growing. Something needs to change, I think in 2024 the NHS is just not up to standard and Brits and those coming into the country need better.

There are lots of different systems between the free-but-pathetic UK and great-but-frightfully-expensive US healthcare.

Now that I have a DC in UK, subject to NHS, I can see the terrible "care" in the UK where it is impossible to reach a specialist even if the health issue clearly warrants one, impossible to get an appointment, and when you manage to see someone it turns out to be a "consultant nurse" who Googles pictures and then prescribes some cream that does nothing.

Most of you probably know that what you have is not ideal and can be improved, but please trust me when I say that it SHOULD improve to even be called mediocre.

What you are getting at present isn't care. It is the bare minimum one might be inclined to accept if they know nothing about what healthcare can be and often is in developed countries.

No, absolutely not. The NHS must always be free at the point of use.

I'm open to a charge being made for a GP appts for adults.
I'm open to certain treatments being limited - eg fertility
I accept that anyone coming here from overseas must have health insurance to cover their risk

But fundamentally, the NHS must be protected at all costs.

Brilliant, couldn’t put it better.

@JLArthur what evidence that there is low standard of care? People should not have to chose whether they can afford care - that is the whole ethos of the NHS

I came here to say this.

No way would a have v have not healthcare system be worthwhile.

I really don't want anyone being bankrupted because they have cancer or an accident.

Just NO.

That’s not going to happen, its collapse is predicted by those working 18 hours a day and still nothing changes. The public is at risk, too much is funded for ‘free’ and it just can’t keep happening.

There are other systems. It's not free or USA as the only choices. Ireland for example has a mixed system.

I take it you’re not on minimum wage supporting a family and renting
to be so flippant about figures like that

It’s collapsing so we better get ahead of it now. People who have cancer are dying because of the waiting times for treatment. It’s 2024!

Relativity low prices in all honesty, it’s cost £4000 to have an ambulance called.

If anyone is interested, this is how healthcare works in France:

You are sick or in pain? You go to your GP if you don't know what the problem is. If you know what it is, you go directly to the specialist. You call to get an appointment any time in the near future (no nonsense about having to call on some date in the future at 8:30am) or you reserve your slot on Doctolib. You can go to anyone you like but the social security system reimburses you for only 80% of the cost of such an appointment, scan, or treatment in the state hospitals. For the rest, you pay a monthly fee to a top up "mutuelle" which reimburses you for what the state doesn't.

In the end, it is a system where you pay but in reality, you only pay a fixed and very reasonable amount of money to a complimentary health insurance company that covers your whole family.

And the service you get is infinitely faster and better. No waiting weeks for GP appointments. No having to go through to GP to get a referral to a specialist although you know for a fact that you need a neurologist or an orthopedist, and then wait months to get an appointment with that specialist.

I've been a patient (for BC) of the NHS since Sept 21. I was seen & biopsied within two days, met my consultant surgeon on day 20, in surgery on day 42. I've had chemo, radiotherapy, on-going care, throughout covid, which was not allowed to get in the way of my schedule.

Care has been superb, supportive, responsive, nothing cancelled, nothing missed. People talk down the NHS, and certainly A&E is not great at the moment but the NHS is still fab and should be accorded more respect.

But the NHS care is bad. That is not disputed. We have much worse (eg) cancer survival rates than europe. Why are we not adopting their systems that work? We are flogging a dead horse with the NHS, and even though I work in it, I would be scared to use it for anything serious and would pay for myself or a loved one to go private if I could possibly afford it.

I pray it never happens. It will however, if the Tories get in again.