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.

Just for your statistics:

I work in the NHS. Have it fro an insider its chronically undefined and run into the ground by successive governments.

And to topp it off: the ratio of middle management workforce v clinical staff is diabolical.

Our household is under private healthcare due to never getting GP appointments, being told to wait years for an operation. Look at the NHS in comparison to other developed countries and it’s clear that the standard is low.

An insurance based system would be better, I.e pay £30 per month or something and everything is covered. I'd welcome this

People like the op are able to say this because they can afford private healthcare, or think they can🤔. This is precisely why the NHS is being starved of resources by stealth privatisation of internal services and advice agencies. Cut out the bureaucracy and greed before cutting out the greatness that is free at point of need healthcare.
Absolutely, things need to change in the NHS, but the idea is sound however the execution is literally that .....guillotine from above by the powers that be (whilst all the time ringing their hands in sorrow).

That is what we have currently and it is fantastic.

It's about £50 per person and covers 4x the French state's standard fees for doctor visits, scans, treatments and medications.

You can pay a lot less per month if you don't expect your kids to need orthodontics and you're happy to go to the state hospitals for all your medical needs.

We can, we have private healthcare but that’s not why I’m saying that , I’m saying this because the level of care is low. Other nations are far better.

I’m on the fence but I’ll say this, I think if we were to pay for our medical expenses, there would be a huge decline in the regulars calling ambulances for un urgent care. The drunk regulars on a Friday night would find themselves at home a lot earlier….

"We have much worse (eg) cancer survival rates than europe. Why are we not adopting their systems that work?"

Because no government wants to lose most of the voting population by introducing fees for NHS services.

I used to live in NZ and they seemed to have quite a good system. you paid for Gp visits, some things like physio, blood tests etc but hospital care was free as was maternity etc.

Nearly all new arrivals to the UK - largely through taxes (but for some, also working for the NHS) help to support the NHS rather than being a cost to it because most new arrivals are young and healthy. The real issue is that the current government spends less per capita on healthcare than nearly all the other developed nations but can find the money for a ludicrously over-inflated House of Lords, badly-administered PPE and lets the very richest in this country become non-doms and continues to perpetuate tax loopholes that only benefit the rich. And - let's not forget - the huge, totally avoidable costs of Brexit that the next government will have to deal with...

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.

Why would you ever want this. In the USA the no 1 reason for going bankrupt is medical bills. As the whole system is private they can charge what they want for what ever they want and you have to pay. You could end up paying £10 for a 50p pack of paracetamol as all the companies care about is profit. Not providing cheap and avaible healthcare.

The there are those who just don't seek medical care as they can't aford it at all. The government has no incentive to improve the health of the population as a whole, so food is poorer and again controlled by corporations and profit. I think if the US has taught us anything is that private companies only care about profit and share holders and not actually the customers. We should stay away from this model.

The NHS certainly can't cop as it is and something needs to change. I'd be in favour of the French system. We also need to get ride of a lot of management which isn't helpful and just socks up money. This is the same for schools to as well. To many at the top gaining high salary for not much improvement.

Why MUST it always be free at the Point of use? Let’s look at the European systems.

I would support something like this

OK, but then why people pay so much for their elderly's care? The whole house value and pension taken or how that works. Surely this brings a lot of money into the Treasury

It's a terrible idea, and quite short sighted.
I would hate to live somewhere where people would have to consider whether they could afford it before booking a GP appointment. The NHS is supposed to be equal, treat people on the basis of need not their abikity to pay.
Maybe 999 call handlers could ask for credit card details before despatching an ambulance to a priority 2 call? Cat 2 includes stroke patients FFS.

No

I already pay for my prescriptions, supplements for my health which GP recommend, funded my own physio and osteopath when suffering with bad back, I paid for an iron infusion because I wasn’t anaemic enough to qualify. I’m about to pay for my child to have ears pinned back. We pay for our dental care (NHS).

don’t agree that we don’t fund our own healthcare- we absolutely do- directly and indirectly through taxation.

But that is exactly what’s going to happen, people will have to consider whether they can afford a GP because this system can’t keep going. I’m talking about a system that is fair for all, but prescriptions and appointments need to be paid for.

Elderly care is actually quite expensive, the money they take is to pay for it. Not extra money that they could spend somewhere else.

Brace yourself - the NHS has always been partly private, it was set up that way from the outset, partly due to the fact that in the early days, doctors refused to co-operate with a fully state run service because it would affect their incomes. Bevan said he had to "stuff their mouths with gold" before they agreed.

Every time you go to a GP or collect a prescription you are using private businesses selling services to the NHS. Many other services have been contracted out from early on.

Having used several of the European health care systems and having family members living with them frankly any of them would be better than the current mess. Its not "one" NHS its thousands of little fiefdoms who refuse to work together or learn from each other and find it easier to blame patients than fix their own systems. The myriad of equally useless appointment systems would be a start - second class post for an appointment in the past goes down as me missing an appointment not incompetence in the system which is ridiculous. The barriers to access for many people make "free at the point of access" irrelevant. I'd rather have top up insurance and get the actual appointments, tests and treatment.

No amount of funding will fix the systemic problems either for staff or patients - staff are often treating appallingly (NHS is notorious for workplace bullying and poor HR practices) and patients end up with an inadequate and incomplete service however staff try to work around it. Labour threw money at health care and too much of it was wasted on additional layers of bureaucracy, consolidating fiefdoms, shipping patients overseas for treatment and surgery where more was needed on fundamental improvements and modernising systems - both business and technical.

Both staff and patients deserve better than we have currently. Good staff become disillusioned and want to give up, patients are blamed for poor services outside of their control.

I hope you're ready to advocate for higher wages then.

because Europeans pay MORE in taxes than us and Americans are paid MORE...

People are already choosing between heating and eating

I’m not advocating for anything other than people paying for healthcare and prescriptions. To stop taking advantage and placing more pressure on a delicate system. This country can’t afford free healthcare, it’s not sustainable.

Errr…. NHS employs 2% managers compared to 9% in private sector, so duck off with your ignorance that managers are the problem. You just sound like a stupid idiot. Managers are needed to manage people businesses. If anything they need more management to make it more efficient!!

I live in the states and agree with this 1000%.

You have no idea how bad it can be. Personally, I have brilliant health insurance, but sadly it’s a plan that a very small percentage of people in the country has access too. Most people, even with insurance, can’t afford to use it due to high deductibles and copayments.

And insurance companies decide whether or not you get treated, not doctors.

The single biggest cause of bankruptcy in the US is overwhelming medical bills.

NO NO NO!

But your not talking about a system that is fair for all. A lot can't afford to feed their families where do you think they would get the money to pay for health insurance from?

Giving health care totally into private hands means they can also charge what they want. NICE currently negotiate with drug companies to keep medication cost at a sensible level. Honestly drugs in the US are a LOT more expensive then what our NHS pays, just because they need to make.more profits continually in order to keep the share holders happy. This is not a model we want.

And that system works well.