How to solve the NHS funding crisis

tara747 · 7 February 2018 at 3:48PM

You know what I'd like the govt to stop wasting my taxes on? Defending (and losing) court cases on e.g. Brexit and air pollution. Court cases that only arise because they're so bl00dy incompetent.

[Deleted User] · 8 February 2018 at 12:06AM

The NHS is already being rationed simply by making people wait, many have to wait days to see a GP,I have recently waited 14 months to see a neurologist about what to me was a serious problem.
Charging everyone for prescriptions is not the answer as you would still have the expense of handling those who were entitled to not pay for them.
The real answer is to increase taxes if e.g NI went up 1% but the money was ring fenced for the NHS few would complain.

gfplux · 8 February 2018 at 10:57AM

kinger101 wrote: »

A recent thing I heard on BBC Radio 4's More of Less indicated that although missed appointments are not without cost, it's a relatively trivial amount. The NHS (just like airlines) tends to overbook as they know they'll be no-shows. So it's not like the healthcare professionals sit doing nothing if Fred Blogs doesn't show up. The costs lost are probably only administrative.

However patients appear to be angry as they have difficulty getting an appointment. That first connection with the NHS causes disappointment with the system.

gfplux · 8 February 2018 at 11:01AM

kinger101 wrote: »

Quite. My worries with the £10 charge too. It's all very well saying they pay that in undefined nordic country x, but their socioecomic system is unlikely to be comparable with ours. Particularly with reference to how much disposable income the low earners have.

The NHS is stretched because we want the same healthcare standards as Western Europe, but the middle classes aren't willing to pay the taxes to fund them. Labour's London vote would be halved if they suggested tax at German levels. Gordon Brown's legacy.

Those that have money are in the faster of the two tiers, they or their employer pay for Bupa type cover.
If they could not go private they would pressure for the NHS to be better.
While they go private all the powerful are not speaking out for improvements to the NHS.

gfplux · 8 February 2018 at 11:21AM

No one in Britain who is NOT going private knows how much anything costs.
If you go private you see the bill (it is HUGE) but you dont pay it and then you say private medicine is wonderful.
If you do not go private you have no idea what things cost. A night in Hospital, that packet of pills, that bandage no idea.

I now live in Luxembourg so have experienced both Country systems.

In Luxembourg the NHS is 80% to 100% free at point of delivery.
There is an invoice for everything medical (including Opticien!!!8217;s and dentists) so if I visit the doctor, get a prescription and then pick up some pills, I could add all those three actions as I know the price of each and every step.
If I have an X Ray or an MRI I know the price.
It makes me much more appreciative of how incredibly expensive medicine and treatments are.
As an example a doctors appointment costs me about 1.70 I Pay 14 and get the rest as a refund. If I miss an appointment no one debt collects it is just left on file for the future when something else medical is needed. I can never escape that debt.
Unemployed, very low income etc are free.

Ps I have that problem with !!!8216;

Herzlos · 8 February 2018 at 1:51PM

gfplux wrote: »

However patients appear to be angry as they have difficulty getting an appointment. That first connection with the NHS causes disappointment with the system.

It also drives people to potentially more expensive options. Wait 3 weeks to see a GP or go to A&E? Take a day off work to go sit in the drop-in clinic for 3+ hours?

That thing about a stitch in time is completely true - we want to make it easier to access preliminary medical attention, so that we can treat things when they are at the cheapest with the minimal wasted time and productivity.

westernpromise · 8 February 2018 at 2:05PM

venison wrote: »

The real answer is to increase taxes if e.g NI went up 1% but the money was ring fenced for the NHS few would complain.

Snort. Oh yes they would. No matter how much is spent on the NHS, its staff - and those who use it but pay nothing towards it - would complain. Always. There will never be a time when there is agreement that the NHS is completely funded and in need of nothing more. At the very least its staff - for whose benefit it is ultimately run - will want more money; they always have and always will.

Rough_Justice · 8 February 2018 at 9:04PM

Herzlos wrote: »

It also drives people to potentially more expensive options. Wait 3 weeks to see a GP or go to A&E? Take a day off work to go sit in the drop-in clinic for 3+ hours?

That thing about a stitch in time is completely true - we want to make it easier to access preliminary medical attention, so that we can treat things when they are at the cheapest with the minimal wasted time and productivity.

I wonder if you have any personal experience of getting GP appointments because from your post I strongly suspect not and that you've been reading our media scaremongering.

Where I live there are three surgeries locally.
At each, it is possible to get same day appointments - yes appointments, not "sit and wait" although at least two offer this option too.
This since Christmas BTW, as direct family members will attest.
Here at least, it already is "easier to access preliminary medical attention".
Walk-in or drop-in clinics do not exist here, it not being a city.

LHW99 · 8 February 2018 at 10:18PM

Possibly in the future surgeries could have a "smart system" which takes you through a basic triage when you book a GP appointment and assigns you to pharmacist, nurse, doctor, A&E based on the answers.
No access to any hospital unless you have been through the smart system and got a reference code, unless you're brought in flat on your back in an ambulance

Red-Squirrel_2 · 8 February 2018 at 10:23PM

Rough_Justice wrote: »

I wonder if you have any personal experience of getting GP appointments because from your post I strongly suspect not and that you've been reading our media scaremongering.

Its about 3 weeks at my surgery at the moment. I've got an appointment for the 23rd, made it last week, that was the earliest with any GP.

I had the option to ring up at 8am each morning for an emergency appointment if it was an emergency, but its not.

This is new, it didn't used to be like this, a couple of years ago you could easily be seen within a few days. Its almost as though there's something causing it...:cool:

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