Should people have to pay to see a GP?

lostinrates

moggylover wrote: »

Certainly a thread that has made me think: although I admit I haven't come to many conclusions yet:)

LOL, thats how I feel most of the time!:rotfl:

welshdent

moggylover wrote: »

However, places like Denticare manage it, do I assume that the foreign dentists that seem to be the norm there are poorly paid or do they just manage to do it because of sheet volume of numbers? Whilst not the most spacious and salubrious of dental surgeries I have ever used, we went to them when our dentist left (as they were the only NHS dentists available, and that 40 odd miles away in Aberystwyth) and they are efficient and clean and I haven't got a problem with the service they offer.

Actually they DONT manage it. Corportates such as denticare are notorious for not completing their UDA targets however unlike smaller practices they are not hounded as much for clawback. What they are is a large corporation. I believe they were in fact owned by a company involved in the icelandic banking collapse. I may be wrong on it being them but they are all similar. Effectively NHS money is going straight to the share holders. They are notorious for NOT administering the contract properly. Have a word with booze cruiser about what had been going on in his denticare practice. Where most people seem to have issues with their NHS care, there is a lot from these practices. IMO they very much use the NHS to sll private treatments. Me on the other hand will provide a diagnosis and suitable treatment options and leave it to the patient to decide.

What the corporates would tend to do is buy up a practice with an NHS contract or tender for one offering a much lower price than an independent can do. They will say offer to do the UDAs for £18 whereas the independent would need say £23. Thats just an example. I know of some friends that worked in a pratice that was bought out. They were tol that the first thing that was happening was that the value of the UDA they were being paid was to be cut by 30%. Now I said I was taking home pre tax 40% of the overall UDA value. That value was to be cut by 30%.

What they do with the overseas dentists is they ship them in with big promises. Dump them in a flat in the middle of no where and with zero support. Do NOT inform them of how the NHS contract works just how the company wants them to impliment it (knowing they will be leaving before anyone making checks gets around to them). They would then do the following ... corporate gets paid for example £24 per UDA. They would allocate the dentist a MASSIVE amount to do and pay them £7 each. That means the company is creaming off £17. They are very controlling about what materials are ordered. I for example am, within reason, free to use what I want as long as I am sensible. I get to chose materials that WORK and as a result most of my work does pretty well. That doesnt happen in many of these corporates. My friend worked for one for 2 months following his practice selling out and he said it was the worst period of work of his life. He was told he wasnt allowed to do certain treatments as they werent profitable and given quotas of private treatments to sell. (a nameless corporate before I get in trouble!!). These things they hide from the public but you WILL get a steady stream of non UK dentists and probably non UK staff too.
With an independent dentist you probably get a different approach. Firstly their livelyhood depends on you getting a good level of care. In addition rather than lining the pockets of company directors you are more likely to benefit the local community. For example my boss lives local to the practice. Any money he makes will ultimately be recirculated to the locality. He wants an extension then he will probably get a local builder in. He needs new staff then they will probably be local people. Lab work is needed ... it will probably go to a nearby one as opposed to a lab that has the national contract or even one in china. I am not saying this happens every time but to me, logically, money given to an independent local business will benefit the local community more so than a large conglomerate owned by a group that may own a line of clothes shops and some restaurant chains. I would never work for a corporate ... end of. I value my professional independence far more than working for one.

re "I still have reservations about how well or poorly paid a NHS dentist might end up if he were hard working"

Thats precisely it ... dentists earnings are directly linked to how hard they work. If you were a window cleaner, you earn more if you clean 19 houses windows than you do if you only clean 3.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

If the doctor is allowed to charge me for appointments, can I get a refund when their service isn't up to scratch?

As I am immune depressed due to medication, a teeny little bug can make me terribly ill, but if the mentality is there that it's unecessary to be treated, the bit about my long term immunity is forgotten. And the condition I am medicated for means I need physio rather than be told to have two days rest and then get on with things if I hurt something.

If I'm paying for it, I would want more for my money - like my inhalers without having to wait 3 months for a specialist nurse asthma appointment (there are 3 slots per week). Or physio referrals the first time I visit instead of the 5th. Oh, and none of the 'it's probably nothing, come back if it isn't' when I wouldn't be sitting for 45 minutes next to screaming babies, addicts seeking help and old people that smell of wee and are apparently coughing up cement from their lungs if I didn't feel that i wasn't getting better on my own.

Oh, and an instant refund every time someone said 'it's because of your age' when I'm not even 40 or 'depression causes pain, you know'. It's not my age or depression, it's the bl00dy rheumatoid arthritis flaring because my hospital appointment where I get my medication (as the GP won't/can't give me the injections) was cancelled 3 times!

Desperate_Housewife_2-2

I dont believe in charging for people to go to the Gp.

What about communicable diseases? We are all able to catch diseases regardless of our aability to pay so everyone should get it free.

Charging people would increase the social and health inequalities that exist in this country and the gap between rich and poor in health terms is widening so how on earth would charging people help???