How to solve the NHS funding crisis

Red-Squirrel_2

westernpromise wrote: »

Private medicine can only make money by offering something worth paying for, and it has to provide it for whatever people are prepared to pay.

Neither of these constraints bind the NHS, despite which we never hear of the private sector being underfunded while from the NHS we hear nothing else.

My mother can remember the begging bowl coming around her school for poor Africans back in 1930, and it still is. Some things don't change. NHS, same thing. It's 70 years old and in 70 years' time we'll still be hearing the exact same snivelling for money.

Can I just ask, do you remotely care about people who haven't got much if any money? Would it bother you in the slightest if they were unable to access healthcare?

Rough_Justice

Red-Squirrel wrote: »

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:

And yet strangely it was like that here until ..... oh, a year ago or so.
It has improved no end despite one local surgery closing, leaving us with 3 instead of 4.

I asked family in Scotland and in Bedfordshire about this last night too.
Their recent experiences suggest that they too can see a doctor either the same day or the next day for an appointment if necessary.

If your appointment is not urgent, three weeks is fair.
If you don't think so, you've obviously not tried asking for a plumber or a builder in the same "not urgent" circumstances.

westernpromise

Red-Squirrel wrote: »

Can I just ask, do you remotely care about people who haven't got much if any money? Would it bother you in the slightest if they were unable to access healthcare?

Of course. I would ask you the same question. If you think the poor people should be able to access healthcare, why aren't you demanding reform of the NHS?

Red-Squirrel_2

westernpromise wrote: »

Of course. I would ask you the same question. If you think the poor people should be able to access healthcare, why aren't you demanding reform of the NHS?

I AM a poor person. The NHS is the reason I can access helthcare.

Red-Squirrel_2

Rough_Justice wrote: »

If your appointment is not urgent, three weeks is fair.
If you don't think so, you've obviously not tried asking for a plumber or a builder in the same "not urgent" circumstances.

You say that, but its not ideal actually.

The general public aren't always the best at knowing what's urgent and what isn't, so better to see everybody within a week to be on the safe side.

Plenty of stuff that people carry on with and go to work or ignore for ages turns out to be stuff that can kill them or cause them serious bother.

westernpromise

Red-Squirrel wrote: »

I AM a poor person. The NHS is the reason I can access helthcare.

Good thing you're not poor in any other country in the world then. There's no NHS anywhere else so if you lived in Germany you wouldn't be able to access healthcare.

Red-Squirrel_2

westernpromise wrote: »

Good thing you're not poor in any other country in the world then. There's no NHS anywhere else so if you lived in Germany you wouldn't be able to access healthcare.

Right, because we all know the German system is the one the privatisers/Tories are aiming for! :rotfl:

Thrugelmir

Herzlos wrote: »

NHS is run for the benefit of the patients, is badly managed and chronically underfunded and understaffed. The natural outcome of that is that doctors only have a few minutes per patient rather than 10's of.

There's a lot of people (as in families) who waste enormous amounts of valuable time without a second thought. Outside of your cosy sphere. This an underworld. Which may come as a surprise to you. Where people don't hold the same values as yourself. Parents actively putting their childrens health at risk for example. I heard one particular case this week of a 15 year old boy. Whose parents decided to take him on a holiday to Cornwall. Than get his fractured wrist reassessed. Actually far more to the story as well. As the child is considered at risk. Therefore already aborbing huge amounts of hospital, police, school and social care resources. The parents are creating the next generation of I don't care a ..........

antrobus

westernpromise wrote: »

Good thing you're not poor in any other country in the world then. There's no NHS anywhere else so if you lived in Germany you wouldn't be able to access healthcare.

From what I understand of the German healthcare system; it operates on the basis of compulsory health insurance. I believe that contributions are earnings related. And that you can, if you are rich enough, opt out and go private.

The major difference is that Germans can see that they are paying EUR xx.xx for heathcare, whilst us Brits don't.

Rinoa

We're obese, eat junk food, drink too much booze and don't exercise.

Sort these issues out and the funding crisis would magically disappear.