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Why not NHS test for travel

flopsy1973
Posts: 670 Forumite


Why does the pcr test have to come through a private company for travel . Whats wrong with using the NHS pcr tests ? Will anyone know ?
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Why should the taxpayer fund the cost?1
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i think most NHS employees have better things to be getting on with.....
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flopsy1973 said:Why does the pcr test have to come through a private company for travel . Whats wrong with using the NHS pcr tests ? Will anyone know ?
As the NHS PCR tests don't issue codes to put on Passenger Locator Forms (for obvious reasons) you won't be able to fill out your PLF which will almost certainly result in you being denied boarding by the airline, and even if they do let you fly will result in a £500 fine which, last time I checked is considerablly more than the cost of a PCR test.2 -
NHS PCR tests are only for people with symptoms of Covid-19 they are not for people choosing to travel.
People with medical need versus people choosing to engage in travel.
If someone can afford to travel they can afford to pay for a test.2 -
Said as a frequent traveller and someone with connections to the industry, why should the NHS subsidise your travel?
We need to ensure our NHS has all the vital resources for treating disease it can get having been starved of funding for the last 11 years, not using it for unnecessary procedures that are available in a cost effective manner elsewhere.💙💛 💔2 -
Nifty_Purse said:NHS PCR tests are only for people with symptoms of Covid-19 they are not for people choosing to travel.Pedant mode:Not quite - we were contacted by Track & Trace a week after returning from abroad and told to take a PCR test. We had no symptoms.1
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CKhalvashi said:Said as a frequent traveller and someone with connections to the industry, why should the NHS subsidise your travel?
We need to ensure our NHS has all the vital resources for treating disease it can get having been starved of funding for the last 11 years, not using it for unnecessary procedures that are available in a cost effective manner elsewhere.I don't see why the NHS couldn't provide them at cost for travellers. I only needed lat flow tests, had some spare NHS ones, it seemed silly to have to order private tests rather than use the ones I already had which will now likely be wasted. Besides which, people use the NHS tests for other leisure activities, so why is subsidising someone eg going to a festival OK but not someone who travels?BTW if you check the facts rather than propaganda, NHS funding is considerably higher in real terms than 11 years ago, even before COVID, so it's hardly been "starved" https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/projects/nhs-in-a-nutshell/nhs-budget
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The reasons in favour are that the government has given away to their friends spent tens of billions on Covid related measures including throwing away millions of test kits for free - many of which will no doubt rot in cupboards until well after the pandemic.
These test kits can be used for most reasons including visiting large events etc. Why should travel be excluded?
Further, if we allow them to be used in travel it reduces the chance of people finding ways around the travel rules.
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zagfles said:CKhalvashi said:Said as a frequent traveller and someone with connections to the industry, why should the NHS subsidise your travel?
We need to ensure our NHS has all the vital resources for treating disease it can get having been starved of funding for the last 11 years, not using it for unnecessary procedures that are available in a cost effective manner elsewhere.I don't see why the NHS couldn't provide them at cost for travellers. I only needed lat flow tests, had some spare NHS ones, it seemed silly to have to order private tests rather than use the ones I already had which will now likely be wasted. Besides which, people use the NHS tests for other leisure activities, so why is subsidising someone eg going to a festival OK but not someone who travels?BTW if you check the facts rather than propaganda, NHS funding is considerably higher in real terms than 11 years ago, even before COVID, so it's hardly been "starved" https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/projects/nhs-in-a-nutshell/nhs-budget
You have forgotten from the equation that we have an ageing population and any additional NHS funding is not enough to counter this.💙💛 💔0 -
CKhalvashi said:zagfles said:CKhalvashi said:Said as a frequent traveller and someone with connections to the industry, why should the NHS subsidise your travel?
We need to ensure our NHS has all the vital resources for treating disease it can get having been starved of funding for the last 11 years, not using it for unnecessary procedures that are available in a cost effective manner elsewhere.I don't see why the NHS couldn't provide them at cost for travellers. I only needed lat flow tests, had some spare NHS ones, it seemed silly to have to order private tests rather than use the ones I already had which will now likely be wasted. Besides which, people use the NHS tests for other leisure activities, so why is subsidising someone eg going to a festival OK but not someone who travels?BTW if you check the facts rather than propaganda, NHS funding is considerably higher in real terms than 11 years ago, even before COVID, so it's hardly been "starved" https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/projects/nhs-in-a-nutshell/nhs-budgetI've got spares because I needed a couple and they come in boxes of 7. Is that OK with you?I would be open to paid services for both purposes however, but this would not be easy to materialise in reality and we would see increasing levels of fraud (which is causing a gain by deception) by those claiming to have symptoms when they should pay. It is therefore easier and more cost effective to leave this to the private sector.
Really? A 26% real terms increase since 2010, excluding COVID funding, is not enough to counter the change in age demographics in the last 11 years? Seriously? The population isn't aging that fast!
You have forgotten from the equation that we have an ageing population and any additional NHS funding is not enough to counter this.Obviously there are other challenges facing the NHS and we could spend ages discussing NHS funding, but when you hear people try to make simplistic points using emotive terms like "starved" or even more stupidly "dismantled" etc, it just smacks of them swallowing political propaganda from those who want to use the NHS as a political football. I've got relatives whose lives have been saved by the NHS over the last few years. That wouldn't have happened had it been a "starved" organisation. It is a wonderful organisation we should all be proud of.
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