People with a worrying cough, problems swallowing or blood in their urine will soon be able to be referred for scans and checks by a pharmacist, rather than having to wait to see their GP.
The new pilot scheme, in England, aims to diagnose more cancers early, when there is a better chance of a cure.
High Street pharmacies will be funded to refer customers for the checks.
The NHS will also send out more “roaming trucks” to perform on-the-spot scans in the community.
Lung-scanner vans driven to locations, including supermarket car parks and football stadiums, have already resulted in more people having checks.
Now, some liver lorries will join them.
About 6,100 people a year are diagnosed with liver cancer - the number has doubled over the past decade and is expected to continue to rise.
About half of all cancers are diagnosed early - but the NHS wants this to be at least three-quarters.
It also plans to offer Jewish people genetic screening - as up to one in 40 has Brca mutations, linked to a higher risk of breast, ovarian and prostate cancers, compared with one in 400 in the general population.
NHS England boss Amanda Pritchard will tell the NHS ConfedExpo conference, in Liverpool: “We want to make it as easy as possible for those most at risk to get vital, lifesaving tests. These plans have the power to truly transform the way we find and treat cancer - and ultimately spare thousands of patients and their families from avoidable pain and loss.”
So out of the dying embers of a once proud NHS, rises the spectre of private, profit driven, substandard, healthcare. Just what the government have been manoeuvring us towards. A tragedy and a scandal.
We already pay more in NI that we would for the equivalent private healthcare.
I think someone having a salary of £36K would pay around £300 a month in NIC’s compared to around £150 a month for private.
Now bear in mind the NHS has more managers than doctors and nurses so it cannot be considered to be putting patients first. Furthermore, many doctors (and. nurses) work in both the NHS and the private sectors.
Interesting read…but I don’t understand why “Chronic Conditions” are not included? I understand elective treatment, such as cosmetic surgery not being covered…that’s a choice you make - but “some cancers” not being covered, what the heck?
Nothing wrong with making a profit. But when it’s at the expense of cuts in services to patients, or the decline of standards of care, then chasing the piddling pound becomes simple profiteering.
The problem with the NHS is how its run - its not the government thats doing this. The NHS doesn’t care about money, its such a political hot potato that it just gets more and more money.
The other week I did a (free) look through of how one department in a large hospital not so far from me is being run. I did it on behalf of my friend who is a manager there. I can’t go into much detail, but millions are spent each year on stuff that nobody has any idea of what is being delivered. That’s just one department (IT).
At £130 billion a year the NHS is not good value for money. It just isn’t.
The only party to cut the NHS budget was labour by the way. I don’t know anyone who has complained about private health care either, the thing is though, if your not happy with your private health care you can go somewhere else. You can’t do that with the NHS. Businesses need to continue to make profits, they can’t do that without customers.
After having five instances of fits/seizures, and speaking to a GP and being told about ‘waiting lists’, I decided to pay for a private consultation with a neurologist who then suggested I pay for an MRI of the brain. He suggested that I may be epileptic and prescribed Epilim.
That didn’t solve the problem, and following another fit/seizure, he referred me to a private cardiologist, who suggested I have a loop recorder fitted. Within a few days, that demonstrated that my heart stopped for 10-12 seconds and I was given a pacemaker, this time on the NHS, the following day.
So yes, I have paid for private consultations and investigations. Had I not done so, I would have been waiting for at least six months for the equivalent investigations and treatment under the NHS, probably even longer. Within that period I could have turned my toes up!
I’m afraid that, taking my situation as an example, I feel that private medicine today is essential unless you want to risk the inevitable delays with the NHS.
Unfortunately, many cannot afford that option.
Heavens that’s a heck of a situation to find yourself in, JB…and yes, you are fortunate enough to afford this (albeit being forced to pay to stay alive, isn’t really a good idea). I wonder what will happen to those who can’t afford to pay…? The possible answer horrifies me.
Simple. The poor will die.
Politicians and the rich will be OK, but even then I think their time will come eventually if the country as a whole becomes too poor to support them and their lifestyles.
It is indeed a depressing period now compared to what I have lived through until quite recently.
@PixieKnuckles , Oh Yeah, watch the price of everything go up then !!
And then the cost of the insurance goes up to cover the cost of
medicines etc! etc! Ad infinitum ! !
Donkeyman!
Actually, yes it is still absolutely brilliant in many areas, especially compared to the US system. My family has had some amazing care and I’m truly grateful and glad that we live here, under our NHS system
Of course there are huge problems and I agree about too much spent on admin, middle management and not enough accountability
But those problems are only going to be made worse by privatising the NHS by the back door.
And selling it off to a US company with a track record of exploiting systems designed to provide medical care to the poorest
And whose owners are doubtless part of the Tory chumocracy
Yes, for the most part I do. We’ve had some amazing service from it
It’s a unique thing our country can be immensely proud of and it’s free treatment at the point of contact for all our people, regardless of income, is something to treasure
Of course it also has huge problems
But some are using it’s current problems as an excuse to privatise, exploit and destroy it. Or to introduce less inclusive systems
Look at waiting times - over 6 million people on waiting lists, 14,000 malpractice law suits, ambulances that are queued up outside A&E for hours, people waiting up to 14 hours in A&E to be seen to ?
Look at the private sector in comparison.
This is nothing to do with the government spending on the NHS, it received more and more of our money, year on year and the services get worse, year on year.
If private healthcare was free like the NHS, which service would you prefer to use ?
