Would you pay for the NHS ?
I would if would help the NHS .
£8 is about the cost of a bun and a coffee .
Having said that I am ( touch wood ) in good health .
Do you get turfed out, with no medication and left to die if you can’t afford it? 
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It would be likely that everyone who could not afford it would get it free.
The same as now everyone who is in receipt of benefits doesn’t have to pay for their prescriptions or dental treatment .
pay through more taxes or direct it all the same six of one and half a dozen of the other!
I think we are going to have to pay more. To keep the NHS. NHS.
A POX. On the Conservative plans to privatize our health service.
For a start we be more strict about health tourism
https://www.migrationwatchuk.org/news/2021/10/21/health-tourism
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In Scotland, we get “free” prescriptions, but they aren’t really free because we pay higher taxes than down south. So although we don’t pay for them at the point of sale, we still do pay.
It says in the article that we are the worst for chasing up NHS bills for care given to these health tourists. Might it be also that we can’t rack them down because they lie about who they are and where they are staying? I’m not saying they are lying, its just a possibility to avoid paying bills.
this is so hard
If you are taken ill in most other countries they usually ask you to pay prior to treatment .
Many health tourists don’t even bother lying they just say they can’t pay after all there are no consequences
Looks like it’s happening, already!
From the DT, today,
" The number of patients paying for private health care to avoid long NHS waiting lists has increased almost 40 per cent since before the pandemic, new figures show.
The number of people waiting to start hospital treatment in England reached 6.6 million as of May this year, around one in nine of the population.
In the last three months of 2021, 69,000 treatments were self-funded by people in the UK, a 39 per cent rise on the same period pre-pandemic.
The figures, from the Private Healthcare Information Network (PHIN) and first reported by the BBC, represent people paying the full treatment cost themselves, not those covered by private insurance."
Yes definitely if it helped cut waiting time.
As the NHS stands at the moment diagnosis and treatment can be years apart
Don’t we already pay for the nhs through ni and tax?
Yes but it’s not enough .
@Primus1 ’ dont we already pay through NI and tax?’
Apparently not Primus , the NI payment is payed into the general fiscus and
is no longer a dedicated payment to cover health and unemployment only
Perhaps this is why we are getting trouble ? Should we be paying more in??
This is ludicrous when so much money is wasted in the NHS. Plus telephone appointments don’t cost what it says on the letters.
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Exactly Annie, and where is it wasted, obviously not on front line staff??
Could it just be that the NHS is over administered now ??
And could it be that some of the missing front line staff are now working
in easier administration jobs for the NHS ??
Is there a breakdown of the ratio of front line wrkers V adm workers ??
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They can’t recruit front line staff, the funding is made available but wasted because there are not enough people willing to work front line. I am not going to mention the B word but that plus Covid has created a mess.
My comment has nothing to do with that though. I was thinking of consultancy spend, massive reorganisations such as the one currently going through. Poor value PFIs etc.
@AnnieS , Why cant they recruit front line staff ??
Most organisations l know of advertise vacancies internally before looking
elsewhere ?
The consultants appear to have successfully privatised their nche in the
NHS, and l believe the GPs are now trying to do the same?
At the moment GPs are only acting as a highly paid call centre working
for the consultants IMO !!
None of this is due to the B word but to rampant capitalism ??
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Because, as I heard on TV this morning, it takes at least 7 years to train a doctor and our politicians are only interested in a 4 or 5 year time line (GE to GE). This means they are uninterested in producing any long-term programmes to bring more training places on-line for doctors, clinical staff, radiographers, etc, etc.
As you all know, in 2 weeks I shall be having an operation at a private hospital that I’ve paid for. What I’ve got for my money (<£2,750) is:
A private room with en-suite facilities
TV with Freeview and radio
Telephone
Access to nurses whenever I need one
Meal after surgery (OK, the equivalent of a British Rail sarnie 
)
Overnight stay if deemed medically necessary
Any necessary pharmaceuticals.
I hope that you have got a good surgical team too !