“That’ll be £20 please.”
Well, it will be if this idea gets put into practice:
Patients should be charged £20 to see a GP in a bid to limit demands placed on the health service, a centre-right think-tank says.
The Social Market Foundation said forcing people to pay a fee for an appointment could help the NHS cope in the tight financial times ahead.
The group said it would not breach the values of the NHS as charges already applied to dentistry and prescriptions. (BBC)
No no no no no. Doctors are different to dentists; there is a far greater risk from not going to the doctor than there could be from not going to the dentist. The risk of people not going to the doctor because it will cost them £20 is high, and could then have a far higher cost if it the illness then becomes serious.
Yes, we want to discourage people from constantly visiting their doctor for no real reason - but that must not be at the expense of people not visiting the doctor when they have a real reason because of the cost. We already pay through the nose for NHS services; why should we have to pay even more? The whole point of the NHS is that it is free at the point of delivery - that we pay for it in taxes throughout our life, so when we need medical help it’s there and “free”.
We don’t want to get to a situation where we are like the US health system, with people bankrupting themselves to get some medical help. We are better than that. Charging to see the doctor would be a very bad move - we are already charged for prescriptions (in England only) and to see the dentist. Why should we have to pay just to see our doctor?
On a personal basis, this doesn’t reall affect me - I haven’t seen a doctor for about 4 years or so. And I’m not actually registered at a local surgey any more… or even a local dentist. So this doesn’t affect me at all. But if I want to see a doctor, I don’t expect to have to pay for it there and then. I’ve already done that through taxes.
