Should the NHS charge for such things?

Perhaps patients could charge the nhs for time and costs uncurred when they have consulted a medic, and been turned away, only to then spend weeks/months going to and fro while the problem is properly dealt with.

My DF is the only medic on a Scottish island. She's a nurse practitioner but as there's no doctor she deals with most things unless there's an emergency.
Then a helicopter comes from the mainland to take the patient to hospital.
All free of charge.
The NHS has these costs at one extreme and people missing appointments or wasting food at the other!

Definitely admin is in dire need of improvement.

I could do with a text reminder for a doctor's appointment. I made one and I think it's next week. It was 3 weeks in advance because it wasn't urgent.

When I was young I would join a long queue at the doctor's surgery, sharing the stuffy waiting room with some very sick looking people, crying babies etc things have definitely improved since those days.

A French girl stayed with us 12 years ago and became ill. I took her to the doctor where she had to join the NHS to be treated.
She did so and I still get letters addressed to her inviting her for smear tests etc. I tried to cancel but was told she needs to do this herself.
With no known address how does this work?

Being in hospital does not stop the patient being liable for their mortgage/ rent , standing charge on services etc , insurances on home and any car still have to be paid. Should the patient be in receipt of benefits eg. pip or aa then these stop after approx 6wks. So a stay in hospital can cause financial problems, especially for an elderly person who lives alone and not all have family to help. What do we pay NI for? I know its not enough but NHS finances have been in s mess for years-- my paying for a round of toast isnt going to ease the burden.

If hospitals staarted charging for food they would certianly need to improve the uantity and uality of the food they served. I cwrtainly would not pay god money for the current offerings.

There would also be a problem of people opting out and ordering takeways instead, Imagine a long constant ueue of Ubereats and similar companies constantly turning up with burgers and chips, currys, and kebabs. Alternatively,patients asking visitors to bring food and expecting to be able to store it in fridges on the wards.

I have never spent more than a night or two in hospital since childhood, but in recent years, DH has and if I was in hospital for any time, I would certainly have hm bringing me up food from the hospital branch of M&S food; salads, fruit and vegetable bowls or snacks and lumps of cheese.

DH was in our local hospital just before last Christmas. I observed that the meals were a bit better than I'd experienced a few years earlier while on the cancer ward. However serving his main meal and an ice cream dessert at the same time meant his ice cream was liquid by the time he got to it. And the vegetable (broccoli) was cooked to a mush so I'm not sure how any vitamins survived. Not exactly the same as a paid service outside of a hospital environment, so definitely not worth more than a couple of pounds.

Scandi salaries are also much higher than ours.

Polly7

Fair point to pay for your meals, after all you pay when at home. Just needs a fair system. Maybe pay as you go🤔 & choice to have special feels like gf etc I often don't want breakfast so choice is always good
About nhs savings, they won't take back crutches & guessing other things which seems wasteful but guessing the health & safety side makes it another costly thing. 😉
Generally think nhs could streamline & make savings

Polly7

Maybe pay as you go...

NHS trusts calculate a daily cost-per-inpatient for food. Across the board this ranges around £2.50 to £5 per day.

The administrative cost and operational friction of a "pay as you go" hospital food system would almost certainly wipe out any financial gains, and potentially cost the NHS far more than it currently spends providing the food for free.

The NHS cannot legally or ethically starve a patient who cannot pay. Therefore, any charging system would require an extensive means-testing exemption framework, similar to NHS prescription charges.

Who would legally qualify for free food? Low-income families, children, the elderly, long-term chronically ill patients, or those receiving specific state benefits.

The Cost of Bureaucracy: Hospitals would have to hire thousands of administrative staff just to check patients' financial statuses, verify benefit documents, issue food vouchers, and process appeals. In the NHS, the cost of running a means-testing apparatus often outweights the revenue gathered from the few people who actually pay.

... and, A patient recovering from heavy surgery, stroke, or trauma cannot "faff around" with a wallet, a mobile banking app, or cash.

So I don't think it's feasible!

The thing I always notice about hospital food either served to me or DH is how deficient it is in fruit and vegetables.

With us now being told that we should consume 30g of fibre a day. A standard few people reach, hospital food contains almost no fibre at all. No wonder people get constipated when in hospital.

Next time I'm in hospital, I'll take my own supply of lukewarm dishwater, and forego the meals, I think.

My friend’s husband was working in France when he took ill. He was taken to hospital and she says he got excellent treatment and care. He is diabetic and he said the food they gave him was amazing.

knspol
BTW I know from personal experience several countries where you do not pay for food while in hospital

In other countries they pay higher taxes and social contributions

JaneJudge

my husband spent most of March in hospital the food was good, cooked fresh A fresh vegetarian (possibly vegan) soup was served before every tea time. All of the ingredients were apparently locally sourced

That’s great and how it should be.

Unfortunately not all hospitals are the same. Our regional hospital is huge and maybe 25 years old but it was built without kitchens so all the food brought to patients are pre packed, brought in about 100 miles by road and then reheated on the wards in microwaves. It looks and tastes dreadful. It cannot be healthy and certainly does not encourage sick people to eat and get better.

my husband spent most of March in hospital the food was good, cooked fresh A fresh vegetarian (possibly vegan) soup was served before every tea time. All of the ingredients were apparently locally sourced

My husband is currently in hospital and if the food was acceptable I would not have a problem in paying for it.

I was with him yesterday lunchtime and I wish I had taken a photo. He got an omelette which was like a lump of rubber. It was the size of a small tea plate folded over. That was it, nothing with it at all. No veg, no salad. Then there was a small microwaved cardboard dish containing congealed stewed apple and custard which I had to scrape off the cardboard followed by a lukewarm cup of tea. That was to keep him going until about 6pm. That lot wasn’t even worth a quid.

Esmay

Please don't suggest it -a lot of people are suffering enough as it is .

Totally agree.

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Agree

Graso

Like others I can see that given the current disorganisation in dispatching appointment letters it would be grossly unfair to charge for non attendance. Once this is improved, (if ever!) I think that a ‘three strikes and you pay’ policy would be reasonable.

With regard to meals; hospitals are not hotels. We pay for our food at all other times and places so why should food be free because we’re in hospital? This doesn’t happen in other countries, either people pay for their food while in hospital or their families or friends bring food in for them.

I don’t doubt that someone will be along shortly to describe an experience in which charging for food was inappropriate, but there are always going to be exceptions and we shouldn’t make decisions because of these. The situation of the majority needs to be the most important deciding factor, and the majority will be eating, or at least be served, three meals a day while they’re in hospital.

If a standard daily charge was levied for e.g. all adults, this would make the administration straightforward enough once set up. It could be set at a reasonable amount with possible exceptions for certain groups.

The NHS is in a desperate state and further taxation of the wealthy isn’t going to be enough to cure it. Fundamental change is needed and free food is an unnecessary drain on the much depleted coffers

You go into hospital to be cared for because you are ill. What if you can't afford tp pay for meals, yes you eat at home if you're well enough but maybe a lot of people on lower incomes survive on what we might not call a meal eg some toast or whatever and some may mostly do without! So would you starve these people because they can't afford food?
BTW I know from personal experience several countries where you do not pay for food while in hospital.

Fair point to pay for your meals, after all you pay when at home. Just needs a fair system. Maybe pay as you go🤔 & choice to have special feels like gf etc I often don't want breakfast so choice is always good
About nhs savings, they won't take back crutches & guessing other things which seems wasteful but guessing the health & safety side makes it another costly thing. 😉
Generally think nhs could streamline & make savings

Treatment and care should remain free, but missed appointments just lead to the need for more care, and deny it to others who could have had the missed appointment.

Workarounds have been suggested for those who can't help missing because of late notice, transport issues, care needs etc, and options to escape fines if notice is given have been mooted too. Nobody is suggesting a draconian money-raking scheme, just a way to deter people from missing appointments they could have kept.

Do people really want to see a system where people can take a place in the queue and decide on the day whether to honour it or not, despite the fact that others are waiting for their place to come through? Should those who have missed get another place in the same queue?

why shouldn't inpatients be fed and be able to borrow hospital clothing, some people have no relatives or anyone to care for them. I'm sure hospital staff don't want to deal with ill people sitting around starving in dirty clothes

unless I've misunderstood

But that is medical need, not food, clothing and shelter. I understand that many illnesses are linked to the other but it should not be in this day an age everything, the system cannot cope.

Surely the point of the NHS is that it is free st the point of need?

Witzend

The admin involved (more trouble than it’d be worth) is so often given as a reason for not charging, yet other countries seem to manage it well enough.

But they have different systems. Set up in myriad different ways.
Also, they tend to spend more on admin costs because of this than the NHS. It’s never ‘free’ to collect money

MissAdventure

How about a donation box?
If you've been happy with your care, an appointment, your treatment or whatever, you put some money in the box.

Any time I pay any sort of tax, I give to the NHS. That’ll do.