Payment for prescriptions

Sharina I agree. It's totally unfair. Why have I, as a diabetic, not paid for any prescriptions since I was in in my mid 30s? For most of that time, I could have afforded them.

It's this kind of anomaly which contributes to my thinking that there should be no charge for prescriptions. If people need certain drugs, they should have them, as part of their treatment. Most drugs are a tiny part of the overall cost of the NHS.

Sharina

I’m happy to pay for my prescriptions until I officially retire. No one has to pay more than ten pounds a month for prescriptions as you can buy a certificate which allows all prescriptions for ten pounds a month. I resent though, that it’s only the English that pay for prescriptions. Why can’t we all pay, and pay less? Also, why do I pay for my asthma inhalers while someone with a thyroid condition gets all their meds free?

Hi Sharina, instead of making things worse for everyone out with England, why not try to get things improved for those in England by campaigning for free prescriptions? Surely it would be best to improve for everyone?

“If people paying up to the cap are then expected to pay again when they need treatment there is no incentive for them to stay in the NHS. I don't think for a minute that if they could get away with it the government wouldn't encourage people to leave - they already allow fee-paying patients to jump NHS queues. “

I’m not sure this it true, I’ve just been referred by my GP to see an orthopaedic surgeon as a private patient - I have private medical insurance but have to pay the cost of the consultant myself. Both my GP and the consultant have said that I might need to have my operation on the NHS as the procedure is complicated by other health conditions I have so back up from other specialist teams might be needed during the operation or during my recovery. If that’s the case, the private consultant will refer me via the local NHS hospital but I join the waiting list like any other patient, no moving to the top of the list. That is what I expected.

I am one of those who is just over the threshold to qualify for Pension Credit so I would be hit by a prescription charge. It is unfair since I have paid tax and national insurance. One of the reason for the shortfall in NHS is billionaires who have these offshore accounts. Tax them and close the loopholes then there would be money for the NHS, but as usual excuses are made for them saying we can't do that as they create the wealth. What rubbish. If we start paying I will have to go without certain medications. It is a case of the generations fighting one another once again.

We need to stop throwing money at the NHS it need to be run properly and stop wasting money .

Great idea Katy1959! How?

winterwhite I’ve never voted labour and never will. Especially if people like Corbyn are an example of their politicians. We’d end up being a communist country.

It needs to stop being a 'sacred cow' that no-one is allowed to criticise andweneed to accept that the world has changed since it's inauguration.

The world has moved on, people live longer, treatments have changed. Man has been to the moon, we all have phones (some not even attached to the wall) and yet the NHS hasn't moved on since the 1950s.

Perhaps it can't be all things to all people any more. It's ridiculous to say that, because Bevan said it, it can't change.

Way up thread, WWM2 said we should remove it from political control - DH and I say that every time we chunter about the way things are going.

I agree kittylester things do have to change.

yet the NHS hasn't moved on since the 1950s.

You can't be serious. Perhaps somebody who actually knows about the NHS might like to explain how things have improved in the last 70 years?

Sheesh...

Of course things have changed volver but the NHS as it was can't be relevant today.

We have more and more layers of management now!

I guess I'm just exasperated by the rash of extreme and baseless statements we're seen on here recently. And this is the latest.

If you think the NHS has changed, why would you say that the NHS hasn't changed? It just strikes me as saying something just for the sake of it because it sounds dramatic.

Personally, I think we don't have enough layers of management because it appears to me - as a former manager who has never worked in the NHS - that it is running out of control and we don't have enough people in place to actually make it work properly. People have posted that they want it run properly but others say we don't need any more managers. How does that work?

we're seen we've seen

If you haven't worked in the NHS how can you judge whether it needs more management. It needs better management. As someone who was on the periphery of the NHS for 50+ years I can tell you that it is the number of managers that are out of control.

I would have thought that it was obvious that what people need from the NHS now is vastly different from what we needed at it's inception.

It needs completely rethinking and bringing into the 21st century.

OK, better.

Trained managers who know how to run big organisations and who can organise the day to day running of an organisation and its constituent parts. How many of them does it have?

Its clear to anybody who has managed in a big organisation (including me ) that there aren't enough people who know how to manage. I don't mean to criticise anybody working in the NHS, but only the political approach to running it that dispenses with the middle layers of management who do all the management work, and tells people that this is a good thing.

"Better management" doesn't mean "fewer managers".

The problem with the NHS is lack of funding over the years and bad management. Doctors aren't necessarily good managers. I firmly believe in the original principle which should be maintained. However if people wish to pay then go privately.

People who wish to pay are, basically, ruining it for everyone else. I can completely understand why people want tot pay to have their treatment quickly, but the idea needs to be revised that paying for healthcare is either (a) an option that people are entitled to if they are comparatively well off or (b) an altruistic act that frees up the NHS for the poor folks.

I'm not disagreeing that the NHS needs overhaul, but the very idea that people get better healthcare because they have a bit of money behind them is just so contrary to everything I believe.

I think it is quiet obvious that the NHS currently has enough or just about enough funding, and it overall probably has sufficient numbers of staff - medical and admin including managers, but that there are lots of people in the wrong jobs, or are not good enough in their jobs. Its not enough simply to " work for the NHS" -unless everyone is trained and has sufficient experience to carry out each individual role then the overall effect will always be negative.

I think to sort it out then at least initially additional managers are needed.

I also think that retired people who work beyond 65 should continue to pay NI and should certainly pay it post 60. I am such a person. My employer took NI from me wrongly in 2017. I got this rectified. Ironically I then broke my arm badly and was in hospitable for four nights and also had to have a GA. I'm sure I cost much more than I'd just got back. It was complicated as it happened in Wales so NHS Wales had to bill my local GP surgery. I'd also be willing to pay something towards a prescription but be aware for years I have paid into a system that has supported other folk who have not paid for a prescription. I have a chronic condition that means being on steroids permanently - and then there are other drugs to counteract side affects. Perhaps pay for prescriptions for acute illnesses, not chronic ones?

Baggytrazzas

I think it is quiet obvious that the NHS currently has enough or just about enough funding, and it overall probably has sufficient numbers of staff - medical and admin including managers, but that there are lots of people in the wrong jobs, or are not good enough in their jobs. Its not enough simply to " work for the NHS" -unless everyone is trained and has sufficient experience to carry out each individual role then the overall effect will always be negative.

I think to sort it out then at least initially additional managers are needed.

Is this a joke?

It's not obvious at all that the NHS has enough funding nor that it has enough staff.

tigger

The problem with the NHS is lack of funding over the years and bad management. Doctors aren't necessarily good managers. I firmly believe in the original principle which should be maintained. However if people wish to pay then go privately.

Bad managers or bad management systems?

kittylester

If you haven't worked in the NHS how can you judge whether it needs more management. It needs better management. As someone who was on the periphery of the NHS for 50+ years I can tell you that it is the number of managers that are out of control.

I would have thought that it was obvious that what people need from the NHS now is vastly different from what we needed at it's inception.

It needs completely rethinking and bringing into the 21st century.

How?

kittylester

If you haven't worked in the NHS how can you judge whether it needs more management. It needs better management. As someone who was on the periphery of the NHS for 50+ years I can tell you that it is the number of managers that are out of control.

I would have thought that it was obvious that what people need from the NHS now is vastly different from what we needed at it's inception.

It needs completely rethinking and bringing into the 21st century.

What roles do the superfluous managers do?

I am not going over all that again growstuff.

It needs rethinking by someone with no political bias and an understanding of how big companies are run.

How condescending can you get volver?

How condescending can you get volver?

I can get really condescending. Its my superpower.

But not quite as condescending as telling someone who has never worked in the NHS, but knows about running organisations, that they don't have a valid opinion on how to run it.