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Should we pay a monthly membership fee to the NHS?

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So what will happen if you can't or won't pay the £10?
What happens if you have private medical insurance?

What mostly confuses me is that it was a Labour MP who suggested the idea. It's more the thing that I would expect from other parties (perhaps he fancies a change).

I understand that the NHS has problems, but this will just be chucking good money after the bad.

Although I don't think they will understand what stress they would put on the system by doing this. Poor hospitals will still struggle and fail because when you directly pay for something, like a hotel room, you expect good service.

I could imagine an Expedia of hospitals would quickly appear.

Certainly my nearest GP surgery would probably have a lot less patients if there would no boundary restrictions on joining a surgery because it's rating on the NHS web site is currently 1.5 stars 😱
 
I already pay for the NHS. I believe that money will not solve any of the problems with the NHS as it doesn't matter how much you throw at it they will still find reasons to need more.

P.S I doubt £10 a month would cover all the expensive PFI's lord warners labour government got us into let alone any clinical care.



I worry about the NHS as I don't think that there is a political party in existence that knows how to manage it in a sustainable way that could see it through another 65 years.
 
Charging a fee, IMO will make no difference, the NHS is one big money pit throwing more at would be a waste. Its funding has gone from about £30billion in 1997 to the present £95.6 billion for NHS England

The NHS suffers from chronic mismanagement and an obscene waste of resources, more managers than you can shake a stick at.

A good start would be for all NHS CEO's and chairmen to be directly elected and accountable to the public.By the way you pay National Insurance contributions to build up your entitlement to certain state benefits, including the State Pension, NHS funding comes out of general taxation.
 
You expect this from capitalist politicians but Labour ones are a shock.

lord warner.jpg
 
He denied that on the Daily Politics yesterday Paul, but wouldn't surprise me 🙄
 
Just noticed our busiest Lord from that page lol There's no way he sleeps:D

Lord Williams of Oystermouth
Category 10: Non-financial interests (b)
President, John Townsend Trust (Royal School for Deaf Children, Margate)
President, Royal School of Church Music
President, St Edmund's School, Canterbury
Category 10: Non-financial interests (c)
Chairman, Lambeth Palace Library Trustees
Category 10: Non-financial interests (e)
President, Friends of Anglican Centre, Rome
President, Association of Interchurch Families
President, Bevan Foundation
Ecclesiastical President, Newport Cathedral Emergency Campaign
Joint President, National Council for Social Concern
Vice President, Action for Blind People
Vice President, Barnardo's
Vice President, Brecon Cathedral Choir Endowment Appeal
Vice President, Carers UK
Vice President, Church Army
Vice President, Crisis
Vice President, Demelza House Children's Hospice
Vice President, Douai Abbey Library Appeal
Vice President, Epilepsy Action
Vice President, Friends of Swansea St Mary
Vice President, The Girls' Brigade
Vice President, ICAN Invalid Children's Aid
Vice President, Leprosy Mission
Vice President, Livability
Vice President, MIND, National Association for Mental Health
Vice President, Morriston Orpheus Choir
Vice President, Pax Christi
Vice President, The Pilgrims
Vice President, Royal National College for the Blind
Vice President, Seafarers UK
Vice President, Together: Working for Wellbeing
Vice President, Welsh Music Guild
Trustee, Philip Usher Memorial Fund
Member, Advisory Board, ACE Trust (Art and Christianity Enquiry)
President, Bocking St Mary Church Restoration Appeal
President, Burrswood (The Dorothy Kerin Trust)
President, Charles Williams Society
President, Christians Aware
President, Church Lads' and Church Girls' Brigade
President, Council of Christians and Jews
President, Family Action
President, Gregorian Association
President, Friends of Canterbury Cathedral
President, Help the Homeless
President, Industrial Christian Fellowship
President, Kent County Association of Change Ringers
President, Lambeth and Southwark Housing Society
President, The Melanesian Mission
President, Old Dy'vorians Association (President for 2011)
President, The Really Cuckoo Company
President, Riding Lights Theatre Company
President, Royal Wanstead Children's Foundation
President, Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge
President, South East Institute for Theological Education
President, TocH
President, WB4 (Television and radio charity)
 
No, I don't think we should pay a monthly fee.

The NHS should be managed more efficiently.
 
ypauly said:
Just noticed our busiest Lord from that page lol There's no way he sleeps:D

Lord Williams of Oystermouth
Category 10: Non-financial interests (b)
...President, Riding Lights Theatre Company ...
Click to expand...

One of our members works there! 🙂 He can't possibly have any meaningful input to all those 🙄
 
I posed this question on another forum and over there the idea of charging anyone without an NI number or EHIC should pay for treatment.

Seems simple in some ways but the administration of charging some and not others could cost more than it saves.
 
I dont agree with paying any more. I pay NI and have done since I was 16. Unfortunately there are too many people who use the NHS that have no right to use it and why should we pay for all these people to have free treatment?

Also, I work full time, so would I be paying for those who are not going to pay or are exempt from paying? I'm not talking about people with genuine disabilities and oap's who have contributed all their lives but about the many people who live on benefits, have never had a job and have absolutely no intention of EVER having a job! Why should I pay for these lazy **** to have the use of a service they have no intention of contributing to? Will get off my soap box now.
 
The NHS is not funded via National Insurance contributions but, rather, from general taxation.

But even ignoring that point we don't actually make contributions in order to necessarily make use of the services ourselves. It is more a contribution for the general good (a nice socialist principle if ever I've heard one!).

Unfortunately, some people will abuse the system. But, fortunately, I think they are the minority.

As to paying a monthly membership? I don't really see the point. Fund the NHS from general taxation as it is now. The real trick is to use the funds efficiently because I think the amount of waste in the system is appalling.
 
When the new hospital I am familiar with was built, it was built by a house builder who had never built a hospital before (economy). They built it according to plans done by people who had never planned a hospital before (democracy). The plans were passed but staff started asking questions like where is the hospital laundry? Where are the haematology, biochemistry, microbiology labs etc etc (consultation)? Who were the people who passed the plans in the first place (anonimity)? The laundry now does a 160 mile round trip and the labs were hastily built at great expense (practicality).

"Dedicated professions have been working tirelessly to deliver cost effective solutions after extensive consultations with local representives."

Now they are shutting the labs by merging services with other hospitals. In the meantime, that hospital is in discussion with yet another hospital about similar mergers. Upto ten hospitals can be involved in several separate discussions.

The managers concerned of course hold all the meetings in rather nice hotels with lovely spa like facilities three or four days per week and good restaurants and then move onto new discussions with other hospitals. This goes on for a few years with the managers, who are paid £70k - £80k rarely back at their own place of work. The staff seem to cope well without them though they do lack things like photocopying paper. Upto 100 managers plus extra staff might be involved in these discussions. Cost is say something like £30 million and the result is not to proceed with any of it and then move onto the next money saving project.

Don't expect to get anything for your £10 per month other than a glossy newsletter telling you how well they are doing.
 
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You should send that to a newspaper, it is well worth reading and puts the problem with the NHS across very adequately .
 
Andy HB said:
As to paying a monthly membership? I don't really see the point. Fund the NHS from general taxation as it is now. The real trick is to use the funds efficiently because I think the amount of waste in the system is appalling.
Click to expand...

I liked Jamie Martin's Operation Hospital Food series which showed how to cut waste and expense in hospital food whilst at the same time making the food more appetising and nourishing. Including various should-be-obvious stuff such as buying in bulk, and facilitating that by measures such as serving the same food in the restaurant as on the wards ("if it isn't good enough for the staff, it isn't good enough for the patients"). Would that such sensible streamlining were applied across the board...
 
HERE TINTIN said:
You should send that to a newspaper, it is well worth reading and puts the problem with the NHS across very adequately .
Click to expand...


That is a fraction of the problem. All staff were notified that if approached by the press they were to refer the press to the hospital information officer and if any member of staff was caught taking to the press, they would be dismissed.

The NHS management hates whistleblowers with a vengence.

Protect NHS whistleblowers urges consultant who lost job and home after raising concerns

Whistleblowers who raise concerns still at risk of losing their job

NHS cuts whistleblower was unfairly dismissed, tribunal rules

Stories of NHS Staff
 
Status
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