Ballista Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 We can afford it though. There's plenty of other avenues of spending 5 hat would be cut before we see the NHS go under. Free health care is something that other countries wish they had, or something that the residents of other countries wish they had. Being able to afford it is not an excuse for wasting taxpayers money. One step that could be taken is making drunks pay for the treatment they receive. Go to any A&E on a Friday/Saturday night and look at the resources being wasted. look at the abuse and danger staff face. Take it a step further, anyone needing A&E services is automatically charged £10, reclaimable if the doctor agrees the need is genuine. My estimate is that the use of A&E services would fall by about 20%. An estimate shared by front line people I know. Its time to stop pussy footing around this issue. The NHS is in mortal danger and will fail unless it stops being abused by those who are perfectly capable of looking after themselves and use the NHS as a prop to their lifestyle choices, the drunks, smokers and obese have to know that the party is over. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyclone Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 ok, its only a snapshot, but the last time I was in a and e there were a number of people who were completely wasting the nurses time, one came in because he had a cough! And what about the drunks, they infest a and departments.completely wasting time and nhs money. There was a study about this recently, very few people actually make nuisance visits to A&E, and A&E is only a minor part of the NHS. ---------- Post added 12-06-2014 at 07:40 ---------- Being able to afford it is not an excuse for wasting taxpayers money. One step that could be taken is making drunks pay for the treatment they receive. Go to any A&E on a Friday/Saturday night and look at the resources being wasted. look at the abuse and danger staff face. Take it a step further, anyone needing A&E services is automatically charged £10, reclaimable if the doctor agrees the need is genuine. My estimate is that the use of A&E services would fall by about 20%. An estimate shared by front line people I know. Its time to stop pussy footing around this issue. The NHS is in mortal danger and will fail unless it stops being abused by those who are perfectly capable of looking after themselves and use the NHS as a prop to their lifestyle choices, the drunks, smokers and obese have to know that the party is over. And those that do sport as well, they know they're risking injury. And the party at fault in a road accident, it's their own fault. In fact, with the exception of acts of god and bacterial or viral diseases, pretty much everything is down to behaviour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonzo77 Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 Being able to afford it is not an excuse for wasting taxpayers money. One step that could be taken is making drunks pay for the treatment they receive. Go to any A&E on a Friday/Saturday night and look at the resources being wasted. look at the abuse and danger staff face. Take it a step further, anyone needing A&E services is automatically charged £10, reclaimable if the doctor agrees the need is genuine. My estimate is that the use of A&E services would fall by about 20%. An estimate shared by front line people I know. Its time to stop pussy footing around this issue. The NHS is in mortal danger and will fail unless it stops being abused by those who are perfectly capable of looking after themselves and use the NHS as a prop to their lifestyle choices, the drunks, smokers and obese have to know that the party is over. The NHS is for treating people with health issues, that includes injuries. If you're talking about pussy footing around the subject, lets not spend billions on a sodding train that will do sod all but get people to London faster and rip up the countryside. Lets not spend billions on pointless nuclear weapons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ratter71 Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 Being able to afford it is not an excuse for wasting taxpayers money. One step that could be taken is making drunks pay for the treatment they receive. Go to any A&E on a Friday/Saturday night and look at the resources being wasted. look at the abuse and danger staff face. What is a drunk though? Is it somebody who has: Drunk so much alcohol they cant ambulate Drunk a lot of alcohol and been assaulted Drunk some alcohol and been assaulted Drunk a lot of alcohol and had chest pains Drunk a small amount of alcohol and had chest pains Where is the line drawn? There can be non drink related problems in someone who is drunk. And how do you know they are drunk until they are treated- hypoxic or hypoglycemic until proven otherwise. Take it a step further, anyone needing A&E services is automatically charged £10, reclaimable if the doctor agrees the need is genuine. My estimate is that the use of A&E services would fall by about 20%. An estimate shared by front line people I know. And how many wouldnt access help as they are worried about the cost? In particular the older in society, for example little Mavis sat in her flat convincing herself those chest pains probably are indigestion and she cant afford to spend £10 sorting out indigestion. As well as a section of society who abuse A&E there is a section who suffer in silence as they "dont want to bother anybody", these would be more affected by a charging system IMO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tzijlstra Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 The reason diabetes is on the up is less to do with obesity than it is to do with age. Again, this is an issue related to the aging population and has little to do with the headlines people like tagging onto stuff like this about abuse of the service and so on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daneha Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 The reason diabetes is on the up is less to do with obesity than it is to do with age. Again, this is an issue related to the aging population and has little to do with the headlines people like tagging onto stuff like this about abuse of the service and so on. We can't stop people getting old, but we can encourage young people to lead an healthier life style so that when they do get old they don't become such a burden on everyone else. An healthy younger generation will also mean more resources available for them when they get old. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ratter71 Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 We can't stop people getting old, but we can encourage young people to lead an healthier life style so that when they do get old they don't become such a burden on everyone else. An healthy younger generation will also mean more resources available for them when they get old. [devils advocate] things that are bad for you are taxed heavily, if a person smokes 20 a day they are paying a lot of tax and shortening there life span significantly. would the country have more resources if everybody smoked and only lived till an average of 75 or nobody smoked and everybody averaged 95 [/devils advocate] Just a point to ponder, ive no idea but would GB PLC survive if we all became health freaks? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonzo77 Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 [devils advocate] things that are bad for you are taxed heavily, if a person smokes 20 a day they are paying a lot of tax and shortening there life span significantly. would the country have more resources if everybody smoked and only lived till an average of 75 or nobody smoked and everybody averaged 95 [/devils advocate] Just a point to ponder, ive no idea but would GB PLC survive if we all became health freaks? If all smokers suddenly stopped today; the NHS would go under. No question of that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daven Posted June 12, 2014 Author Share Posted June 12, 2014 The reason diabetes is on the up is less to do with obesity than it is to do with age. Again, this is an issue related to the aging population and has little to do with the headlines people like tagging onto stuff like this about abuse of the service and so on. Sadly this is not the case. Type 2 diabetes is becoming more common in young people due to obesity. The cost of care due to the complications of diabetes in the future is frightening - not to mention the human cost. http://consumer.healthday.com/encyclopedia/diabetes-13/misc-diabetes-news-181/type-2-diabetes-and-kids-the-growing-epidemic-644152.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ballista Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 There was a study about this recently, very few people actually make nuisance visits to A&E, and A&E is only a minor part of the NHS. ---------- Post added 12-06-2014 at 07:40 ---------- And those that do sport as well, they know they're risking injury. And the party at fault in a road accident, it's their own fault. In fact, with the exception of acts of god and bacterial or viral diseases, pretty much everything is down to behaviour. If people are taking part in dangerous sports or indeed any sport that is likely to cause injury they should be appropriately insured. We would not expect anyone involved in motor sport to be uninsured. You could easily extend road accidents into insurance liability areas. But this is not my major point, why should the taxpayer pick up the bill for people who abuse themselves by misuse of drink drugs or food? ---------- Post added 12-06-2014 at 11:19 ---------- If all smokers suddenly stopped today; the NHS would go under. No question of that! You are looking at the loss of income through taxation, that could easily be shifted elsewhere, maybe to fast unhealthy food. You forget the savings that would be made by not having to treat the illnesses caused by smoking. ---------- Post added 12-06-2014 at 11:23 ---------- The NHS is for treating people with health issues, that includes injuries. If you're talking about pussy footing around the subject, lets not spend billions on a sodding train that will do sod all but get people to London faster and rip up the countryside. Lets not spend billions on pointless nuclear weapons. Absolutely correct, I fully agree, but that doesn't mean we should squander money on people whose lifestyle means they become a burden on the NHS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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