Reform Of The Nhs

[Kidorry]

I think our doctors have gone back to the old system because I phoned at 09-15 and got an appointment for the same day. Great.

[L00b]

On 22/11/2022 at 20:37, harvey19 said:

Thank you.

Two final questions if you don't mind.

What happens if the patient is unable to pay upfront ?(in the 30 day period)

 Are the population happy with this type of service or do they call for any changes ?

 

I was rereading an old post and caught your further edit (in bold).
 

Let’s just sort the terminology first: the 30 days payment period is not ‘upfront’. ‘Upfront’ usually means that someone pays in advance. That 30 days payment period is a credit, and discretionary (not all healthcare professionals/structures do it).

 

If the patient was unable to pay, then eventually debt recovery, bailiffs, etc.
 

Nobody doesn’t pay bills here. It’s considered extremely damaging to your financial health and business/career/etc. prospects. It’s just not done. So if one cannot afford, one does not purchase. Healthcare-wise, that’s how and where the means testing kicks in.

 

Oh, and topically with the more recent discussion: a missed appointment that didn’t get cancelled according to a practice’s T&Cs (e.g. by 08:30 latest on the day) is charged the same as if the patient had attended. For a GP visit, €57 invoice on the doormat, within 24-48hr of the missed appointment. So, even for the more absent-minded or care-free, it tends to focus the mind, they’d rarely do it twice 😉😆

If they don’t pay, see above. And they get kicked off that practice’s client list (if not on a ‘1st offence’, then pretty much guaranteed on a 2nd)…and, this being a rather small place with rather short feedback loops, good luck getting onboarded at another practice, that’s not dozens of miles away.

Edited December 5, 2022 by L00b

[El Cid]

10 hours ago, *_ash_* said:

 

This post seems a little odd. (or more odd!). 

 

I thought you were totally against this?

 

What do you want?!

 

We are all influenced by the media. The Government don't give the NHS enough money and then people wonder why it's performing poorly. It's because we are all getting older, people cannot be discharged and are bed blocking, their money has risen, but there are more obesity, but we are still living longer 

[Anna B]

1 hour ago, El Cid said:

We are all influenced by the media. The Government don't give the NHS enough money and thenpeople wonder why it's performing poorly. It's because we are all getting older, people cannot be discharged and are bed blocking, their money has risen, but there are more obesity, but we are still living longer 

What happened to the old NHS Convalescent Homes?

[harvey19]

1 hour ago, Anna B said:

What happened to the old NHS Convalescent Homes?

I wonder why these were discontinued ?

Going back in history there must have been thousands of WW1 and later WW2 servicemen who were permanently injured that needed constant nursing/care.

So when we talk of extra demands on the NHS it has to be remembered this workload no longer exists.

The opposite argument is that there hasn't been the reduction in population due to massive war deaths of service people and civilians.

We have a population that lives longer and an immigrant population larger than before.

Sophisticated equipment and procedures which we did not have in years gone by.

Many things have changed over the years but sadly all we seem to hear more money is needed. Money is needed but future planning and different ways of doing things may help ease the way things are.

Listening to some people today it seems that the only motivater is money which I do not believe is so. A fair days pay for a fair days work is the starting point but Maslow in his theory explains the other human needs.

 

[fools]

2 hours ago, dan_999uk said:

If it helps, the practice in question has 5 GPs, 4 practitioners, 3 practice nurses, 2 HCAs, 2 pharmacists, 3 administrators, 3 managers and 7 receptionists. 

 

It's open for ten hours, five days a week. 

 

I've no reason to believe that the figures provided are made up, given the context I heard them in.

Even if we assume they are all full time and all manning the phone and doing 10 hr days, 2244 calls divided by 29 people = 77 calls each every day ... doesn't leave much time for doing any work. 688,000 inbound calls a year for 9000 patients

Edited December 5, 2022 by fools

[Anna B]

Nobody has mentioned that it was usually the woman in the family that took care of ageing relatives. Now it takes two incomes to run a household, both partners have to work and are no longer available to do it. Same goes for volunteering and unpaid charity work.

 

A family carer gets the princely sum of about £60 a week for 24/7 care.(and this sum I believe is stopped out of the old person's benefits.) Hardly enough to make up for a salary. Compare this with the £1,000  week it's supposed to cost for a person in a care home. Maybe if a home carer was paid a proper wage to look after an elderly relative, the bed blocking phenomenon might disappear.

 

 

[El Cid]

14 minutes ago, Anna B said:

Nobody has mentioned that it was usually the woman in the family that took care of ageing relatives. Now it takes two incomes to run a household, both partners have to work and are no longer available to do it.

 

Don't we have increasing numbers of single parents?

I have run a household single handed for 20 years.

[Kidorry]

Just a very small point about the waste of money and non co-operation in the N.H.S. I got a letter from the Hallamshire on the 7th Dec. telling me that I had got an appointment on the 1st Dec. which I had already been too.