The Tories are thinking of limiting the number of times a patient can see their GP in a year.

This is simply wrong. While I have not seen my GP for years there are others with serious conditions who will see their GP regularly. It is simply a matter of averaging out those visits. Though maybe everyone should see their GP every year even as a precaution. It is cheaper to change behaviour than deal with the consequences.

I suspect it'll be a way of rationing the NHS, and at the same time creating "co-op" payments eg you're allowed to see your GP five times a year and any more than that you have to pay £££.

Bear in mind, the average taxpayer will pay around £68 per year to see their GP as many times as they want.

In an average year, this average taxpayer sees his GP exactly zero times. But still pays £68.

Which is a very regressive (tax) for the poor. What if the person had a chronic condition that required constant monitoring? Would the doctor get penalised for seeing the patient more or will the patient have their pension "taxed" to cover the costs? Also would the doctor get struck off for failing to treat his or her patients if it was required and they had already used up their quota? What about babies? They are dependent on adults and many are very anxious about protecting their child so will go as often as necessary. What then?


Same here, three times in twenty years.

Isn't that kind of the point, though? We pay into the system, even if we don't use the service we pay for. It's for the greater good.

And I've not called the police or fire brigade in the time I've been working (had to call an ambulance whilst on home visits or a poorly patient pops up to the surgery).


Which is why I posted it in the Fail section. I have some very unwell patients that I keep an eye on every 1-2 weeks. If they can't afford to pay, what do I do? What do they do?

Thankfully, it's only a possibility and not an actuality.

Well that's the point, both calculations are equally spurious. We (both of us) do not pay tax to finance the specific services we use. We pay them so that overall to live in a reasonable, functioning society. The fact that 'function x' is whatever percentage of overall expenditure (and therefore, ostensibly costs £y per taxpayer) is bunk. You don't pay individually for the currants in a toasted teacake. Equally we don't pay for our GP service. We pay taxes to finance 'the nhs', 'education', roads and etc. - a whole parcel of all the bits and pieces we collectively need not to live in misery.

Exactly - I don't have children, but I'm glad I help finance the schools because I don't like the thought of society becoming any more stupid.
I may not (yet) need to rely on the NHS, but given the number of people I know who are still rattling around this Earth because of the care and treatment they've received makes my tiny contribution astonishing good value.

Source?

http://www.standard.co.uk/panewsfeeds/t ... 32487.html
where I first spotted the story.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healt ... isits.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style ... 32396.html

It is called social insurance. It is why we pay taxes so that the unemployed do not have to sleep on the streets or become criminals to survive. I have never needed the fire brigade and hopefully never will. It is there should anyone need it.

Ahh. So its a discussion exercise that isn't conservative policy (yet).

Still does not mean that they will through it out as stupid. Most MP's probably have private health care and so are unaffected by such nonsense. Same for schools. While we all might think that it is stupid it has not stopped them trying again with the Communications Data Act recently.

I've tried posting and get this response:

General Error
SQL ERROR [ mysql4 ]

Incorrect string value: '\xEF\xBB\xBF ne...' for column 'post_text' at row 1 [1366]

An SQL error occurred while fetching this page. Please contact the Board Administrator if this problem persists.


I think this has happened to other folks before and it had something to do with copying and pasting text? I tried to do a couple of quotes from You Tube.