Surely every doctor should expect this upon entering general practice.
Are GPs useless?
- Thread starter powlesY
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Surely every doctor should expect this upon entering general practice.
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I think part of the point of paying more than the market value for a lot of medications is so that the NHS can fund the more expensive ones, if you removed that, tax would increase massively. The NHS does fund prescriptions fully if you're on low income.
The problem with these discussions are that they just produce polarised views. As someone who does know what they are on about professionally and has had to frequently use GPs for members of my family I would paint a very different picture. I could tell you about the astounding GP who saved my daughters life, my GP who pushed against hospital consultants who should not have been in their post, to the GP who ignored massive problems in my son, to a merely competent GP who had a child who had been through the same as my lad and therefore treated us with an empathy and a personal touch I don't think he would have afforded another patient.
The simple fact is that the NHS is underfunded for its allotted task. When it is well funded on an international scale eg specialised paediatric services then it not only does a good job it does a world beating job. Just because someone says they have had a bad experience does not make all GPs bad and to deny there aren't quite a few bad ones is equally stupid. But you get what you pay for folks and considering that you don't pay a lot but you do get an awful lot.
Edit: Oh and moaning about the cost of getting brufen and paracetamol on a computer forum about overclocking expensive PC components just comes across a bit retarded.
The simple fact is that the NHS is underfunded for its allotted task. When it is well funded on an international scale eg specialised paediatric services then it not only does a good job it does a world beating job. Just because someone says they have had a bad experience does not make all GPs bad and to deny there aren't quite a few bad ones is equally stupid. But you get what you pay for folks and considering that you don't pay a lot but you do get an awful lot.
Edit: Oh and moaning about the cost of getting brufen and paracetamol on a computer forum about overclocking expensive PC components just comes across a bit retarded.
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The profit is around 120 million per annum, so that's like £5 in tax.
Think you're in the wrong thread, I never complained about the cost.
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That's the profit from it after the expensive drugs are funded, surely?
Correct but sort of thinking is over his head
Wish it was that fast where i am, 2 weeks to get appointment, another week wait for x-ray, then a 2 week wait before the x ray is even looked at. In the mean time my shoulder has dislocated 2 more times and i can barely move it at the moment
It's not the nhs phone/tv/internet service. It's a private company called patientline, complain to them. Your anger seems to be targeted at the wrong people.
It's like If you went to a garage to get your car fixed, there was an excellent mechanic but his boss only allowed him a fraction of the time needed to check it out/diagnose the problem and then restrict the tools and parts he can use etc, all the time being rushed to meet targets by the company boss to make the numbers look good. You would still blame the mechanic.
Yes but once you look at the prescription cost analysis data you see that a great proportion of prescriptions are for costly branded products, the average net ingredient cost is far lower overall when these are removed from the equation.
It's the NHS hospitals choice to use patient line, ergo they are the ones to blame, tv's and telephones are not expensive, why should vulnerable patients be exploited in their time of suffering? I've never paid 50p per minute to ring private hospitals.
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Particularly annoying when you consider most NHS hospitals could quite cheaply offer skype as a solution instead of rent-a-phone companies.
I don't think people mind paying to make a phone call, but most do get annoyed at the rip-off pricing.
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That's why generics are so much cheaper.
Are you really saying drugs should be sold for the cost of ingredients? if so your simply stupid and have no idea how the world works or your 12 years old.
Do you know the average cost of R&D for a new drug is about $4 to $5 billion per drug
It is a decision made by the NHS trust though to get the service so it is justifiable to complain about them rather than the company they subcontract to. Not that it matters as the last couple of times I have been in hospital I have just used my mobile...
It's like If you went to a garage to get your car fixed, there was an excellent mechanic but his boss only allowed him a fraction of the time needed to check it out/diagnose the problem and then restrict the tools and parts he can use etc, all the time being rushed to meet targets by the company boss to make the numbers look good. You would still blame the mechanic.
I don't know about you, but in that situation I would use a different garage, with healthcare we do not really have that choice.
Neither here nor there to be honest. Increase taxation and pay for the cost of perscriptions out of that. We either have a free at point of use system or we don't. At the moment we have a "free at point of use for some people, an additional charge may be applied for others".
Do you know the average cost of R&D for a new drug is about $4 to $5 billion per drug
You really should make sure that's correct before posting it here, do you have a source? As I can't find anything which states it anywhere near as high as that.
I think the point he was making is that procurement in the NHS isn't good and could be vastly improved by pushing for better deals from drug companies. We are the cash cow for them and as much as it makes me feel better to know that they use the profits from the NHS to help the people in Africa with cheap and free drugs, frankly that's not what the NHS is here for.
YES EXACTLY! but you DO have a choice. You can vote/campaign against continuous cuts by the government(s) or you can accept the NHS as-is and start paying out of your own pocket for private health care. It shouldn't be like that BUT IT IS. I won't be suprised when in the not so distant future your free health care will cover A&E and lifesaving treatments only and trips to the GP will have to be paid for as will pretty much else.
As for the cost the patientline, yes I agree, its truly disgusting for them to take advantage of a captive audience. To play devils advocate at the time that they were installed it looked really good...A personal television, internet access, radio, telephone for each patient. But then you find out it costs easily £5 a day to pay for it! Now, the reason for the patientline units is again down to poor management decisions by those in suits and pressure to do it due to financial restrictions. If I remember right each unit cost £400 but was provided free by patientline, as well as them paying for the contract. So the NHS makes a few quid out of the deal to help fund services but then the patients get stung (if they choose to use the service).
Its a kin to the parking sutuation at the hospital I work at now. The NHS sold the contract to a private parking firm who throw tickets around like they are confetti but even forgetting that I think its disgusting that staff should have to pay to park at work let alone patients and visitors!
The point I am making is that all these things and most of the problems we all encounter with the NHS are due to insufficient funding and poor management decisions. IT IS NOT THE FAULT OF THE DOCTORS, NURSES OR OTHER HCP's - they just have to work in this shambles and try to do the best job they can in spite of being severley restricted and bound by poor management, goverment targets and crippled budget. If you want something done about it start saving for private healthcare or VOTE because its not getting any better.
Except the NHS has been pretty much this way for years, so to blame it on the current government is a little odd.
So the main problem with the NHS is funding? Why then did we not see a massive increase in the service provided by the NHS when their budget was massively increased?