Posted on 04/22/2007 9:46:48 PM PDT by jdm
Increasing numbers of patients are paying for private "top-up" treatments alongside NHS care, meaning the health service is no longer free, leading doctors are warning.While politicians often claim care is free at the point of delivery "this mantra is now a political mirage," their report says.
The group has written to Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt, the opposition parties and the Royal Colleges, asking for a debate on the future of healthcare funding.
The study, published by the group Doctors for Reform, was written by three doctors, including Karol Sikora, professor of cancer medicine at Imperial College School of Medicine.
It says that patients are developing "sophisticated approaches to purchasing upgrades to their care", including in key areas like cancer and heart disease.
The report blamed patchy provision of NHS services across the UK, long waiting times and varied quality.
"Without reform to health funding, the use of "top-up" payments is likely to increase," the study concludes.
The Department of Health said: "Nobody should have to pay for any available NHS service, but patients have always had the choice of paying for private healthcare if they so wish."
Trust me, anyone in Britain who can afford extra health insurance carries extra health insurance. When you need your gall bladder out, you really don’t want to wait 2 years for a surgery appointment.
You dont mean to say that people would immigrate to another country to get free health care do you?
Why that is a racist remark!
Those people are just trying to better their lives.
If that means they need free health care to better their lives who are we to say they are wrong (just because we have to pay the bills)!
/Sarcasm
free ?
“Trust me, anyone in Britain who can afford extra health insurance carries extra health insurance.”
Sorry. When I lived in Britain everybody that I knew, who could afford it, carried private insurance. And you waited 6 weeks for an angioplasty? You are lucky to still be with us. My husband’s cousin waited 2 years for a gall bladder op and my sister-in-law spent the first night, after having her first child, in the hall of the hospital because there weren’t any beds available. Having worked in health care in Britain, I like our system much better.
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