Quote:
Originally Posted by Nedusa
I heard about this proposal, a sort of medical congestion charge designed to make serial visitors to their GP think again.
It is estimated that over 25,000 GP appointments every year are unecessary and are made for non health reasons by people who are lonely or have other social problems.
The £10 charge per visit is thought may reduce the number of unnecessary appointments and reduce the burden on the NHS...!!!
|
Personally I'm not entirely againt discouraging visits to the GP and educating people on minor health issues instead, but it should only apply if the visit is deemed "unnecessary". People get a GP appointment for all sorts of things. Little skin irritation? To the GP! Little Timmy has a cough? Quick, he must need antibiotics, call the doctor!
... Most of the time these minor things can be cleared up by visiting a pharmacy and asking for advice (e.g. skin irritations and minor things like that) and also, people NEED to start being better educated on whether or not any treatment is required at all. I know people who cart their kids off to the doctor for every single sniffle. 99% of the time, it's just not necessary, let them veg out for a couple of days and it'll clear itself up!
However, applying it to chronically ill people and the elderly seems barbaric, as they genuinely NEED to see a medical professional often, sometimes weekly or more. Applying it there ... No.
Then again, I have no idea how it could be implemented "fairly" at all, so maybe best to just not implement any sort of charge and stick with basic health education for people. Most people are completely ignorant to how their own body works, and how to nurse minor ailments... Which is ridiculous, if you think about it.