According to a report issued by the NHS Confederation, the
body that represents all NHS trusts, frank discussions are needed on ways to
shore up NHS finances. Among the suggestions outlined in the report as means of
raising funds are proposals that patients should be charged for calling out a
doctor to their home (a pilot scheme has been trialled in Germany) and should
pay for meals. Patients should also have to pay to watch television, an idea
that some NHS trusts are already considering.
Although the Confederation said that there are no plans in
place to initiate a system of charges, opponents have expressed outrage. The
proposed call out charge, set at £8.50, has raised concerns about patent
safety. In fact, one survey has found that if a charge was imposed 24% of
patients would delay in making a call to the doctor, while some 18% would not
call at all. Katherine Murphy, Chief Executive of the Patients Association,
claims that such charges would amount to a tax on patients and are contrary to
the NHS’s principle of “free at the point of use.” She adds that patients
should not have to pay for reform of the NHS through new charges.
Chief Executive Mike Farrar, however, says that open and
honest discussions are needed about why the NHS must change. He says, “We
cannot risk the wheels coming off and patient care suffering.”
The report warns that the NHS may need radical proposals as
it faces spiralling costs caused by an ageing population and rising levels of
obesity. The NHS currently spends 1.5% of its annual £100bn budget on propping
up Private Finance Initiative but this figure is expected to double in the next
ten years. In 2012, for the first time an NHS trust went into administration
and officials estimate that another 20 are facing a severe crisis.
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