It's all good being free at the point of use, but do you know that many pitch up at A&E almost every week of the year with one 'complaint' or another. They'll wait 4 hours for a couple of paracetamol. Instead of going a pharmacy to get help for a sore throat etc they'll go to A&E. Instead of buying a 32p packet of paracetamol they'll demand a free prescription that cost £8 to process. If you set something up that's free to use, with unlimited uses, a section of society will extract the lifeblood from it. Many people I work with in a local hospital will work extra hours every week without extra pay to try and keep their ward/ department going. Oh, and student nurses get charged £9250 per year just to enter the profession, at a time when there's not enough nurses coming through to make up for those who leave or retire. They pay the government to actually go to work! Yeah there might be ineffeciences and an army of people employed solely to chase government targets, but the public perception that our taxes is more than enough to keep the front line free to use is simply unattainable.
I don’t disagree but 1. Over the counter medicines (the ones not requiring a prescription) don’t give out. They can demand what they want but you don’t have to give. Or charge them the cost of giving those medicines at the same charge a Pharmacy would charge. A way of getting money into the system. If no money then no prescription. Add zero tolerance for abuse etc of staff. Add a big publicity campaign to make it clear as to what will happen in the future and most people won’t blame the staff. 2. Employ the right number and type of staff and pay them properly. Have more Indians with old fashioned standards and less Chiefs. That would allow proper pay to a degree. 3. Tax people directly and less indirect taxation. The £9,250 ( I don’t know what that is for so I’m guessing training fees or something similar) I would guess is indirect taxation. The problem with all Governments is that they are scared to increase taxes. I’m convinced people wouldn’t mind taxes being increased if it was direct and there was less indirect taxation and if it was used correctly. Simple example and it’s the principle as opposed to the figures which I am tying to get across. Increase the basic income tax rate by 2% for everyone. Ring fence every Government Departments current budget. From the additional 2% funds pay 1/2% to Education, 1/2% to Law and Order (Police and Courts), 1/2% to Elderly Care and the final 1/2% to Health . Most people I have discussed the above with would accept the increase in tax but the eternal issue is whether we can trust the politicians to do it as described. 4. Scrap Government targets and just simply employ proper management to run the NHS. Reduce management costs by not having so many management needs as automatically follows with the Trust system. I accept demands are much much greater than when the the NHS was set up. I also accept that people as a whole whine and whinge more and are more inclined to lodge complaints than before but treat each complaint on it’s merits and if someone is simply whining then say so. But for me the first step is run the damn thing properly at all levels and then see if and where it falls short and then decide what to do.
The fee student nurses have to pay is for their university degree. In my day, late 1980's, we got paid. It wasn't much but without it, I wouldn't have left engineering and joined the NHS. Student nurse numbers have dropped since university fees were introduced, especially for mature students, as they have to live or feed their families. And with no pay, but instead a £9k loan each year, many traditional entrants have not applied. The NHS needs a change of government and a reappraisal of goals to recover.
Aha, another of my many hobby horses, loans for students. They should be scrapped. Combine with that a significant reduction in the number of student places. Combine that with a significant increase in the number of apprenticeships and real jobs for kids leaving school. Also not sure why Nurses need a degree. Get Doctors to do Doctors jobs and get Nurses to “nurse”.
I don't think that they all need degrees. But there's no choice now. The NHS is continually changing and its staff also need to change, to fulfil new roles along the way. For instance, nurses may have been linked with jobs such as giving patients their tablets, change their dressings and help them in and out of the shower etc. But jobs have changed in the last 20 years. Nurses can do much more these days! Go to your GP surgery and you may see a nurse practitioner to manage your respiratory, cardiac or diabetic medications. A nurse in a doctors surgery might prescribe a wide range of medications, that traditionally would have be the sole responsibility of a qualified doctor. So clinical roles are changing, with the major roles between what doctors and specialist nurses do becoming increasingly similar.
Even here 350kr is expensive to a working class person. But I'd say a £10 bill would be fair for everyone. That being said, I actually advocate for only people with the means paying for doctors visits. Not a blanket fee.
Ah man, I got a lot of grief for this comment on social media but university fees are generally and investment in yourself and if you don't get the higher paid job then you don't pay as much, if any, back so its not too bad. However, and this is the part where the abuse came, I would suggest we allow doctors, nurses etc to earn their qualifications for free but some of the more "mickey mouse" degrees should be paid for. Back to the NHS, I'm well aware that people abuse it and try to get a free prescription rather than buy medication from supermarket, that does need addressing. If you need copious amounts of those types of medication long term then that's fine, if not you should pay the cost of a prescription which will be more than just buying it from chemist or supermarket in the first place. People need to stop wasting the NHS' time, we need to take responsibility to an extent but it absolutely needs to stay free at point of use (save people taking the piss with prescriptions)
I’m of the old fashioned view on degrees. It’s an investment by the Country into the potential “leaders” of the future in the widest sense of the word. Those going to University “pay” for the privilege by paying more tax. Reduce the number of available places for University and you could likely get to a position where loans are not required. For me it’s morally wrong to give youngsters a “debt” of £28,000+ at the start of their adult life. I would also guess that the debt acts as a disincentive to lots of youngsters, firstly, in going to University and, secondly, in taking jobs on the borderline of where the repayment becomes due.
You'd be amazed at how many graduates end up in **** dead end job, or ones that are a million miles away from what they studied for 4 years. My team at work alone has a German degree, Sports Science and Events Management, they basic role revolves around admin.
Doesn’t really surprise me to be honest. One of those degrees you have listed isn’t a degree subject if not two of them. You don’t need a degree to organise an event. It’s just padding by Universities to extend the range of courses available to increase the pot of money coming in. It’s a classic example of how student numbers could easily be reduced by cutting the Mickey Mouse degree courses and redirecting that money into something more practical and beneficial to the kids and not the Universities such as Apprenticeships.
