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Privatising GPs has started

donnellysdogs

Master
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Location
Northampton
Type of diabetes
Type 1
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An article in Pulse magazine for GPs has now publicised that

‘Uber-style' private GP appointment service primed for national roll-out..

http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/your-pr...primed-for-national-roll-out/20032808.article

Apparently it has been trialled in places across London with GPs offering paid appointments to suit patients.

Now apparently this is going to be rolled out further across UK.

Is this the start of the end? Or will it improve availability for others relying on NHS for critical illnesses?

Whats people thoughts regarding this, has anybody in London heard of this? Does anybody know whether the appt is private fee paid and the drugs still through NHS?

Mod edit to include a link to the Pulse article.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Everybody knew it was coming, and still voted Tory!
 
As far as I know most GP's are part of a private enterprise, whose customer is the NHS
 
If it operates like the private GPs I've used through our work scheme, it will be like dentists. Anything done on a private appointment will generate a private prescription where you have to pay for the items at full price, not an NHS prescription where you pay nothing if you have a Medical Card.
 
We were talking to a consultant yesterday when we were having coffee,he said the NHS would be finished in two years.
 
Patricia21 said:
We were talking to a consultant yesterday when we were having coffee,he said the NHS would be finished in two years.
Click to expand...

Not by any stretch of the imagination would the NHS be finished in 2 years @Patricia21 , it would be a brave person(s)/ government that implemented it, imagine the backlash...........
 
I do think the NHS is slowly deteriorating and may be not 2 years but certainly is in decline. My husband has been waiting for an appointment with the gastroenterologist for 3 months and when I chased it up today was told he was on a waiting list and hopefully would get an appointment by next January as they are only booking people waiting from March at the moment.
I also was referred for an urgent appointment for my glaucoma which came through as routine disregarded all the info and proof my GP sent and now it's 6 October bang in the middle of the next doctors strike . I just feel like banging my head on the wall !
 
From first going in hospital with awful pain ,it took eight months to take my gall bladder out.
 
There was something on the news about this the other night, comparing us with other European countries and Australia. We seem to come out better all round.

I have nothing but good things to say about the NHS in my area. I haven't had to wait long for anything, and when I had breast cancer it was like a whirlwind how fast everything happened. My only moan is the diabetic dietary advice, and hospital car parks.
 
Hi. GPs have always been privatised to the extent they are self-employed people offering their services to the NHS for payment. Not until we are made to start paying to see a GP (or at A&E) like the dentist will the NHS start to improve. It is currently on the road to ruin unless we start being charged. This would discourage visits for colds etc which waste a lot of surgery time. The NHS would need simply massive amounts of money to overcome funding deficits and in some areas it needs a non-civil service style of management to improve efficiency and customer service if our local hospital is anything to go by.
 
Where I live now, the hospital has been in special measures for nearly a year and I do admit when I visited my mum there, the hospital was disgusting. Personally I have had no need to get treatment there as yet, but going by family who have been referred there, they have had months to wait for an appointment. I know with my mum, she waited 5 months to see the orthopedic surgeon for first consultation for first hip replacement and 7 months for the second hip to be done. She was classed as urgent for both hips. First hip, she waited 10 months from seeing the consultant to having hip replaced and 8 months for the second from seeing the consultant.
Personally, I do feel that in a few years time we will have no nhs
 
I have got to say when I have been in hospital I have been very well looked after,but it was six months for my knee replacement ,seven months for hip replacement,and eight months for gall bladder.
 
This is actual patients paying to see GP's privately...
Yes, Some GPs are salaried and some are partners at the moment. Some have massed together in federations etc.

But this is for the first time GPs privately being paid for appointments. Not just for Insurance purposes, or vaccinations for travel purchases etc.

I too, have had some briliant NHS care through hospitals in my life time and some great GPs too.

This isn't in any shape or form demonising the NHS, is just how we, the patient feels, about paying for an appointment with a GP?

If this is being rolled out nationwide, would you consider paying for an appointment with GP to discuss your diabetes for example?
 
As far as I understand it, it isn't compulsory to pay to see a GP. It is voluntary. It is no different from people who pay to see a Consultant privately rather than wait for however long. I know many people that have done this. It isn't queue jumping as such, it is freeing up a place for someone else.
 
@donnellysdogs - Services such as these have been around for a while, and in Pulse, or one of the other online resources, they were advertising months ago, for GP, on sessional rates, for a coupe of sessions a week/month or how often the GP wanted to commit.

Many of these services operate over Skype, with payments by Credit Cards.
 

Well, bearing in mind some T2s never see a GP for their diabetes, as they only see the practise nurse, for some it might be the only easily obtainable access to a Doctor if they want one.

I can't see these things working ideally for diabetes as that would require multiple appoints, with bloods included.
 
But they have been around for ages anyway.. When I worked in the City there were places called "Medicentre" where you could go and see a GP almost immediately and of course pay for the privilege. They were ok and I used them a few times. There was even one at Victoria Station for commuters. I think it was about £75.00 for a consultation. They are in fact still going now. At the time I could afford it and it was more convenient than time off from work to see my local GP.
 

I agree that consultants you can see in nhs or private settings but it is a first for GPs to start this. It states on Pulse online that GPs can do this in their spare time.... Most of GPs at two of my recent practices only worked 6 sessions (3 days) do I guess they would have 2 free days (if going on the average hours a working person is targeted to work-40-42hrs??). My last two practices only talk about sessions that GPs work. Ie my current GP works 6 sessions (all day Mon, Weds Fri).

I have never actually had any GP that is listed as working 10 seasions.

Anyhow, I think on the basis of my GP's sessions worked it would be a good thing, but I fear for areas a d persons that are poor or struggling with finances. I wish I could copy over the link from the article..
 
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