Should people who pay the basic rate of income tax be prioritised on NHS waiting lists?
The NHS waiting list in England stands at around 7.3 million cases with a median wait of nearly 12 weeks. Current prioritisation focuses on clinical urgency, with recent efforts also targeting deprived areas and ethnic groups facing longer waits. Proposals to link access to tax paid or income level have surfaced in debates about funding pressures and fairness, but the NHS remains free at the point of use for all legal residents funded through general taxation.
23 Opinions
It's hard enough to get seen in a timely manner already with the NHS. Imagine having to check a persons tax status before you can start treatment. Crazy
Treatment should be based on clinical need alone. End of story..
NHS care is meant to be there for everyone, free. Discriminating against certain types of people by using their monetary situation is unfair. This is the UK not the US.
NHS is for all, no priority should exist apart from on medical emergency and expected life afterwards. Eg children and young adults over pension aged for transplants. There should be no private healthcare in uk. Those with biggest pockets could investmore but this would not que jump but make it better for all.
All UK tax payers should be prioritised. All visitors to UK should have comprehensive insurance & NHS staff specifically mandated to collect on pain of sacking. Others should pay in advance. It’s not a charity but we are mugs allowing NHS to waste resources but forever bleat they don’t have enough.
Too broad a brush of exclusion, how does it work in a family where one person is acting as a carer for children and they need medical treatment? What about students do they deserve to be ignored if they aren't working?
If the NHS prioritised people who are actively working and contributing to society, then so many wouldn’t have to rely on private healthcare as a means of having to continue being a positive within society.
Every tax payer should get the same treatment. The problem is letting everyone else be treated for free and the illegals jumping the queues. Those with travel insurance should be treated as a tax payer and seen accordingly. Illegals, asylum seekers & refugees get treated once their homelands pay for the treatment, if they won't or don't pay the the person and their family is deported and banned from ever setting foot in the UK or commonwealth.
NHS should be prioritised for all British people. Foreign nationals in Emergency only. Charities can take up the slack they facilitate and welcome them anyway
NO Patients should be prioritised on clinical need, urgency & nothing else