Who should get help from the NHS?

Question:

Should the NHS be off limits to foreigners? A private company would be bankrupt in days if it was to conduct itself the way the NHS does! When people from the UK go abroad they have to take out private insurance to ensure medical help, and yet foreign nationals can come here and be treated on the NHS for absolutely free. What are your thoughts?

Answers:
The very nature of the NHS means that the system is open to abuse, and in my experience as a nurse, it's mainly the citizens of this country that abuse it. For example, a man in his 30's comes to outpatients for an appointment by ambulance. There is nothing stopping him from getting the bus, except he can't afford it. He is on the dole, yet smokes 20 a day and drinks over 40 units of alcohol a week. At the other end of the spectrum, an 85 year old lady was told by her GP that they wouldn't provide an ambulance for her appointment (15 miles away, no fault of her own) because they were clamping down on 'unnecessary expenditure'.

In my previous job in A&E in a busy London hospital we saw people from every race, creed and colour. In a multicultural society we should not discriminate on these grounds, especially if that person needs urgent medical attention. I would hate to see the NHS go the way of other health care systems, particularly America. Imagine you're lying in the road after being attacked. The paramedic's first question isn't 'can you hear me, are you alright?' - it's 'have you got insurance?'

The NHS is stretched almost to breaking point, but in no way is it the fault of foreigners overstretching it, it's the fault of the government for appointing too many managers and running the NHS like a target driven business.

People who get caught abusing the system should be made to pay for the service they abused, and it should go no further than that. Foreign visitors to the UK are always asked if they have been in the UK for 12 months or more, if it's less than that then they have to pay.

The fundamental principle of the NHS has always been 'free care at the point of delivery', and I would be extremely sorry to see that principle dropped - our healthcare system is the best in the world and we should be proud of it.

That is why they come over here becuase the NHS is free. Thye should be made to pay for it like we have to when we go abroad, but this Government won't allow mit. Good Relations and all that.

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Who should get help from the NHS?

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