I think we probably need to decide on this board whether we want politics threads to be a discussion where a number of alternative viewpoints can be accommodated, or just deteriorate into an angry partisan slanging match.

And I say that as someone who is totally guilty myself of needlessly calling someone a cunt.

    bosstrabs If Dutchy produces some numbers and genuine data that backs up his assertion about ‘healthcare tourism’, he’ll have my heartfelt and absolute apology.

      Old-Dutch

      That’s not entirely true. Fact is, the providers time is already paid for irrespective of who they see. A good amount of health services is a sunk cost simply by having people available and the space available - it’s already paid for. If they can show that they are seeing people with no chance of reimbursement over seeing people who do…well then they can start adding up the numbers. Reimbursements are also a fraction of what is billed. Hell, in our system, if the bill isn’t paid or even addressed in 12 months, we just write it off - the doctor, nurse, bed, whatever else were already there anyway so who cares.

          bosstrabs I think we probably need to decide on this board whether we want politics threads to be a discussion where a number of alternative viewpoints can be accommodated, or just deteriorate into an angry partisan slanging match.

          Deteriorate into an angry partisan slanging match, obvs.

              C_J The real issue is that people are living longer and living fatter.

              Nothing that the system couldn’t cope with if it was funded and managed properly, should the government wish to do so.

                Are you still unemployed Amps?

                Funny how folk living off benefits never feel like tax is too high eh?

                  C_J Awwww, we where having a proper discussion and you went for the cheap shot. As it happens, yes I am unemployed, but no, I’m not claiming any benefits,

                    Ok, so to recap - in a thread where we are all (correctly) annoyed by the fact that NHS workers have been only awarded a 1% pay rise, I make a post about the NHS itself needing to reform and post one example of how it is not running as efficiently as it could / should.

                    Wally completely misunderstands / misinterprets what I am saying and then pretty much tries to call me a racist for saying it. He then asks for evidence of how much the NHS pays out in unrecoved costs it incurs for providing healthcare for people who should have the costs of their healthcare recharged to their own countries as agreed within national agreements.

                    We seem to have agreed that the sum comes somewhere into the figure of hundreds of millions (lol). Wally dismisses this figure as chicken feed in the grand scheme of things. What business can afford to write off hundreds of millions of cost recovery? There will be none - if there was they would have gone out of business a very long time ago.

                    This is what I mean when I say the NHS needs reform. I have worked in the public sector and loosely aligned to the NHS on a number of occasions over the last 20 years.

                    I for one feel great that the NHS is so flush with cash that it can afford to write off hundreds of millions of taxpayers money yet only give our Drs and nurses a 1% pay increase after all the shit they’ve been through this year.

                    This is merely one example of the organisation being wasteful / not business-like enough. How many others will there be?

                      You read what you like into it mate. Any accusation you feel I made was, like, totally correct and not you projecting.

                      Also, you seem to think public services are similar to private businesses in how they are financed and that they have to turn a profit. You are mistaken. That’s not how it works at all. Tax being compulsory and all that.