The Christchurch Hospital has seen visits to its emergency department rise by more than 7,000. This is a perfect example of people abusing "free" services. Consider the circumstances of some of the patients. Turning up for blood tests and x-rays; because they don't have a GP to go to; for social problems; because they need a bed for the night; for non-acute psychiatric problems; for "flu, colds, upper respiratory tract infections, sprains, strains and bruises or those whose only problem was being drunk."
I've been to A&E twice. Once when my toddler first choked on, then swallowed a screw extracted from her high chair and again when my son had acute appendicitis. Both times I was surprised at the patients waiting with no apparent urgent complaint. To be fair I guess my toddler's problem wasn't highly visible.
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This to me ws the problem with the NHS in the UK. We lived in a small village with a lot of retired people. It was very difficult to get a doctors' appointment, because the surgery was fully-booked days in advance (eg. if you were off-work with a severe cold and needed a doctors' certificate, you were often "better" before the doctor could see you three days later!). Talking with the doctors & nurses, they said that their two main problems were:
1.) People not turning up: People would make an appointment, then not turn-up (maybe they had got better!) without cancelling. There was no disincentive not to cancel.
2.) Hypocondriacs and other time-wasters. Again, because it was free, people would make appointments for trivial complaints (bruises, runny nose, splinters), and the doctors said that in a village with a high number of older people - the sad fact was that these people would go to the doctor because they were lonely!
ANother aspect to this was covered in New Scientist a while back - a nominal charge for any service has another benefit akin to the placebo effect - people expect that something they have paid for will be better than something they have got for free.
I always felt that a nominal GBP5 fee for going to the doctor would greatly improve the NHS.
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