With so much talk in the news recently regarding the possible cutting of government funding to the NHS and the £500m per year currently being spent on the treatment of overseas visitors, I have been thinking a lot about the subject and trying to establish what my own opinion on the matter is.
I have a lot of American friends who have struggled greatly to pay their medical bills, particularly after giving birth which costs an average of $30,000! Even with Insurance, they can be left having to pay thousands upon thousands of dollars out of their own pockets...
Hearing of how difficult this can be makes me extremely grateful to have a system like the NHS in place in this country, no matter how flawed it may be.
However, I do feel that there are many things that could be done to improve the way money is being spent by the NHS each year.
A recent news story reported that the NHS pay out £470,000 PER DAY on medical negligence claims against them - £470,000 per day?!!!
This seems like an awful lot of money, and it interested me that a recent survey showed that only 45% of people would sue the NHS if they felt that they had received inadequate treatment.
The same survey showed that 65% of people think that the NHS is wasting money.
I'm afraid I do have to agree on that one.
I worked for the NHS myself, albeit briefly, in an administrative role - the job itself was very straight forward and easy, probably one of the most simple jobs I have ever had. I couldn't understand at the time why the people who had worked there for years tried to make it out to be very difficult when infact it was anything but.
I soon realised that they were doing this in an attempt to make their wage seem justified - the amount of money I, as an entry level staff member, was paid for such a simple administrative job was quite frankly ridiculous. It was thousands of pounds over what the job deserved.
And when I found out how much money the people above me, the office manager in particular, was being paid - I was shocked.
The wages were FAR too high for what the job involved, and surely that money would be far better spent elsewhere within the NHS?!
I'm all for Drs and Nurses etc being paid highly for the jobs they do, but does a simple office worker filling in forms every day really need to be paid so highly?! SO much higher than they would be paid for doing the same job in a solicitors firm for example?
What are your thoughts on how the NHS spends money? Is the government right to cut funding? Would you or have you ever sued the NHS for inadequate treatment? As always, I'd love to hear from you!
