Boots health checks – are you happy to pay?

And privatisation creeps furtively into the Health Service. I have a problem with this in many ways, but one is very simple: if GPs will be ‘free’ to do private visits, how come NHS patients have to wait?

I’d be fascinated to see the justification behind the idea. Boots wants to make money, of course – pure and simple – but GPs are already being paid by the NHS. If the argument is that it will reduce stress on the service, then bring in fines for those who make completely unnecessary calls, but don’t make people pay up front.

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One of the NHS’s big problems is that there are just not enough doctors to meet the needs that are presenting in ever-rising numbers. It’s no good building more hospitals or installing more beds and day treatment facilities if there will not be enough staff to cover them. So anything that abstracts doctors from the National Health Service is a bad move. Hospitals and Primary Care Practices are in a staffing merry-go-round and relying on temps, locums and overtime to cover the service. And yet we have a booming parallel private health system offering all manner of complex procedures of an elective nature leaving those with serious clinical conditions and injuries to be dealt with by a struggling service which, ironically, is actually so good that it is generating more demand than it can cope with. If every physician tied-up doing what I consider to be non-urgent vanity operations [and I know the counter arguments about confidence and self-esteem] were deployed into the NHS that would help. People wanting such procedures would then have to go abroad for them, but such interference in the freedom of surgeons to practice wherever they choose would not be tolerated by the profession and could also be counter-productive.

I have just one objection to the existence of privately funded hospitals carrying out treatments and procedures that would otherwise block up the NHS, and that is that they enable people to jump the queue; but I think that is an inescapable quid pro quo for which there is no satisfactory alternative; we should bear in mind also that such facilities provide valuable overspill bed-space for the NHS during peak admission periods. This is a free country and if people want quicker and more convenient treatment in a place that is more like a hotel than a laboratory they do have the right to pay for it. A lot of the consultants who serve in such establishments do also do work for the NHS [even if for no other reason than that it gives them valuable experience].

Getting back to Boots and the provision of drop-in health checks, examinations, minor treatments, and procedures of the kind that GP practices are supposed to be able to do virtually on demand, I think a lot of people will avail themselves notwithstanding the costs. They will not be wondering where the additional GP contact time is coming from and whether the NHS will suffer as a result [as it probably will]. So many people such as me have no alternative to having private dental treatment and have been paying for spectacles most of our lives. So a few pounds a year extra for dealing with a minor problem without bothering your GP will appeal to many. I sometimes ask for advice from the pharmacist on ailments, irritations and temporary skin complaints so it is really just an extension of that [except for the payment]. An increasingly affluent and time-sensitive population will welcome this service.

I am less happy about the flying doctor service projected through private home visits by established GP’s as this will deplete the resource available at the surgeries to deal with patients who will not be able to afford such a service. More driving time equals less patient contact time. The present out-of-hours NHS service is bad enough already without weakening it further by attracting doctors to a premium payment service. The doctors providing this service will either be doing it to the detriment of their contracted hours for their existing clinics and surgeries, or will be doing it in their own time to the detriment of their own health & safety and possibly that of their patients if there is no restriction on the hours they serve. There is a lack of information on this aspect of the Conversation so my comments could just be speculation.

I won’t give Boots a penny until they treat their staff properly and desist from treating the NHS as a cash-flow generator.
http://www.theguardian.com/news/2016/apr/13/how-boots-went-rogue

The Conversations about Optical Express provide a warning about poorly regulated healthcare. I’m concerned that Boots could be allowed to do checks for skin cancer and suggest that they stick to selling sun protection cream, preferably not the products that are revealed as sub-standard in the Which? tests.

Years ago we learned that privatisation of cleaning services resulted in unhygienic and sometimes filthy hospital wards and toilets. That was just the start. We need to campaign to stop healthcare services becoming a way of generating money.

Many have found private dentistry is so expensive that they cannot afford to have their teeth looked after properly. Carry on with privatisation of the NHS and some people will not receive the care that need because they will not be able to afford it. I have used private healthcare for around 25 years and it’s fast becoming prohibitively expensive, and I have not yet reached retirement age.

We already have a private health care system that many pay into for convenience. I have no problem with this as it relieves pressure on the NHS. As for “private clinics” such as Pharmacies might offer, again I have no problem with people being given this choice, especially if it helps them to nip problems in the bud.

However, I would want those dispensing this sort of health care to meet the same standards, and be assessed and qualified, just as the staff at your surgery. Bear in mind you may well see a practice nurse and not a doctor anyway at youtr surgery for some complaints.

I doubt that Boots will take “skin cancer” too far, I’m not sure why you would take a worry of this kind to them but if you do I’d expect exactly what your doctor would do – if there is any doubt refer you. to the specialist at your hospital. Doctors grade the referral to the specialist at your hospital according to their judgement of the stage of the possible lesion – from a week onwards. If Boots or Lloyds work in the same way then i’d expect them to refer you to your doctor. If it helps putting your mind at rest, or gets things moving quicker, then it is not a bad thing.

I remember when our surgery had doctors on call through the night. With the number of doctors at our health centre I don’t know why this cannot be resurrected.

It has been going on in the US for years with many pharmacies having a doctor attached, I can see the efficiency in it and for routine problems it could be very useful but should be funded by the NHS.

It’s sad, but Boots has become a monopoly in many places, now, as independent pharmacies shut their doors. During the past 20 years we’ve seen seven independent pharmacies shut down, leaving only Boots and a single Superdrug.

This is not unexpected following the Boots take over by the American Drug Store giant Walgreens – just think back to how Cadburys’ chocolate has been changed following Kraft takeover and the many other examples of USA-based conglomerates “milking” British consumers