By common consent, the NHS is going to have a deeply troubled winter which means suffering for many people. Operations delayed. Pain untreated.
What’s the long-term solution/sticking plaster?
One mooted idea: charging those who can afford it £50 to see a GP.
Rishi Sunak suggested a £10 fee for missed appointments. But the PM is so tainted by being really rich that almost anything he says that involves monetary sacrifice by someone else just gets lost in the ensuing noise.
A doctor writing in the Daily Mail dared to reference the notion of a £25 fee to see a doctor.
As she later said: “Scores of you wrote in to tell me how ‘ludicrous’ and ‘appalling’ this idea was.” She now wonders if a 50p charge would be worth imposing.
The problem for politicians seeking solutions is how wedded we are to the idea that the NHS is “free” and moreover, the same for everyone, even if that seems to mean: equally bad for everyone.
For our Find Out Now poll this week we asked: Do you agree or disagree that those who can afford it should pay a fee of around £50 to see a GP in the UK?
Hardly anyone thinks it is a good idea, whether they could afford it personally or not.
Brexit voters are more in favour than everyone else, make of that what you will, but even then not by much.
Anybody tasked with changing the public’s attitude to healthcare funding has got the toughest communications gig in town.
You can see the full results below.
