NHS Costs

[Henry_17]

I received a text appointment reminder for an NHS physio appointment. The text also laid out the costs of not attending to the NHS. I can of course understand this as a tool to prevent missed appointments by making people feel accountable. I would also expect from an ethical perspective that the amount quoted would be accurate.

The amount quoted was ?160, which surprised me greatly given I could easily find a private option for ?50-60. Are the costs really ~3x higher for the NHS? If so surely it is a no brainier for the NHS to outsource these treatments to a private sector provider and make an instant saving?

This probably misses some additional costs that would be incurred in administering and qualifying external providers, however given the bulk buying power the NHS would have discounted prices could surely be negotiated to at least offset this somewhat.

[Alan Medic]

I got a reminder for something entirely different and that was ?160.00 too. Maybe they use that amount for everything.

[miga]

Isn't it already outsourced to the private sector - your GP surgery is a private business, no? Maybe they bill that amount back to the NHS.

[Pugwash]

May be a standard rate allowing for admin time, postage. accommodation charges, etc. . Hospitals also 'charge' social services for any unacceptable delays in discharging patients who need care packages/accommodation.

[JohnL]

Barts did a test on how to reduce missed appointments - and used ?160 as the figure

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/reducing-missed-hospital-appointments-using-text-messages/a-zero-cost-way-to-reduce-missed-hospital-appointments

Maybe it isn't a real figure just nicked from the survey :)

[AbDabs]

Alan Medic Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> I got a reminder for something entirely different

> and that was ?160.00 too. Maybe they use that

> amount for everything.

I've had the same rate for two completely different things so I think it is just an average across all appointments - which I'm happy with. I wouldn't want someone spending the time to get an exact figure just to encourage me to turn up

[Henry_17]

AM, PW,

If AM was quoted the same amount for a different treatment then it is probably an average for all missed appointments. In that case the text is at best poorly written and at worst deliberately misleading. I suppose you could argue that the end justifies the means even if it's the latter.

Miga,

The appointment was with a physio at an NHS hospital so not already outsourced. A comparable appointment at a private practice would be ?50-60 in central London at most places.

[miga]

You did say that originally - I just can't read :)

[Earl Aelfheah]

This sounds like the work of the 'nudge unit'. I wouldn't take the figure too literally. It's there to stop people missing appointments and as such, is probably reasonably effective.

[Otta]

It's probably a standard figure taking in to account working hours, cost of the space, admin and all that jazz.

[????]

as Rah said, a classic bit of Behavioral Economics...

[HonaloochieB]

It's to stop people being nobs and not turning up for no good reason to an appointment they might think was 'free'.

If they're lying about it and it works, then more power to their dissembling elbows, says I!

So long as they don't lie about my test results...

[Loz]

I've nearly missed appointments because the NHS only send stuff by snail mail, and more than a few have been lost somewhere along the way. Is emailing people as well really too hard?

[HonaloochieB]

Hiya Loz, I always get a text the day before my appointments, from the hospital, the dentist and the quack (yep, I'm that high medical maintenance).

I'm ashumin' you got you one them portable style telephones, so jus' let 'em know yer digits an' they'll telegraph ya!

[uncleglen]

A friend saw a doc for 20 minutes on a cruise, had a blood test and got some medication- 500 euro.....

[jaywalker]

I think this figure is quite revealing. A home visit by a physio only costs ?50 (I book them for my father). So, if we take the figure on trust it suggests imputed costs are completely out of control. This corroborates the fact that real spending on the NHS (i.e. after inflation) has gone up every year for over a decade and yet services are 'at breaking point'. They know this which is why hospitals now tag disposable items with their cost to dissuade unnecessary use - but that is certainly not the problem.

Talking to a heart surgeon a while ago, he said he was doing half the operations he got through fifteen years ago. He is now completely encumbered by bureaucracy/paperwork. Administrators, managerialism have taken over.

[Loz]

HonaloochieB Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Hiya Loz, I always get a text the day before my

> appointments, from the hospital, the dentist and

> the quack (yep, I'm that high medical

> maintenance).

>

> I'm ashumin' you got you one them portable style

> telephones, so jus' let 'em know yer digits an'

> they'll telegraph ya!

The doc and the dentist are fine with new tech - it's the hospital specialists that seem to be refusing to be dragged into the 21st century.

[Pugwash]

I get an automated reminder on my house phone from Kings a couple of days before an appointment

[ianr]

Are there any land line phone services that don't yet receive text messages (delivered by an automated voice if you don't have a text-enabled phone)?

[JohnL]

It's a total made up figure I think, but only used to get people to cancel rather than not turn up

https://fullfact.org/health/do-missed-gp-appointments-cost-nhs-160m-year/

[ponderwoman]

A driver from the company with the franchise for hospital transport told me (in 2012) they were charging the NHS ?300 for the 10 minute trip from KCH to Dulwich. This carried just my mother in a 10 seater transporter from and to Dulwich- ie ?600 for the round trip. The driver was told not to take one of her neighbours from the same road, as they would be charging that journey on a separate bill, thus leaving exhausted sick people hanging around the transport waiting room. We never used the transport service again. Also it would only have cost ?30 for a cab. This company has the franchise for several hospitals.

At another hospital they are installing 20 Dyson 50 watt led uplighters at ?1000 each to light up a ceiling that they have just painted black.

A tiny glimpse at NHS costs before healthcare begins.

[pop9770]

Yes they have to pay for a lot of incompetent people

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-british-disease-is-now-rank-ineptitude-rr8x56f83?shareToken=d098e11384e354d9b12e85b84d0e08ed

[uncleglen]

I think these useless people get jobs through mates. I am convinced of this after Tessa Jowell used her friend Anthony Gormless's horrible lumps of metal around this area. And sticking statues of men on the beach, and the Angel of the North....yuk....what is wrong with Nature in the natural state...

The stone outside UCLH

https://www.ft.com/content/8e10bb3c-a7d1-11e4-be63-00144feab7de

I had occasion to visit someone there on and off for 2 years for 3 or 4 weeks at a time after that was placed and I can say that ALL the patients I saw were outside the back entrance having a fag....wheeled drip stands alongside them (metal sculptures in themselves- and they are difficult to get in some hospitals)