Less than a year ago, Rishi Sunak pledged to fine patients £10 if they missed an NHS meeting.
Sunak, who at that extremity in August was a crusade in the first Conservative leadership contest of 2022, said the NHS endures 15 million missed meetings at GPs and hospitals annually.
“It’s not valuing our doctors correctly,” he told a hustings held by The Telegraph. “But it’s also, more chiefly, depriving people of care that they earnestly need, making them wait extra long.”
Two months later, after one disastrous Liz Truss premiership, Sunak was prime minister.
Yet days into his administration, he drips the pledge, with a spokesperson saying: “We have heard to GPs and health leaders and have academic knowledge that now is not the right time to take this policy forward.”
Regardless of the U-turn, Sunak’s pledge focused on the cost of delivering NHS services.
And, leaving aside the various political debates surrounding the government’s health service funding, a tool by price comparison website Go. Comparison has demonstrated how much individual procedures, appointments, and callouts cost the NHS.
Evaluating the Cost of Services Provided by the NHS
According to the calculator, standard services such as GP appointments and orders cost £45 and £41.35, respectively, while simply calling 999 can add £64.59 to the bill. The fetch of giving birth can vary awfully, with a caesarean section costing almost £1,800 more than a natural birth.
Broken bones also prove expensive at £500 for a broken arm and £1,100 for a leg. On top of this, joint surgeries and knee and hip renewal me in at £6,500 and £8,925, respectively. Addressing NHS spending in this year’s Autumn Budget speech, Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond said:
Simple changes, such as cancelling a GP appointment you no longer plan on attending and cancelling replicate prescriptions you don’t need, can help save the NHS money. Also, being clued up on what to do in medical situations can help reduce the strain off ambulance services by lessening the number of needless 999 calls and unnecessary ambulance callouts.
According to Statista, the UK consumed over £216.8 billion on health in 2021/22, but what part of that was for you?
Insurance company GoCompare has an interactive tool that can help you evaluate how much you have cost the NHS. The device, called ‘Bill of Health’, allows you to enter your medical conditions, appointments, prescriptions and more to ascertain how much your approximate bill is to date.
You are querying how many GP appointments you have managed, how many orders, missed appointments and more.
It then asks about various health states such as diabetes, whether or not you have stated birth to children and if you have smashed any bones.
When you’ve entered all your details, the tool will supply you with an estimated bill for the NHS.
It then asks you to undertake to salary, and it will work out exactly your yearly contribution to NHS services.
The website disclaims these bills are an estimation: “All costs listed in this interactive are estimated and should not be depended upon as final.
Assessing the Investment in NHS Services
“Average costs have been sourced from various publications, which can be found here. NHS tax gifts displayed are approximate calculations, and only quality rate has been used to provide general estimates.”
It’s predicted that NHS England will expend around £123.7bn glance after our health in 2017/18 – but do you know how much you’ve donated to that cost so far?
GoCompare.com have created a bilateral tool that permits users to calculate how much the NHS has consumed on their treatments, including GP appointments, prescriptions, operations and A&E visits. You can also determine how much you contribute to the NHS annually by inputting your annual salary.
According to the calculator, standard services such as GP appointments and prescriptions cost £45 and £41.35, exactly, while directly calling 999 can add £64.59 to the bill. The value of giving birth can vary exceedingly, with a caesarean section fetching almost £1,800 more than natural birth.
Broken bones also prove rather costly at £500 for a smashed arm and £1,100 for a leg. On top of this, joint surgeries, knee and hip renewal came in at £6,500 and £8,925, respectively. Addressing NHS spending in this year’s Autumn Budget speech, Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond said:
Simple changes, such as cancelling a GP appointment you no longer plan on attending and cancelling repeat prescriptions you don’t require, can help save the NHS money. Also, being clued up on what to do in medical situations can help reduce the strain off ambulance services by lower the number of needless 999 calls and unnecessary ambulance callouts.
