Doctors now want patients to start paying a fee of up to £25 every time they want an appointment. The NHS is designed to protect the wellness and wellbeing of all UK residents but now doctors are keen that a fee should be charged for each appointment to discourage patients from making unnecessary appointments and wasting their time.
A new survey has indicated that a large percentage of doctors would support this move, although they would like to see exemptions for certain groups such as the elderly and those who are unemployed. This would bring Britain in line with other health care systems such as those in Scandinavia, Germany and France.
Ministers reacted to the study by insisting that the NHS would always be kept free to use, and that the government would not accept any move to introduce a fee system for GP appointments.
The survey was carried out of 440 GPs and published in Pulse trade magazine. It found that 51 percent of those surveyed would support the idea of charging some kind of small fee for each appointment, and just 36 percent of those surveyed actively opposed the idea.
A similar poll was conducted a while ago and this one found that just 34 percent supported the idea of introducing fees, which shows that doctors are becoming increasingly concerned about the amount of unnecessary appointments that are being made.
This increase could be due to the fact that doctors feel their workload has recently increased significantly due to the fact that they are now responsible for commissioning local health services as well as their usual treating of patients.
The introduction of the 111 phone line has caused major ructions in many areas of the NHS. Due to the extra burden that this has placed on doctors, they suggest that a small fee per appointment would help to prioritise the most urgent cases.
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