As Kate said in her blog, we had a further London network meeting last week, this time of members of the finance community from Trusts across the capital.
It was great for me as a newcomer to the health world to meet some more people with an interest in this area. It was also really helpful for us to hear the debate on what motivates people within Trusts to charge overseas visitors; what might get in the way; and how to balance this with ensuring that vulnerable people received the treatment they need.
We explored how tricky it is to identify chargeable patients at a sensible point in their treatment, and debated what the differences might be in how you charge people according to whether treatment was elective or as the result of some sort of emergency. We also considered the merits of a centralised debt recovery mechanism versus Trusts employing their own debt collectors locally without reaching any firm conclusions. And we touched on the issues specific to mental health trusts, so will be getting a group of relevant people together to return to this.
The start of a great conversation with London finance teams - and one I look forward to continuing.
2 comments
Comment by ed posted on
If people live or work in the uk they should be given free treatment in my view as its built in to the tax system.
We have higher tax than the USA so should get NHS if not then lower tax please.
Happy either way, just dont think we should pay for something we dont get,.
Comment by ed posted on
The uk has been a bit too keen on discriminatory benefits i my view services are either mandatory enitlement for all or means testested even.
From social houses, to nhs dentists, to help to buy, to student loans or grants, all discretionary neither on means or circustmances but will nilly often discrimtory basis neither need nor merit.