Can doctors maintain a steady hand whilst the cost of living goes up?
This post was written by a student. It has not been fact checked or edited.
Hi.
There are lots of reasons for doctor shortages. But how can we maintain having free healthcare whilst expenses goes up? The cost of living is impacting the lives doctors and GP practices. Could this be the last straw?
MONEY:
One of the key reasons is definitely money. It is the factor for many problems, and is a difficult problem itself to solve.
Healthcare is free when you use it in the UK, unlike other countries, for example, the US. That means the doctors will not get paid as well as other people as they are paid by the government. However in April 2021, the government said that they would give all NHS workers a 4.5% payrise. Still, this did not happen. Not all doctors got what they were promised, and as the cost of living goes up, it is unlikely that the money will be coming in any time soon.
Practices were wondering whether they should pay this money to their doctors, yet they were not given enough money from the government to pay. Soon, money would come personally out of partners pockets, and this would just not do. How would they solve this? In fact, people have to pay larger taxes. So, how does this impact the shortages of healthcare workers? Do you think they may be tempted to move to countires where healthcare is paid for? Will they find other jobs more attractive?
Also, money is needed to pay for equipment and rent. It is hard for hospitals to pay their staff when they also have to focus on bills going up, and the amount of money going down. As Winter comes onto the doorsteps of many people, doctors will not only have to focus on bills, but gas and heating and electricity.
What do you think about this? How does this impact the doctors? How do you think having larger taxes helps the doctors? How would this affect the government?
Maintaining enough Doctors:
As you should now see, it is expensive to remain sutainable and help the world whilst everyday thing get harder and harder to access. If the UK did become a country where healthcare is not free, would that really help in the long run? Would the cost of living stop this. If the government did do this, they would need to plan ahead and be futuristic. Until the cost of living is solved, it will be hard to pay for healthcare as well as other essentials. More people are becoming sick, yet there are less people being healed whilst more people become ill. There are not always enough doctors.
On the BBC news, it shows paramedics speedily bringing in patients from the UK. However, they end up waiting in queues for over 3 hours. Even worse, one patient was unable to pay for transport to a hospital and therefore, could not get any treatment for lung cancer. How do you feel about this? How can reamain having enough doctors? And how can doctors maintain a steady hand whilst the cost of living goes up.
Comments (2)
I get what you mean to be honest, the cost of healthcare too is a problem. According to the hbr.org The aging of populations and the development of new treatments are behind some of the increase. Perverse incentives also contribute: Third-party payors (insurance companies and governments) reimburse for procedures performed rather than outcomes achieved, and patients bear little responsibility for the cost of the health care services they demand, there is an almost complete lack of understanding of how much it costs to deliver patient care, when people talk about cost reduction, they think it means reducing the cost of healthcare to the patients but it also means reducing the cost of the delivering the actual healthcare. Poor costing systems have disastrous consequences. It is a well-known management saying that what is not measured cannot be managed or improved. According to hbr.org Since providers misunderstand their costs, they are unable to link cost to process improvements or outcomes, preventing them from making systemic and sustainable cost reductions. Instead, providers (and payors) turn to simplistic actions such as across-the-board cuts in expensive services, staff compensation, and head count. But imposing arbitrary spending limits on discrete components of care, or on specific line-item expense categories, achieves only marginal saving and that is true. Thye make the service favorable for the person giving the need but not favorable for the person that gives the healthcare out. This same thing happens in my country, the service bolt protects the passengers but do not really regard the drivers, they collect all sort of information from the drivers but nothing from the passengers it is due to this that drivers have been killed numerous times by passengers and no one knows why.
Nice research accurate_wombat. I like the fact that you were able to get knowledge from different sources. You said 'the development of new treatments are behind some of the increase.' What sort of new treatments are these? Do you think that the medicines that are being made should be tested beforehand, or would that potentially endanger someone's life? You also said that in your country the service bolt protects the passengers but does not regard the drivers. Do you have any reasons for why?
Perhaps, they are so focussed on the passengers, who could potentially be dying, that they forget about the drivers, who serve an important role in helping the passengers. Sometimes, you have to admit, once you view something in one way, it becomes very different to change your perspective. What do you think? Could these be the circumstanses?
Doctors are a cornerstone in any society and have been for centuries. Doctors have a stressful job without the constant pressure of loans and debts. Why would somebody want to be around sick individuals when they have there own family to take care of? Especially when Covid hit they were in danger of receiving the virus any time they had to treat an infected patient. The doctor salary in England when they first start is around £40,000 to £50,000 which is very difficult to survive on in our current recession.
This is why Doctors are in short supply as it isn't a desirable job now. If you want more doctors the job has to seem more positive than it currently is by: increasing starting salary, improving facilities and more recognition for their services.