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The NHS Tax - Why I REFUSE to pay it. By Sushant Varma junior Doctor. Every day we hear that the NHS is under funded. Almost daily we hear a scandal of how operations are cancelled or how people's treatment is suffering. The question I would ask is: Is the NHS under funded? How is it that hospitals always have enough photocopiers, fax machines etc and never have enough doctors nurses etc? I can tell you all that the NHS is not under funded; indeed it is awash with money. Yet it is so poorly budgeted and managed most lay people would not believe how much is simply wasted. I will never forget one incident. My father is a GP; he was once told that if he bought his new computer system from a certain supplier he would get all the money refunded. Who in their right mind would refuse this? The system cost £15000 and the money was refunded. Yet my brother, a computer hardware expert told us that any layman from the street could have got the same equipment for £750. A twenty-fold difference would you pay that? Such incidents are rife throughout the public services. Basically you, the tax payer are being ripped off to the hilt. Unfortunately, a lack of knowledge with respect to the National Health System results in these facts being unknown. Mr Blair would like make the public believe that the NHS is perfect. His solution is to pump more money into the NHS to be wasted further eg £5 for an orange juice carton. Who would pay this? I challenge Mr Blair and his men of power to have a telephone line where people can ring up and tell them how they are wasting money, something on similar lines to the benefit fraud hotline. My guess is that they will be inundated with calls 365 days a year! Every so often people blame the managers yet would you believe that the doctors are not exactly blameless? My pet hate is unnecessary X Rays. At the hospital where I work people have X rays for practically everything whether it is necessary or not. Everyone who comes into admissions has an ECG (heart tracing) whether it is necessary or not. The definition of a necessary test is one that may change the patient's management or may confirm the diagnosis, or rule something out. Very rarely are these criteria met. At some hospitals anyone who has a naso gastric tube (a tube used for feeding you. Basically a tube is passed through your nose into your stomach.) Now the best way of checking that it is in the right place is to get a stethoscope, listen over the stomach, get a syringe and blow some air in. If you hear some turbulence then it is in the stomach. Yet at hospitals up and down the country the patient has an X Ray to confirm that it is in the right place. X rays cost £40 each! I have seen patients having numerous X rays for this needlessly. There are many people who have blood tests needlessly. There is a blood test called a HBA1C. If you suffer from a condition known as diabetes then a sugar residue can attach to your haemoglobin. (Haemoglobin is an iron- containing chemical in your blood cells.) Some doctors insist on this test being done on everyone who comes in, it is only indicated for people suffering from diabetes. It costs £5. Imagine this, a consultant admits twenty people and insists on this test being done on everyone. A total cost of £100. If this consultant were on call sixty times in the year it would come to a cost of £6000, which would be wasted. It is reasonable to do a random glucose (sugar) test on anyone who is admitted. If it is high and diabetes were suspected then the blood can then be tested for this. In addition, there is the phenomenon called " autoticking" blood tests when tired. All doctors will admit that to reply on pathology as opposed to clinical findings is far easier especially when terribly tired. A blood form can be ticked for as many results as you wish whether they are necessary or not ! How much money is wasted here? Another of my pet hates is wasted paper. Very rarely in the public services are documents printed using both sides of the paper. I once received my rota, which took 24 sheets of paper. Had they used double-sided printing it would have taken 12 sheets. That may sound insignificant but this document was given to eight people. Instead of using 96 sheets of paper they used 192. What a waste of paper and resources. Think of the environmental impact. Hospital pharmacies throw out large numbers of glass bottles every day, yet do they recycle them? Very rarely is the answer. The recycling could raise money for the hospital but why hasn't Mr Blair done something about this? The same applies to paper as well. Very often when directors move on new furniture is brought in. This really annoys me as there is nothing wrong with the old furniture and it is simply thrown out! Bear in mind that the new furniture will be bought at hugely inflated prices. We have not heard of the Lord Irvine of Lairg wallpaper effect as yet but we are certain a director somewhere is taking tips from the hand crafted wallpaper in the Lord Chancellor's office ! Another pet hate of mine is people who do not turn up for appointments. They inflate the NHS waiting lists by about 10-15%. Each time someone does this it costs about £50. (It does vary regionally.) If you consider that each year 5 million appointments are wasted by non-attenders then this amounts to £250 million. That money could train 1000 medical students. Another waste of time and money are certain GP home visits. In the time it takes to see one patient in the community a GP can see five in his/her clinic. Unless the patient is terminally ill or is elderly, if a patient is so ill that they can't get to the surgery then they should go to hospital. It is somewhat unusual to see a case where the GP visit was necessary. I am of the firm belief that people should pay for a home visit if they could have come to the surgery. Very often you will see a young patient ask for a home visit and then after the visit goes to the pub. You, the general public are being fooled into thinking that the NHS is under funded. Your hard earned money is squandered is a very inefficient system that is abused to the hilt by the general public. The people who suffer are those who genuinely need help. How much longer are you going to put up with it? You should refuse to pay the new NHS tax with as much vigour as you refused to pay the poll tax. Dr Sushant Varma Final editing Dr Rita Pal
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