Rishi Sunak rescinds £10 NHS appointment penalty

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28th Oct, 2022. 07:15 pm
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Rishi Sunak rescinds £10 NHS appointment penalty

In order to win the Conservative leadership, Rishi Sunak promised to punish patients who miss doctor and hospital appointments by £10.
He made the pledge during the leadership competition against Liz Truss.
The British Medical Association (BMA) claimed it would jeopardise the NHS’s concept of providing free care.

In order to win the Conservative leadership election, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak promised to punish patients who miss doctor and hospital appointments by £10.

During this summer’s leadership competition against Liz Truss, he made the commitment.

Mr. Sunak had argued that it was “not acceptable” that some patients didn’t show up, taking appointments away from those who needed them.

But a No 10 spokeswoman said after “listening to GPs” the government decided “now is not the right time to take this policy forward”.

She added that Mr. Sunak wants to deliver “a stronger NHS and the sentiment remains that people should not be missing their appointments and taking up NHS time”.

The British Medical Association (BMA), the doctors’ organization, opposed the proposal and claimed that it would “make issues worse” and jeopardise the NHS’s foundational concept of providing free care to those in need.

When describing the policy in July, Mr. Sunak said patients would be given the “benefit of the doubt” if they missed an appointment without giving enough warning the first time, but further absences would result in a £10 fee.

In extraordinary cases, such as when a patient had an emergency, fines would also be forgone.

He clarified that the method would only be in place “temporarily” while backlogs brought on by the pandemic were cleared.

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But he gave few details of the how the system would work, writing in the Sunday Telegraph: “If we have people who are now showing up and taking those slots away from people who need [them], that’s not right.

“I’m all for a healthcare system that’s free at the point of use, but not one that’s free at the point of misuse.”

She responded that Mr. Sunak’s “first ideas” over the summer would be examined with cabinet ministers and any announcements would be “put out in due course” when asked whether other NHS-related promises made during the summer leadership campaign still held.

In addition, Mr. Sunak had promised to reduce the number of individuals in England who had to wait more than a year for non-urgent care by the end of the next year.

In addition to reusing vacant High Street stores, he promised to increase the number of “diagnostic hubs” outside of hospitals to achieve this goal. Additionally, he promised to ring-fence the yearly £3 billion NHS dentistry funding and overhaul the dentists’ NHS contract.

While visiting Croydon University Hospital for the first time as prime minister, Mr. Sunak made the choice.

A patient was seen on camera urging the prime minister to “push harder” to increase wages for NHS employees.

In response, Mr. Sunak said, “He would take that away.”

The Conservative Party membership supported Ms. Truss over Mr. Sunak during the summer, but last week he defeated her by winning the party’s primary.