Oldham GP blasts plans to charge for missed appointments

An Oldham health equalities campaigner has labelled reported plans by Tory leadership candidate Rishi Sunak to fine patients for missing a doctor’s appointment “a tax for the vulnerable, a stealthy way of privatising health and yet another example of buck-passing by anti- NHS politicians”.

Although sharing the frustration at the £216 million wasted by the health service because of failed appointments, Dr Zahid Chauhan OBE, said that Sunak’s suggestion was a smokescreen to cover-up failures to fund primary healthcare properly.

Dr Chauhan, who is also an Oldham Labour councillor, said: “There are valid reasons why people do not attend, and the more chaotic a vulnerable person’s life is, the more chance there is that they will become overwhelmed and unable to turn-up for appointments.

"These are not just trips to the doctor, either, but interviews with social services, benefits staff and even court appearances.

"Instead of punishing the poorest, again, the government might want to look at advocacy and intervention programmes to help them.”

The founder of the Homeless-Friendly health charity also claimed that any kind of levy around appointments puts the fundamental NHS principle of “free at the point of use” in serious jeopardy.

“Once you start attaching a price to a missed appointment, there will be calls to charge for treatment for minor ailments and up-the-scale we go until we have the fully privatised system many from the Tories want,” Dr Chauhan added.

Whilst positive about attempts to concentrate NHS resources in the right places, Dr Chauhan also stated that instead of cheap ways of cutting costs here and there, a longer-term financial plan for the health services was required.

He added: “We have seen all types of laudable efforts made to reduce waste from walking stick return to telephone triage schemes.

"But, along with fines for missed appointments, this is just tinkering around the edges.

"Primary care needs funding properly to recruit and retain GPs so that they might nip serious conditions in the bud before they require serious, expensive hospital interventions.”

Dr Chauhan wanted to see more intervention programmes backed also, so that those living in poverty could “order their lives, be educated about good nutrition and self-care and understand their role in preserving the NHS”.

He concluded: “When food banks cannot cope with the strain, debt is mounting and people are drowning from mental health issues, no wonder they become ill.

"These priorities should be addressed, now.

"And if there is a small cohort who are not attending because they do not value the NHS, then I would suggest some of those thoughts have been planted there by a “for-the-rich government” on a mission to privatise healthcare.”

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