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NHS trust ads
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
just thought i let you all know that because of the governments 'choose and book' scheme (you get to chose which hospital you go, fair enough) but funding will now be allocated depending how many people use each trust.
so trusts are now allowed to advertise for patients,
so instead of taxes being used for hosptials its going to used for ads!
wtf! outrage! were are not in the US!
(PS really tired probably not a coherent arguement)
so trusts are now allowed to advertise for patients,
so instead of taxes being used for hosptials its going to used for ads!
wtf! outrage! were are not in the US!
(PS really tired probably not a coherent arguement)
0
Comments
None of the hospitals round me advertise, I used choose and book and chose the soonest appointment with a suitable consultant, which was 3 months sooner than my nearest hospital would have seen me.
That's what choose and book should be for, not for funding competition.
How did you find out that the appointment was sooner?
What if you wanted the hospital with the cheapest parking/biggest car park/best outcomes?
Not so. The patient passport meant that those wanting private treatment could be subsididsed by the NHS. That isn't the case with C&B.
As for advertising, I haven't read the actual detail yet but hospitals already have this information on the C&B IT system.
As far as I know all the information you could want is out there, I don't see why NHS trusts should waste yet more money on advertising. By advertising I'm thinking posters etc, rather than the standard information that should be avaliable anyway.
Not to mention if those services are going to be available given the nature of resources being cut.
That was part of their marketing position, they choose which appoitments to make available on C&B
It is, do you know where to find it? If not, don't you think that it would be a good idea to have it in one lpace?
This doesn't have to cost the NHS anything, there are ways of producing documents for local houses etc. Put it this way, I doubt that you will be seeing TV ads anytime soon.
:yes:
Cherry picking.
It won't be hip operations, more likely cataracts and other day case work
They may chose which appointments to have avaliable on C&B, but that's what I'm interested in. That doesn't come under 'NHS trust ads' to my mind, but under provision of information. I have no problem with provision of good information, but advertising is another matter.
What's the difference?
Thing is, ultimately, it will only apply to those hospitals where there is local competition, or where they offer specilaist services. If they don't treat patients then they won't get any income.
I think that the words "advertising" bring into play images which aren't going to be the case. I can't see many hospitals making too much effort.
its a waste of money and hospitals will end up specialising meaning that you may have to travel long distances eg through C&B they offered me a hospital in chorley! (i live in Cumbria) and the hospitals that specialise in day treatment (easier small operations) will get more money even though their treatments are cheaper, its highly floored!
Newspapers - hardly gonna see the tabloids jam packed though are we. What they will do is push local rags to do more "good news" stories about them. Nothing changes, that is already done.
As for advertising to GPs, don't you think that is a good idea? Don't you want the GP to know what options are out there for you?
1. The two aren't linked.
2. Specialisation is already happeneing, is always going to happen and should happen. Do you want a local service, or one which knows what it is doing?
Look at my log in - I've just taken a patient from Wales because he has family here. Until C&B (and the funding changes) that was very difficult to do. What if your family lived in Chorley and you wanted to go there to recuperate?
This is where things get interesting because PCTs are looking at investing to prevent as many of this type of admission as possible - more community care etc...
In the main though they are paid per operation/diagnostic. Funnily enough many IS providers would argue that their operating costs are higher and, at the moment, they are still able to charg slightly above NHS rates for many procedures something which is due to change in the next year or so.
There are contracts referred to as "cost and volume" where the IS is "guaranteed" an minimum income - which is what I think you are referring to - it's then up to us planners to make sure that we only commit to something which we expect to happen and that our demand on them is higher than we originally contracted for and not lower.
The threat to NHS providers comes from the creaming off of the high volume/low cost operations like cataracts. Reality is though that the national tariff price will drop for those but increase for other areas where the NHS providers currently lose moeny. It's technical I know but the more providers there are, the cheaper those operations will become because their "reference costs" (i.e. the cost of provision to them) will drop and therefore the NHS will pay less...