A common response to the impending age of austerity in the NHS is to suggest that charges are introduced for visits to the GP. The line of reasoning adopted by MEPs and think-tanks alike is that a means-tested £20 charge will “encourage healthy, wealthier people to use the NHS only when absolutely necessary.”
Leaving aside the fact that such a system would cost more to administer than it would generate in revenue, a more interesting question is whether the converse holds true? That is, whether unhealthy and poor people aren’t using GP services when they should be. The consequence of this is more profound because poor and unhealthy people tend to cost the NHS much more than few unnecessary appointments booked by the worried well.
Looking at a composite measure of the number of GPs per population, weighted for age and need, compared to how deprived that population is, we see that there is a shortage of doctors in the most deprived areas in England.
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