Amil04 wrote:
..and I don’t think it’s right that a doctor in the UK will get paid £8 for every flu shot they give out. A bung from the drug companies? No wonder they have banners advertising them outside surgeries come autumn.
No. I'm afraid you are completely wrong.
Each GP Prctise is paid a "capitation fee" per patient by the Govt. That is how the NHS works. The GP Practise is a business. The GPs are employed by the practise and paid out of Practise Income. The income is derived from certain block grants, capitation fees, Health Promotion Initiatives etc. Do NOT get confused with German Measles which used to be the source of german measles parties... no-one EVER wants to get (real) Measles. It is now quite rare (thankfully) and can be fatal, cause blindness and various horrors which disable for life. Thankfully through a Measles vaccination programme which has run since the 1950s we rarely see many children die of Measles any more but it still happens. Measles Death was MUCH more common before the 1950s programme started. As was the resultant blindness and brain damage.
If you think GPs should not be paid for their work... how do you think the NHS will actually run? Maybe you have never worked out how the Practise can pay its electricity bills, receptioists, staff nurses, locums etc? They are not salaries paid by the NHS. They have to be balanced out of the capitation fee per patient from NHS block grants. These capitation fees are for work ACTUALLY DONE eg. flu shots for the elderly and vulnerable children (I refuse them), kidney and liver clinics, reducing alcohol, healthy eating, walking groups, every consultation, every visit, every child development check-up, major child vaccination programmes, etc. That is how your local GP Practise gets its income.
GPs and Practises do not get paid by Pharmaceutical Companies. That is not permitted by the GTC,the NHS or any doctor in the country. Please educate yourself as to how this NHS - which you seem to not like - actually works and is paid for - by taxpayers!
