Do You Think Immigration Has Caused The NHS To Be Less Effective?

Question

Today someone claimed that the NHS could not cope with certain things, and they blamed it on (partly or solely) on immigration.

What do you think?

One of the arguments put by them was that they did not pay into the system, and therefore are taking from it wrongly...

Saying that they should go private for some years until they have paid into the system enough.

btw i do not fully agree with them, i did not mean to out that across...

Answer 1

The truth is the NHS will not work without foreign doctors, dentists, nurses and other clinicians.
The main problem with NHS is not the shortage of money, it is the money distribution - too much bureaucracy and too many managers. Many of them do not do anything apart from justifying their existence. Interestingly, they are usually native British people:)

Answer 2

The Governments will use anybody as a scape goat for its own failings. This Government and it past opponents. They have turned the NHS into a buisness, which is what was it was not about.

Turning the Welfare Sate into a business requires management and employment. These people are paid a fortune to debate and discuss spending, whilst the staff who do the work are paid peanuts. Nurses etc are disrespected and under paid whilst the managers are secured in high salaries.

The Governemnets will blame the everybody even the immigrants for their inablity to to provide for its own people. Ironically, the NHS was established by a Labour Government but 'new labour are closet tories'. The NHS functioned as did Education ubtil the Tories caplialised on the need for welfare for all. Free welfare amd education........ yes free if you can wait while the cats just get fatter and the people die from ignorance. We put these people in power. Think about their policies when you vote !!

Answer 3

Unfortunately, just like education, the National Health Service is something of a political football. The shortcomings within the NHS are caused by interfering politicians and not by the people of Britain or immigrants to UK.

The vast majority of immigrants are young and do not require the services of the NHS and are gainfully employed and paying National Insurance. Anyone who wishes to work in UK must have a National Insurance Number. Easy to obtain, but once allotted, a person will have to pay a given amount weekly/monthly from their income.

Answer 4

The nhs has been continually run into da ground,underfunded an mismanaged by sucessive goverments since 1970.The lift in my block has stopped workin,i`m sure if i made that public some 1 would claim it was all the immigrants using it and not the flogging off of our council homes

Answer 5

Immigration is helping the NHS. Thanks for our absolutely sorrowful education system, we're not producing the amount of qualified doctors and surgeons that we need. The skills shortage is being filled by people from a variety of other countries.

The NHS is woefully underfunded, and that's the problem with it. I sometimes wonder how many politicians are on public healthcare, but then I realise that the answer would depress me.

Answer 6

The problem is that many immigrants have health problems when they come here and consequently overwhelm the NHS in certain quarters

I understand that before immigrants where allowed into USA they had ti have a medical. I don't know if that still applies but it seems a sensible idea to me. I've little doubt that someone will now use the "Race Card" instead of thinking of a way to apply this fairly and with some common sense

Answer 7

yes it cannot cope with the added demand.
& as a consequence the average brit is losing out,
as someone has too, meanwhile Hewitt insists the NHS balances the books.
few more years like this & our general overall health as a nation will suffer.
our brave lads returning from War, are even denied proper health-care because of the extra demand from immigration & other services the NHS is expected to cover.
and you may or not be aware,
that as of last year the NHS also now covers all the Prisons & all of the Military.
that with all the original demands from indigenous uk residents & as always, health tourists.
now i hear most if not all migrants here, are saving-up to get their family over here to treat them all, where their own health service has failed.

Answer 8

Well, Mr Sceptic has already made a major point that I was going to make, so I second his answer.

Particularly in England, a lot of immigrants seem to work for the NHS, so why shouldn't they benefit from it when they need it?

Additionally, in my view a lot of problems in the NHS stem from the fact that its run like a business these days. Particularly as far as cleaning and ancillary staff are concerned, who are mostly contracted in from private companies. Nurses and Doctors don't seem to have any say in what these staff do. So when they do a slap-dash job, and leave things in a dirty or unhygenic state, there's nothing the Doctors and Nurses can say to them. Thus disease spreads and patients become ill, or even die in hospital from something completely unrelated to what they went in for.

Answer 9

well heres the litmus test:-
When I lived in Manchester (in an area swamped with immigrants mostly from sub-Saharan Africa) I was regularly visiting my GP for two things, my problematic knee joints and my combat related post-traumatic stress disorder. My GP could only spare 10 minutes per appointment for me and said as a result of this he could only deal with one problem per appointment. His solution to my knee was simple, I should keep taking paracetamol or ibuprofen for it (despite it being an ongoing thing that really needed investigation) and as for the PTSD he kept prescribing me antidepressants that dont work for my condition when I really needed to see a counsellor or a psychologist (which I was told I would have to pay for) yet there was a poster in the waiting room offering free mental health services to afro-caribbeans. This went on for ages with no beneficial help being given.
A few months ago I moved to my girlfriends house in Northern Ireland, an area which has very few immigrants indeed, and since moving here I have had my knee x-rayed (on the same day I went to the doctors about it) and been to see a physiotherapist who has practically cured me. I have also been to see a psychologist and am receiving counselling, and when I go to my GP im not rushed on the grounds we only have 10 minutes for an appointment, if I need tests or anything I get them done the same day.

So anyone who doesnt believe NHS inefficiencies are a result of immigrants draining resources, please explain this to me

Answer 10

The answer would be yes. people have come over from all over the world to get free medical treatment. It is cheaper to pay for a plane ticket than for medical treatment in there own country. The British tax payer cannot possibly afford to pay for the world's health care. It is a ridiculous situation when British old age pensioners who have paid in money their whole lives go to live abroad for there retirement come back to get treatment and they are not allowed it. But any other foreign national can just walk straight in and get free treatment.

Also when I lived in London people with H.I.V were being brought here from Africa for treatment on our N.H.S which must easily cost £100,000 over the course of there life. If the government want to help Africans with Aids send the medications to Africa it would be a lot cheaper and a lot fairer. I actually have a theory that the N.H.S is being deliberately destroyed I don't know why though.