Every now and again I see something that I disagree with and today was a day where I disagreed with many people around the United Kingdom. If you are on Facebook you may have seen a post making its way around about the service that the NHS offer which enables your child and those who do not pay for their prescriptions to get free medication/products when they are poorly. The service which is run is called the Minor Ailments.
The Minor Ailment service is a service that has been put in place which enables you to visit your local Pharmacy. It is a service that has been put in place for those who do not pay for prescriptions. The pharmacy staff are able to help with issues such as: skin conditions, coughs and colds, minor cuts and bruises, constipation, hay fever and allergies, aches and pains, indigestion, diarrhoea and threadworms, period pain and thrush, warts and verrucas, mouth ulcers and cold sores, athlete's foot, as well as nappy rash and teething problems.
For those that shared any related Minor Ailment post's, liked the post and told all their friends about it, weather you go and use the service is up to you. Although I am someone that loves a freebie I can not get my head around the fact that people feel the need to use this service. The service was in fact set up to help pull the pressure off GP's who often saw patients who had common illness's, this in turn cost the NHS over 2 million pounds. The service was set up to help worried parent's and people seek advice when they or their children were under the weather and were unable to get a doctors appointment for 2 weeks. The service was not set up to pay for simple things that most parents are able to pay/budget for.
If Maxwell is poorly I will go out and buy Maxwell calpol, I often buy a large bottle which can cost anything up to £6 however when I have been on a tight budget I have shopped for supermarket own brands and have come away with calpol which has cost me just £1.13. When Maxwell has fallen over, I have always gone to buy him plasters. I often find these in the budget shops and have managed to get cartoon plasters for less than 50p.
What scares me is the amount of people that will not go and spend 50p on plasters or the £1.13 on calpol but instead go to their local pharmacy and request these products through the Minor Ailment service because they feel entitled to. They feel entitled to because they have payed tax's or feel that they are saving a few pence of their own money however long term how will this effect us?
The effect it will have on us is the reduction of the NHS being able to help us and our children as well grow old together. Figures suggest that there are over 11 million children in the UK, if all 11 million children fell ill over a year and every parent/carer decided to use the Minor Ailment service what money would be left for cancer treatment, children's services, life saving operations, blood transfusions and of course the safe arrival of our children when the NHS help bring them into the world?
Before taking what you feel your are entitled to, think how did you cope this many years without the knowledge of the Minor Ailment service, how did you find the funds before to help your sick child? After you have thought about these 2 key things, go on to think how the use of this service will have a negative effect on the NHS system which you and your family may need desperately later on in life.
If you need it take it, if you can live without it then don't abuse it.
