A Tory MP who sparked fury by insisting A&E patients should wait longer than four hours has previously suggested the NHS should charge for smoking, obesity and alcohol-related illnesses
A Tory MP who sparked fury by insisting that A&E patients should wait longer than four hours to be seen has previously suggested the NHS should charge for smoking, obesity and alcohol-related illnesses.
MP and GP Phillip Lee made the front page of the Daily Mirror today for saying that “there are a number of people in A&E who should be waiting more than four hours”.
He also said the four-hour waiting time was part of a “target culture” inherited from Labour and suggested that David Cameron had slashed funding for mental health services to divert cash to struggling A&Es.
He told the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire yesterday:
“There have been difficult decisions made on funding because we have inherited a target culture of saying we’ve to meet four-hour targets in A&E.
“Personally, I think there are a number of people in A&E who should be waiting more than four hours, okay?”
It’s now emerged that back in 2012 Mr Lee also suggested those who eat junk food should pay for treatment before soaring costs bankrupt the NHS.
“If you want to have doughnuts for breakfast, lunch and dinner, fine, but there’s a cost,” Mr Lee told an Institute of Economic Affairs briefing.
He also suggested that people with recognised medical conditions such as diabetes shouldn’t be entitled to free prescription drugs:
“The current situation, when diabetics and people with an under-active thyroid are entitled to all drugs to be free is just indefensible, plainly daft. There is scope here to reduce or flatten out the health care budget.”
The revelations are likely to feed accusations that the Conservatives can’t be trusted with the NHS.
Under the Tory-led coalition, hospital A&E departments have missed the NHS’s target for 95 per cent of people to be seen within four hours for 92 weeks in a row. In total the number of patients waiting longer than four hours in A&E has risen by over 300 per cent since 2009/10.
James Bloodworth is the editor of Left Foot Forward. Follow him on Twitter
18 Responses to “Tory MP: Make overweight people pay to use NHS”
JAMES MCGIBBON
Leon do you ever bore yourself. Put the dictionary away and have a nice cup of tea.
JAMES MCGIBBON
Earl Gray is nice with a digestive biscuit.
Duckman
I actually agree with this person in part- people who have unhealthy lifestyles (either obese, alcoholic) should have to purchase health insurance from the government on top of the NHS. The NHS is heading for bankruptcy unless changes are done and that means that people who have unhealthy should either contribute to their healthcare costs (£100 a month) or be put at the bottom of healthcare waiting lists. People who refuse to lose weight should not expect the state to look after themselves. People need to take responsibility if we are to have an NHS health system.
Leon Wolfeson
Right, no parody involved.
Leon Wolfeson
Keep making up nonsense, and your diversionary tactics from your eugenics shows how far right you are.