Read the latest about NHS Top Ups.

Independent nurses' think-tank, Nurses for Reform (NFR), have said this week that they fully support the government’s decision to allow top-up fees in the NHS. Previously, if a patient wished to cash in a private health insurance policy to help pay towards the price of treatment that the NHS refused to pay, they would be given a bill for the full cost of the healthcare. Professor Mike Richards, the Department of Health’s National Cancer Director, has now been given the go ahead by ministers to update the regulations regarding top ups despite Health Secretary Alan Johnson’s recent claim that they would breach the principles of the health service. When it was established in 1948, the NHS promised to provide “all medical, dental and nursing care.” There are now concerns that it may come to an end as more and more people choose to pay to ensure the quality and efficiency of private healthcare.

Over seven million people in the UK are now covered by a private medical insurance policy and that number continues to increase all the time. By allowing patients to contribute, the NHS will now provide access to more expensive and possibly more effective treatment like controversial cancer drugs for example. NFR spokeswoman and Director, Dr Helen Evans said, “Allowing private top-ups for medicines and treatment means that government is finally attempting to catch up with what the public have already come to endorse.”