A former NHS boss has called for hospital patients to be charged £8 a day during their stay and for the end of free prescriptions for the over-60s. Professor Stephen Smith, the former chairman of the East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust, says that the money raised would help to pay for expensive medical equipment.
His ideas, set out in a new book, are modelled on the German system where patients are charged €10 (£8.50) a night, and he suggests patients should pay between £4 and £8 up to a maximum of 28 days a year. Professor Smith told the Daily Mail: "I think the public would be prepared to pay some additional charges.
"Means testing would ensure the poor were not affected unfairly." However, he was accused of promoting ‘hare-brained ideas’ and ‘zombie policies’ by Dr John Puntis, the co-chairman of campaign group Keep Our NHS Public.
