How much have you cost the NHS?
It was less than a year ago that Rishi Sunak was pledging to fine patients £10 if they miss NHS appointments.
Sunak, who at that point in August was campaigning in the first Conservative leadership contest of 2022, said the NHS endures 15 million missed appointments at GPs and hospitals every year.
"It's not valuing our doctors properly," he told a hustings held by The Telegraph. "But it's also, more importantly, depriving people of care that they urgently need, making them wait unnecessarily long."
Two months, and one disastrous Liz Truss premiership later, Sunak was prime minister.
Yet days into his administration, he dropped the pledge, with a spokesperson saying: "We have listened to GPs and health leaders and have acknowledged that now is not the right time to take this policy forward."
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Regardless of the U-turn, Sunak's pledge brought with it a focus on the cost of delivering NHS services.
And, leaving aside the various political debates surrounding the government's funding of the health service, a tool by price comparison website Go.Compare has demonstrated how much individual procedures, appointments and callouts cost the NHS.
Its "bill of health" tool, compiled using NHS England figures, shows the approximate cost of common services such as a GP appointment (£30), 999 call (£90), overnight hospital stay (£483) and natural childbirth (£3,137).
To see the tool, click on the Go.Compare image below.
Meanwhile, 10 of the most expensive procedures, according to the website, include:
Liver transplant: £36,417
Kidney transplant: £22,437
Hip replacement: £12,739
Knee replacement: £11,850
Appendicectomy: £7,415
Gallbladder removal: £7,250
Caesarean section: £6,962
Hernia operation: £5,953
Broken leg: £5,684
Gastric bypass: £5,250
NHS England's budget for 2022/23 was £153bn.
