Brexit, the economy and house prices part 5

cogito wrote: »

Presumably you're too young to remember a time when labour politicians came from the constituencies they represented and hadn't done degrees in PPE.

As soon as they arrived in parliament I bet the accusations of hypocrisy started - 'he earns 3 times what his constituents do - what can he possibly know about x, y, or Z' (copyright Eric the Bee).

Not sure why it's so important that labour MPs have to look, sound and be from the same town as their constituents. Tory MPs are no more representative of their constituents but doesn't seem to attract the same attention.

Rough_Justice wrote: »

Like the increase in the number of people with multiple long-term conditions which is set to grow from 1.9 to 2.9 million from 2008 to 2018, increased incidence of diabetes, or an increasing elderly population.

Yes, it's probably going to get far worse.

Rough_Justice wrote: »

That's besides the statement being a lie as the following shows:
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.MED.PHYS.ZS

Why does it make you so angry when someone (correctly) suggests the UK doesn't compare well in terms of number of doctors per head of population?

If you look at the World Bank data in map form you can see that the UK (& Ireland) have the lowest number of physicians of any European country apart from Poland, Slovenia, Serbia and Montenegro.

Am I lying? Engaging in deceit?

Rough_Justice wrote: »

No wonder the UK finds it so difficult to recruit, train and retain GP's if the derision seen in these posts alone is anything to go by.
Talk about shooting yourself in the proverbial foot; "There's not enough GP's but we don't think you need "gatekeepers" or have any wasted appointments is not exactly what I would call encouragement.

There are wasted appointments. You've given some examples which are probably wasteful but I think there are two issues here

(1) the free at point of delivery nonsense just encourages wastefulness. You'll always have a decent queue when you give away valuable stuff for free. I suspect that's a root cause and, rather than address it, we compound it by adding additional gatekeepers and making the free service even more expensive.

(2) I suspect GPs are copping out when it comes to telling people they're wasting their time. It must be difficult to tell someone they're a malingerer without putting them off attending for genuine reasons in the future. A good example is the recent ad campaign about antibiotics

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2017/10/23/nhs-patients-urged-stop-asking-antibiotics-television-campaign/

Antibiotics are prescribed by doctors. If there's is/ was an issue with them being over prescribed or prescribed for complaints which are treated by antibiotics that's down to the doctors. Do doctors really prescribe antibiotics just to 'get rid' of people rather than say no?

I know we like anecdotal stuff here. My MIL attends her GP once or twice a week - she has done so for around 10 years. She's been a heavy user of NHS services for the whole of her life and has recently moved house to be closer to the surgery.

She has a few ailments but they're mainly imagined and she'll probably live to be well into her nineties just like her mother who, incidentally, never had a well day in her life either. AIUI during her long career of milking the NHS I don't think a GP has ever suggested she could do with losing 4 stone, stop eating crap and perhaps stop watching telly all day. Not even a mental health referral (she had anxiety issues over Christmas when the doctors were shut).

I do wonder if her GPs (she's outlived quite a few) just aren't equipped to deal with the 'worried well'. Some well meaning family members have tried to discuss this but fail at the first hurdle - she's ill - the GP says so.