GP's

[Sotv]

I think government sentiment is leaning towards face-to-face consultations. NHS England advice certainly does, as per the letter issued in May this year.

https://www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/w...-FINAL.pdf

I know for an absolute fact that our surgery is not aligned with this advice. When you (eventually) get through on the phone, you have to listen to almost 10 minutes of pre-recorded waffle, the main theme of which is "you will not be able to see a doctor in person". The Health Centre main entrance and the GP practice entrance are adorned with "do not enter without an appointment" signs. Doors are locked.

Of course the practice nurses are still seeing patients, they've never stopped. Difficult to imagine why it's different for them risk-wise. But you are welcomed in by the last surviving receptionist with a curt "sanitise your hands" - not even a please or a smile.

It's gone to shit, the staff (medical and support) don't seem to realise, or maybe they don't care. It's not just about funding, politicization of NHS services, Covid or anything else. Some of it is about public sector attitude and sense of entitlement. We patients are paying customers, not recipients of charity. But GP practices don't seem to see it that way.

+1 - 
this is the inevitable result of forcing people to pay for a service and not giving them the ability to take their money elsewhere if they are not happy with service levels. 
Even if you opt to go private your GP is still getting their cut of the money taken from your wages before you've even seen it.
One of the biggest con tricks of the state is to silently take your money then make a big fan fare about giving you a little bit of it back.

[Birdman1811]

I think government sentiment is leaning towards face-to-face consultations. NHS England advice certainly does, as per the letter issued in May this year.

https://www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/w...-FINAL.pdf

I know for an absolute fact that our surgery is not aligned with this advice. When you (eventually) get through on the phone, you have to listen to almost 10 minutes of pre-recorded waffle, the main theme of which is "you will not be able to see a doctor in person". The Health Centre main entrance and the GP practice entrance are adorned with "do not enter without an appointment" signs. Doors are locked.

Of course the practice nurses are still seeing patients, they've never stopped. Difficult to imagine why it's different for them risk-wise. But you are welcomed in by the last surviving receptionist with a curt "sanitise your hands" - not even a please or a smile.

It's gone to shit, the staff (medical and support) don't seem to realise, or maybe they don't care. It's not just about funding, politicization of NHS services, Covid or anything else. Some of it is about public sector attitude and sense of entitlement. We patients are paying customers, not recipients of charity. But GP practices don't seem to see it that way.

+1 - 
this is the inevitable result of forcing people to pay for a service and not giving them the ability to take their money elsewhere if they are not happy with service levels. 
Even if you opt to go private your GP is still getting their cut of the money taken from your wages before you've even seen it.
One of the biggest con tricks of the state is to silently take your money then make a big fan fare about giving you a little bit of it back.

Though I work for the NHS, I don't disagree really.

[Derek Hardballs]

So what happens to those who cannot afford decent health care? Or can’t get or afford insurance if they are vulnerable / disabled? They get the crumbs thrown by those who spend thousands avoiding paying tax?

[Remi_Moses]

So what happens to those who cannot afford decent health care? Or can’t get or afford insurance if they are vulnerable / disabled? They get the crumbs thrown by those who spend thousands avoiding paying tax?

You can't post the gov are putting more money and resources into GP practices and then recognise the service is not performing. And then asks what happens to vulnerable? They're piling into hospitals and clogging the system up. The hospital and paramedics have noticed but not you. I like the idea of £25 to see a doc to ensure those that are sick get seen. Not the mamby pampy idiots who go every day for a bee sting, etc 
Gets money into the NHS and gets rid of the time wasters.

[Sotv]

So what happens to those who cannot afford decent health care? Or can’t get or afford insurance if they are vulnerable / disabled? They get the crumbs thrown by those who spend thousands avoiding paying tax?

it seems many are not getting decent healthcare anyway. I suppose this is socialism in action, we are all equally poor.

[baggy1]

So what happens to those who cannot afford decent health care? Or can’t get or afford insurance if they are vulnerable / disabled? They get the crumbs thrown by those who spend thousands avoiding paying tax?

it seems many are not getting decent healthcare anyway. I suppose this is socialism in action, we are all equally poor.

We live in a democratic society that leans a lot more towards capitalism than socialism. You vote for and live in a mainly capitalist country but somehow are being conned into thinking that socialism (where it doesn't exist) is to blame for the poor service.

---

So what happens to those who cannot afford decent health care? Or can’t get or afford insurance if they are vulnerable / disabled? They get the crumbs thrown by those who spend thousands avoiding paying tax?

You can't post the gov are putting more money and resources into GP practices and then recognise the service is not performing. And then asks what happens to vulnerable? They're piling into hospitals and clogging the system up. The hospital and paramedics have noticed but not you. I like the idea of £25 to see a doc to ensure those that are sick get seen. Not the mamby pampy idiots who go every day for a bee sting, etc 
Gets money into the NHS and gets rid of the time wasters.

In a country where people are turning towards food banks to get food, what do you think will happen if people have to pay to see a doctor? Simple, they won't see the doctor.

We need a major overhaul of the way we look at health and the health service in this country, making people pay more for it isn't the way we need to be going.

[Derek Hardballs]

So what happens to those who cannot afford decent health care? Or can’t get or afford insurance if they are vulnerable / disabled? They get the crumbs thrown by those who spend thousands avoiding paying tax?

it seems many are not getting decent healthcare anyway. I suppose this is socialism in action, we are all equally poor.

We live in a democratic society that leans a lot more towards capitalism than socialism. You vote for and live in a mainly capitalist country but somehow are being conned into thinking that socialism (where it doesn't exist) is to blame for the poor service.

---

So what happens to those who cannot afford decent health care? Or can’t get or afford insurance if they are vulnerable / disabled? They get the crumbs thrown by those who spend thousands avoiding paying tax?

You can't post the gov are putting more money and resources into GP practices and then recognise the service is not performing. And then asks what happens to vulnerable? They're piling into hospitals and clogging the system up. The hospital and paramedics have noticed but not you. I like the idea of £25 to see a doc to ensure those that are sick get seen. Not the mamby pampy idiots who go every day for a bee sting, etc 
Gets money into the NHS and gets rid of the time wasters.

In a country where people are turning towards food banks to get food, what do you think will happen if people have to pay to see a doctor? Simple, they won't see the doctor.

We need a major overhaul of the way we look at health and the health service in this country, making people pay more for it isn't the way we need to be going.

It’s an awful attitude which seems to imply if you’re poor through no particular fault of your own be it being disabled and not being able to work or looking after someone which makes working impossible they are consigned to lesser health care because they can’t pay for it themselves. What sort of society do we want in this county? One where we offer a high standard of care for all including those less fortunate or one where it’s tough live off the scraps plebs!

The lack of understanding of why people visit the doctor is quite astounding. If someone who is disabled for example had to pay every time that they had to see the Doctor for medicines, referrals, adjustments for their conditions etc would see them in hundreds of pounds worth of debt over a year. Great solution!

The softening up of populist opinion on privatising the NHS and healthcare is going well…it seems. Murdoch, US Healthcare providers and donors will be very pleased!

[Fido]

Our surgery has seen a steep decline in service in recent years but that seems to be partly due to the fact that 1000s of houses are going up in the area without having the infrastructure to back it up. 

The way it works with ours is you phone up in the morning which has to be done at 08:00 00:00 at which point you find yourself and #23 in the queue. You may then have to wait 30-45 minutes to get through to reception. Any later and you are pretty much fugged for the day and need to try again the next day. I'm not necessarily against an element of triage by phone/Zoom/sending photos of ailment but a lot of evidence is gained by seeing someone in person, how they walk in and they may not be able to express exactly what it is that ails them. 

There are a couple of things I could do with getting looked at that are not by any stretch life-threatening and shouldn't develop into any such thing but like me there are people out there who would probably thinking if the service is that stretched then my thing is not that bad/important. The problem is it could well become bad so those who might miss an initial diagnosis are having to go through the more expensive option of cure rather than what could have been prevention.

[wba13]

So what happens to those who cannot afford decent health care? Or can’t get or afford insurance if they are vulnerable / disabled? They get the crumbs thrown by those who spend thousands avoiding paying tax?

it seems many are not getting decent healthcare anyway. I suppose this is socialism in action, we are all equally poor.

We live in a democratic society that leans a lot more towards capitalism than socialism. You vote for and live in a mainly capitalist country but somehow are being conned into thinking that socialism (where it doesn't exist) is to blame for the poor service.

---

So what happens to those who cannot afford decent health care? Or can’t get or afford insurance if they are vulnerable / disabled? They get the crumbs thrown by those who spend thousands avoiding paying tax?

You can't post the gov are putting more money and resources into GP practices and then recognise the service is not performing. And then asks what happens to vulnerable? They're piling into hospitals and clogging the system up. The hospital and paramedics have noticed but not you. I like the idea of £25 to see a doc to ensure those that are sick get seen. Not the mamby pampy idiots who go every day for a bee sting, etc 
Gets money into the NHS and gets rid of the time wasters.

In a country where people are turning towards food banks to get food, what do you think will happen if people have to pay to see a doctor? Simple, they won't see the doctor.

We need a major overhaul of the way we look at health and the health service in this country, making people pay more for it isn't the way we need to be going.

So you like the idea of £25 to see your Dr, well that is a stupid idea if that happened the Hospitals would be overwhelmed with people who could not afford it or they would stay home and some would get seriously ill or worse. So the rich would stay safe and the poor would be ill bloody ridiculous idea.

[Tom Joad]

Last time I ended up in A and E (work accident, could have been serious but I got very lucky), it was full of people with minor ailments that simply could not get in at their Drs. A far from ideal situation.