Is the government trying to break the GP service?

I presume you understand wards being closed, beds being removed, Wobbly.
I presume you also understand "No top down reorganisation"?
Lansley and Hunt didn't, but then they benefit financially from private healthcare.

For goodness sake, stop goading!

If you don't want to wait, if you want to see a particular consultant, if you want a treatment not on the NHS, if you want a second opinion and IF you can afford to pay for it, then going privately is a no brainer if your work or family life depends on it. You are not getting preferential treatment above and beyond the gran with cancer. The system is different.
We could run the same discussion about buying private education, but that's another topic.

Thanks, wobblybits!

Legs55 If that is the case then there should be a small fee to pay towards cost of equipment. What a waste.

By the way, that's 5.5 million bedspaces a year.
Think of that. That's how many overnight operations could have been done if the Tories had kept those beds and had the surgeons to perform operations instead of them working in private hospitals.

It's not goading, it's sticking up for the NHS. Sad that some people would prefer not to.

Do you think Lansley and Hunt should benefit from private healthcare?

codfather. There are 3 practices in our town. We belonged to the first one for 20+ years, then when the doctor who owned the practice retired and sold on we moved because the system went down hill very fast...we couldn't get an appointment for days, that was if you even got through. The second one we are very happy with. Very efficient and very nice receptionists who are very helpful. We could go to another one, but we would have to travel so we don't. It just depends who you are registered with imo.

www.change.org/p/give-sasha-a-chance-don-t-stop-funding-second-stem-cell-transplants?source_location=minibar

BUT when you have people in "important" jobs who need to get their treatment out of the way quickly

I can't believe you are suggesting that some people are more important than other when it comes to their health Lillie.

This makes me sick. If you are ill or in pain you are equally as important as the rich person with private health care who is suffering in the same way.

My sister works for the NHS (admin) she also works 8 hours per week in the same role, in the same hospital in the same office for a consultant doing his highly lucrative private work. She and he are the top of the iceberg. They're all at it!

I would just like to say that most GPs are wonderful. They have to be spot on in their diagnosis, or something awful could happen. They work so hard, and they work long hours. I don't mind them being given extra money for out of hours work, I think they deserve it.

Working 7 days a week however does not mean that is what one doctor will be doing, it means that some sort of shift system needs to be introduced. It is the hospital A&E doctors and the Jnr doctors I feel sorry for. All that training and then some pillock of a politician tries to make out that he knows better than they do. Jack of all trades is what they are....master of none. Politicians I mean.

tip, not top !

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I had a lump in my breast so I went private to get it looked at because I was so worried about it. He gave me the ok but I still felt worried because I could definitely feel pain and feel a lump, so I went and booked an appointment with the NHS. Guess what Legs55 The doctor I saw was the same as I saw when I went private! I was so embarrassed and he looked a bit annoyed. Lucky for me the pain went away so it may have been a milk duct blockage and nothing dangerous.

DJ, perhaps you should read what I said instead of inventing your own version just to pursue an argument. My surgeon IS working for the NHS, but as there are not beds available in the NHS hospital (probably due to bed blocking) he is carrying out the op in a private hospital where beds are available. BUT he IS an HNS surgeon and being paid by the NHS, had he been able to get me a bed within 18 weeks it would have been in an NHS hospital, which would also be more expensive to the NHS as I probably won't need all the backup services they have, ITU etc.

End of my input, so don't waste your time continuing the argument.

Bye.

Oh Yorkshiregel that made me laugh! You with your boobs out in such an embarrassing situation

I laugh too now, but at the time my face must have been beetroot. It was like I was saying 'take another look'! I do not know what the doctor thought I am sure.

The reality of Health Care Tourism and how it affects our NHS crisis.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4123156/Health-tourist-s-350-000-bill-paid-NHS-crisis-case-mother-flew-Nigeria-birth-two-twins.html

Tell you what, I have been in some very embarrassing situations when it comes to hospitals.

I had to go hospital because I kept on getting cyctitis. I wasn't prepared for what was going to happen I must say. I was greeted by an Oncologist, but it didn't mean anything to me. He asked me to lay on a bed after removing pants etc. Then I had to turn on my side and stick my leg up the wall while he had a probe away down there :-) (There was a sister present!) Then I had to go in to another room and be strapped on a torture thing which they turned upside down, then back again, after which I was asked to pee in to a jug which had measures down the side. All the time being watched by the Oncologist who hid behind a glass screen and watched the proceedings on a computer screen.

Stop laughing!I kid you not.

Lucky for me I did not have cancer and the problem turned out to be caused by drinking wine. Being allergic to suphur since I was a child I should not have been drinking it because it has sulphoids and sulphates in it. I do not drink anymore. Problem solved.

Ooops, CYSTITIS

Another funny story re: hospitals. I had gone in to hospital because I had to have joints in my toes removed caused by arthritis.

I woke up to find this man sat by my bed. Hadn't a clue who he was, but he was very pleasant. He stayed the whole of the visiting time before saying 'Bi then!' With a big smile as he went out through the door. I still do not know who he was.

Anyway the next day was sunny so I and another lady who could not get out of bed asked to be taken outside so we could get some fresh air, hospitals being stuffy and all that. Unfortunately they left us out and the shift changed. We were getting redder and redder and in the end I had to shout to a passer by to get us a nurse to bring us both inside. We had a lovely tan!

On the way to fetching me out of hospital my OH's car broke down. Instead of wearing my clothes which he had forgotten I arrived home in a break down truck wrapped in a blanket.

I could go on.

Apologies for going off topic.

So, Wobblybits, when you do get back, the fact that 15000 beds have been removed from NHS hospitals has nothing to do with it, is that what you are saying?
NHS treatment and no beds available, so have to go to a private hospital which has beds available for NHS patients.
I can see the connection, even if you can't.
I hope you don't need the backup services. My sister did when she had her NHS operation in a private hospital. Replacement hip that went wrong.

Medicine used to be a vocation - alas doctors don't feel quite the same as my father's generation. I am now in my '80s and he was a gynaecologist out all hours day and night and expected to do this. Not heard of now - you can't get a doctor to visit - I don't understand the loss of home visits - surely it would add to a doctor's interest in his patients. What do I know or understand at my age!!

I dont think medicine is quite the vocation as it was for a number of reasons.
It is busier, more finance considerations are involved, more paperwork, and it seems like more people are needed to keep it all going, which then means it somewhat loses its magic nad mystique somehow.
It becomes more like a production line.