There’s a good piece over at Tim Worstall’s place about the ongoing scandal of Britons who are unable to access primary healthcare services such as those provided by General Practitioners. The article states that there is evidence that a lack of access to GP services is behind an increase in the use of Accident and Emergency units. I must admit that this is a possibility as those frustrated by not being able to get an appointment with their GP will go to the next practical option, which is often the local A and E unit.

Mr Worstall quite rightly pointed out that GP’s are incentivised to have large headcounts on their books but not so incentivised to actually see patients. Maybe if GP’s reward was tied to actual patient contact rather than just raw patient numbers on the practises books then the public might be able to stand a better chance of getting an appointment that was not weeks away.

However there were two below the line comments that caught my eye. These comments are from those who have had experience of dealing with the utter and complete mess that is Britain’s National Health Service. The first concerns trying to get attention for a child patient in an A and E unit whilst the second is centred around trying to get basic antibiotics for an elderly woman. In both these cases there are justifiably people who have a right to be unhappy with how they’ve been served and also a clear illustration of just how rubbish the NHS really is and why it needs to be completely and utterly reformed. What we have with the NHS is the worst of all worlds. We have a service that is riven by incompetence and all the other problems of producer capture that come along with nationalised industries and one that treats patients and their loved ones with absolute disdain.

Here’s the first comment:

Chernyy Drakon

Due to mini-Drakon being ill, we had to go to A&E on Sunday night.
10.5 hours later we finally managed to leave.
During this time, we had to:
– argue with the triage nurse about dosages of calpol
-wait through a shift change, which was supposed to take 20min, but was closer to an hour
-remind the doctor that he said he would give us a prescription over 75 min earlier, but he had forgotten about us and wandered off to do something else
-point out that the prescription he had given us was actually for someone else, even though he did the ritual performance of confirming names
-point out that the second prescription had the right name but hadn’t been signed by him

In the whole 10.5 hours, we spent around 30min with a health care “professional”.
One doctor was quite helpful but slow. One nurse was actually very helpful and kind. The rest were awful and obstructive. How dare we question their medical wisdom, despite it contradicting manufacturer instructions on dosage?

Burn it. Salt the earth. Then burn it again.

The NHS needs a reform. It will not get one until a government has the spine to tackle the unions and the shouty types who claim it is a “national treasure”. So it’s never getting reform.

And the second

Ottokring

I refuse to use 111 – it is fucking useless.

Couple of years ago my mum was ill. We knew what the problem and just wanted a nurse ( or someone ) to adminster antibiotics. The local small hospital, where the district nurses operated from refused to talk to us and said we had to call 111. The thick girlie on the line insisted on sending an ambulance, despite me telling them that this was the wrong response and a waste of NHS resources. 4 hours later an ambulance arrived. Frustrated paramedics agree that she just needed some antibiotics and a good sleep. They called an out of hours doc, who arrived from London, 7 hours later at 11pm and gave my mum some penicillin. She was right as rain a couple of days later. We now keep a small stock in case it happens again.

Twats.

These are not it seems to me high end high skill set required healthcare issues. They don’t look like the job for someone like a Consultant, they just look like the sort of things that could and should be handled properly and effectively by ordinary doctors and nurses. The fact that they were not handled correctly and both of these customers of the NHS were treated so shoddily is testament to how horribly incompetent and badly managed the NHS truly is. The NHS has become a healthcare system without competence, without good governance and all too often a system with a severe lack of humanity and compassion.