I happen to agree with arj1’s post above.
GPs in particular are mostly a total waste of space and basically clueless.
The fundamental problem is the heavy and increasing load on the NHS. This is due to obesity, which drives the epidemic of diabetes, which is a huge problem – bigger than the various forms of dementia because it kills people quite slowly. It also drives heart disease and all sorts of other stuff.
The Brits just don’t look after their own health, although if you look at the stats around Europe it is pretty much the same everywhere. It just doesn’t get readily admitted on a forum in the English language 
One can certainly argue that a “totally free NHS” is a misallocation of taxpayer funds – because a lot of people can easily afford going private. Usually, a 6 month wait for a consultation is converted to a wait of a few days, for £200. It’s a no-brainer really, especially considering how many people spend 200 quid on fags in no time at all. The free NHS idea is from c. 1947 when Britain was really poor and it was a fantastic vote winner.
Peter wrote:
The fundamental problem is the heavy and increasing load on the NHS. This is due to obesity
No pun intended, I’m sure…
Peter wrote:
The fundamental problem is the heavy and increasing load on the NHS. This is due to obesity, which drives the epidemic of diabetes, which is a huge problem – bigger than the various forms of dementia because it kills people quite slowly.
Dementia kills people quite slowly too. Dementia is a far bigger cost:
The total cost of dementia in the UK is £26.3 billion. The NHS picks up £4.3 billion of the costs and social care £10.3 billion.
The costs of obesity. It is estimated that the NHS spent £6.1 billion on overweight and obesity-related ill-health in 2014 to 2015
Most overweight and obese people are otherwise perfectly functional and economically active. I can tell you first hand (my grandmother got dementia) that no dementia patient is capable of even caring for themselves, they are not competent to make decisions, are not economically active, and quickly need 24/7 care and often for many years. Most overweight/obese people can still work and are still independent. No dementia patient can (at least not for long) and worse still, a dementia patient often removes a relative from the workforce too so we suffer a double hit (the relatives, especially).
With dementia you soon end up in a care home, and the average stay there is 2.5 years. Also they normally grab your house, to recover lots of money.
Mooney_Driver wrote:
America still has this appeal to a much larger public than Greta’s climate youngsters would suggest.
And although there were gatherings to support Greta during her US visit, it was really clear that climate change does not resonate with the majority of Americans to the same extent it does with Europeans. Even within Europe, there is a large disparity across countries in that regard as well.
@Off_Field wrote:
Like any good socialist, they refuse to accept democratic votes.
What do you mean when you talk about a “socialist”?
Airborne_Again wrote:
What do you mean when you talk about a “socialist”?
Someone on the left / far left who wants to nationalise as much as they can (usually the end goal is all of the means of production) Generally not keen on individuals or individual property rights. Usually keen on a command economy. Generally think they know how everything should run and want to ensure that they enforce their own demands on others.
Usually a fan of, mao, chavez, maduro, etc.
Here’s a collection of them:
arj1 wrote:
Yes, if you’ve been in the accident they’ll save you, otherwise – pi$$ off. Sometimes they pick up a critical illness and you just hope they do it in time.
And the General Practioners are the worst.
Nail/head/spot on.
Yep and it is getting worse. The brand new Super hospital, Queen Elizabeth in Glasgow was to be the future. A number of publicised fatalities recently, babies, kids, elderly. A total and utter shit hole, and it has been open only three years. Doors hanging off, plasterwork damaged and holed, not cleaned on any basis I can see, baked beans lay under my Father in Laws bed for a week, (his length of stay). Rubbish and raw food lying outside the main entrance. It sits next to Glasgow’s largest sewage works with rats the size of cats resident, but would it not be a great idea to build a flagship hospital next to it.
Copious amounts of very fat obese staff doing the square root of ^, No management of course with the exception of 20 or so 200k per annum executives who are doing what exactly????
An A&E department that resembles something from Beirut at the height of the war.
Not one action on any letters of complaint except a Public Enquiry launched. The Scottish Government blamed, and are now litigating the contractor for Ventilation system issues and pigeon droppings which are apparently responsible for the deaths. Good old NHS in full flow. It is absurd. And the politicians banging on about spending more money. Stafford anyone?
I honestly despair at the state of things.
Peter wrote:
One can certainly argue that a “totally free NHS” is a misallocation of taxpayer funds – because a lot of people can easily afford going private.
That’s an interesting statement coming from you, @Peter. 
It says that taxpayers funds should only be used for those who are unable to afford paying their own costs…. and implies that since taxpayer funds are paid by everyone, those that can afford to pay their own way should have their taxes used for those who cannot.
BeechBaby wrote:
Copious amounts of very fat obese staff doing the square root of ^, No management of course with the exception of 20 or so 200k per annum executives who are doing what exactly????
Spending money on expensive toys?
One of the UK IT contractors, I worked with a few years ago, said that it looks like all the cost-cutting affected the front line and not the procurement, process change etc.
He said that being very expensive contractor he could not justify for himself buying VERY expensive end-user h/w (Laptops, for example) that was routinely purchased in the NHS.
https://www.itpro.co.uk/it-infrastructure/31946/failed-nhs-it-system-will-cost-7m-to-stabilise
One very small example above.
There is no doubt that Uk and Scottish Govt procurement process is totally broken. Be it IT System Development, facility infrastructure, Train Franchise, NHS, HMRC it goes on and on. Has anyone tried to use GOV.UK Gateway system? This is the heartbeat of Govt on line. Dear God.
The latest debacle is this
Honestly how hard can it be?
