@ Sarah in the Desert “Helen, in all honesty, you answered fairly predictably

Comment on General Election 2010 Poll Results by Helen.

@ Sarah in the Desert

“Helen, in all honesty, you answered fairly predictably for someone who is embedded into the NHS system.”

I could work privately or for the NHS or both so I’m not embedded. I just appreciate a good thing (for the wider population, not just for myself) when I see it. Not really bothered if it’s predictable or not. I’m not aiming for controversy or surprise in my posts, just conveying how I feel.

You say you don’t want to go into finer detail, but you need to at least think about the question I asked before:

If a person has clinical depression, leading to morbid obesity how would you categorise this patient? If a patient has a genetic propensity for caddiovascular disease, but also drinks above the recommended number of units of alcohol (like most of the population), how would your new system prove the underlying cause of that disease?

On thinking about this, you will realise this is impossible to legislate for. Surely money is better spent of helping people live healthier lives in the first place?

You wrote “Joe Bloggs probably doesn’t go to the doctors because he knows that he probably won’t get an appointment for at least 5 days, will sit in a waiting room with a load of ill people coughing and spluttering all over the place, feeling hacked off with the doctor who rushed him because he only had 7 minutes allotted to him and forgot to tell him about that other thing which he will now have to make a separate appointment for!”

This proves you base your view of the NHS on anecdotal, outdated evidence. Will the waiting rooms of your new health model not contain ill people? Will the doctors have unlimited time? Time is money especially in the private sector.

Sure, we all agree services need to be improved but thankfully the NHS is doing that year on year. You see it as throwing more money at a bad thing, I see a genuine improvement because of that investment.

As for French/Canadian systems, I am aware of their merits. The difference is, this is the UK and we already have the NHS, and one of the best, most unique things about the UK is the NHS. Long may it continue to modernise, improve and be invested in.

@ David. I agree with your assessment of GP surgeries in the UK. The current situation is that GPs must offer patients an apt within 48 hours (obviously sooner in emergencies or out of hours). There will be some practices which are better run than others (as I’m sure would be the case in any healthcare model). My GP practice (NHS) is fantastic.

It is also worth mentioning that private healthcare institutions in the UK are just as capable of letting patients down.