Is the lack of available GP's to blame for NHS crisis?

whitelion said:

I wonder if it's a generational thing. Wild Horses wouldn't get me to a hospital let alone going to the GP.

I walked around with a broken fibula for three weeks before my sister on seeing me with an "elephant's ankle" suggested I get it looked at. I was hesitant but reluctantly went and even then my doctor suggested it was gout and when I returned having not improved said it was septicaemia.

On the third visit I saw a locum who actually examined my leg and sent me for an x-ray when the fracture was confirmed. When I saw my doctor some months later he said that he didn't diagnose the fracture as I was walking on it.

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BensGrandad said:

Perhaps the PM is on the right track to ease A&E by keeping the GP surgery open until 8pm and they do the minor things that people go to A&E for and if needed they send people to the hospital for an XRay etc.

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drew said:

There are two extremes, those that go for minor, easily self treatable conditions and then at the other end of the spectrum is you!!! To say wild horses wouldn't get you to a hospital let alone a GP is, I would respectfully suggest, more about your fear than not wanting to trouble the professionals. There are plenty of serious conditions that might manifest themselves in minor symptoms, for example, an itchy mole!!!

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whitelion said:

I don't have any fear - it was a case of couldn't be bothered to go to the doctor/hospital.

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drew said:

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glasfryn said:

oh yeh I went to the Doctor to have a large diabetic blister dressed and the nurse had a plaster big enough to cover a pinprick it burst and I ended up in A&E and then taking up a bed for 8 days because it had turned to cellulitis eventually discharging myself after taking up nearly all the intravenous antibiotics on the south coast and went over to oral medication.
all this because to Doctors surgery could not cope with what was something minor which turned out to be more major than first thought.
I have now bought some large plasters, so in the event of this happening again I can treat myself

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BensGrandad said:

Mistakes happen unfortunately due to individuals errors.

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Mo Gosfield said:

Harry Wilson's tackle said:

Nonsense. I live in a small town whose population has barely changed in 20 years. It is at least 95% white British. When I first moved here it took about 3 minutes to drive through town to get on to the A2. Now the roads are always clogged. Why? because peope are richer, and instead of making infrequent journeys to the shops, often by foot, half the twon drives to one of the two big supermarkets every day. A place is always 'full' in as much as people and their activities expand to fill the space available. This has always been true of roads and has nothing to do with actual population.



I note that you live in Faversham, a sleepy backwater on the North Kent coast. It hasn't attracted a rise in population in recent years because it lacks industrial growth potential. It is one of those " off the radar " towns that quietly goes about its business, without attracting too much attention. Immigrants aren't attracted there as there isn't the work available and little or no history of multi-culturalism.
If you lived in the Blackwater valley area ( Farnborough, Aldershot, Camberley etc ) or the Thames Valley ( Reading, Bracknell, Maidenhead, Slough etc ) you would notice that things are a lot different. Here, business is vibrant and population is growing rapidly ( Reading is now the largest town in England ) It is here that the most pressure is being felt. The pressure on housing is at an unprecedented level. The urban sprawl is now eating up green field sites everywhere. Planning permission is being granted on open farmland and estates are springing up everywhere. The road network is being put under more strain than it can bear. In these areas, they cannot build more roads but are constantly building more roundabouts and traffic lights to try and control traffic moving to and from this new housing. This slows traffic flow and causes tailbacks that never previously existed.
Speak to anyone who lives in these areas and they will tell you that the infrastructure cannot keep pace with our ever rising population. If we could build more hospitals, schools and doctors surgeries at the rate at which supermarkets are being allowed to develop, then we wouldn't have a problem.
Our small island has much beautiful and unoccupied ( by humans ) countryside but the majority of people don't want to live there. They want to be where the work is and therein lies the problem. Major areas of rapidly growing urban sprawl that cannot possibly hope to offer the best lifestyle possible to its inhabitants because of the pressures created. It is nothing unusual to wait 4 days for a doctor's appointment or 6-7 hours in an A&E dept.
Pressure on the roads has everything to do with population growth. The number of vehicles on our roads grows every year and will keep growing. Try a dose of the M25/M4 around Heathrow every day and you will notice a bit of difference from getting out of Faversham.

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I understand and sympathize with what you are saying. However, all of the things you describe are happening here in this sleepy backwater, albeit to a lesser extent perhaps, without any population growth. My point, I think, is that it is not obvious why things are getting in a mess, but that population growth is not a necessary component here, and I therefore would challenge that it is the sole (or even necessarily the major) reason elsewhere.

Also - what is the solution? The draw to move to areas of hot employment and hi tech growth does not attract exclusively immigrants. The majorty of unflux to areas of hot economy are certain to be Brits. Unless of course the local companys canot find skilled workers. In which case they will import skilled workers from abroad. But . . . high growth economy . . . skilled workers . . . this is not (and I am not accusing you of saying it is) the flabby growth of ghetto, scum overbreeders, etc. It is just a natural outcome of the capitalist free market economy.

But I understand that people (including me) are getting vexed by traffic jams, queues at the doctors, etc (and much worse other things, for some; income, neighbours etc determining). So what is the solution? I don't know. I really don't. Controlling our borders (brexct brexct) certainly won't transform or reverse this, however (again I am not suggesting you say it would).

My take is our plight is simply symptomatic of what happens to all societies: existential decay, One reason I find Brexit interesting is that it is an exemplar of how existential decay might be halted: trauma, everything shifting . . . yes it might fix the problem . . . but it might be the final nail in our coffin. Sorry . . . just musing!

All the best

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