To ask if the NHS

[GinUser]

is so oversubscrbed, why does it have a tv advertising campaign exhorting people to use its services?
By the way, I thought the one about antibiotics was a good idea, for the masses, but surely the GP should explain and just not prescribe?

[mindutopia]

Because it's a public health campaign, not about the NHS drumming up business. I work in public health related research and generally the aim of these sorts of things is to save money by eliminating waste in services and also to improve health outcomes long term. I don't really know what adverts you're referring to, but certainly the aim of the antibiotics campaign is to discourage people from coming to the GP asking for antibiotics. There is a parallel campaign with GPs to better educate them about antibiotics use (the antibiotics overuse issue and bacterial resistance is a huge deal, we're really screwing ourselves over, not just in the UK but globally). You would be amazed how many people there are who show up week after week banging on about waiting antibiotics for a cold and GPs have to turn them away again and again. Sometimes they just relent and prescribe (unnecessarily) just to get people out of their reception areas because people who genuinely need appts can't get in. So it's a problem on the user and provider side but these advertising campaigns are to educate the public to basically stop badgering their GPs and wasting GP resources (because they're oversubscribed). For other things, it can be to encourage people who really need to be seen to come in and be seen rather than going to A&E for instance (because that is much more costly and already more oversubscribed, etc.) and because prevention is cheaper and more effective than treatment for most things, so it's good for people who really need to be seen to come in, because it's more cost effective. It's just the morons who go to A&E because they have a cold they're trying to discourage.

[DesignedForLife]

Because a stitch in times saves nine.

[FuzzyCustard]

The only advert I can recall is encouraging people to see their pharmacist. Perhaps if this advice was followed GPs would have less pressure on their services, which could be used for more demanding cases. Having watched "GPs behind closed doors" on the TV, I am often shocked at the small things people visit a GP for.

[Bombardier25966]

I'm wondering which advert you're talking about also.

Don't expect antibiotics if they're not needed - good advice, saves money but more importantly reduces resistance and its knock on effects.

Use the correct service (111, pharmacist etc) - good advice, saves money, gets you treatment more quickly, saving money again.

Keep an eye on vulnerable relatives and neighbours in the winter (something like that) - good advice, prevent smaller issues becoming something that needs medical intervention.

[specialsubject]

The advert is exhorting people to use brains. Waste of time, but reading about both my local a and es ( as in an hour away) saying they are clogged with people who just needed a trip to the chemist you can see why they are trying.

Remember Saturday will be peak drunk night. Don't have a real accident because the hospitals will be clogged with the spewers. Our county town has a handy chilly fast flowing river through it which will be Darwin in action.