"If more NHS doctors were full time, the waiting lists would be shorter and there'd be less need for people to go private." Exactly!
Witchy - most ill health aside possibly from genetic issues are "self inflicted" few people truly lead a healthy life. Many don't eat healthily (and weight is NOT the only indicator - I've known slim people who rarely eat a vegetable or unprocessed meat!), drink too much alcohol, too much caffeine, smoke, aren't active enough or the right way, live in areas of high pollution, work too long hours, don't sleep enough, don't take care of their personal hygiene inc dental hygiene, don't always practise safer sex... That's the human condition.
Re "don't care for elderly rellies" - well of course first off that's not true for all families. In mine we were able (in one case with A LOT of juggling) to care for our elderly rellies, but this is becoming harder when you consider UC policies, how long people are being expected to work for now, that families are sometimes needing to move well away from "home" to find work, to afford housing. Also not everyone is suited to caring! It's a very challenging role and "unqualified" family carers (I put unqualified in quotes cos quite frankly most of them their knowledge of their caree is PhD level!) are not supported or funded very well.
There's also individual issues - eg like hell will I ever be a carer for my dad. He was/is a violent, abusive alcoholic who also sa me. That's never going to happen. But the nurses who see a very sick, frail old man when he's in hospital won't get that.
Nasty abusive people become nasty abusive old people.
As someone who worked in elderly care I realised pretty early on that included in the mix of patients and residents were some lovely people who were just unlucky in that their families were deceased and maybe they'd not been able to have DC or never married etc, some whose families cared but were unsuited to or unable to care for them for a variety of reasons - but there was also a significant number who'd treated their families like shit when they were younger, were generally nasty even abusive people that nobody gaf about! More than once I pulled up members of staff critical of the families of these patients (it tended to be the younger members of staff who had loving families and not yet the life experience to know not everyone's families were)and reminded them they didn't necessarily know the history. One poor woman used to visit her father twice a week and every time he did nothing but berate and criticise her, after an occasion where he actually whacked her with his crutch in my presence (he didn't know I was there) I told him off and ended up patching her up (he'd broken the skin) upon which she said basically "this is nothing he used to batter hell out of me". And yet the next week there she was. So sometimes the reason they're not caring for their families is their own safety and sanity - and this is not unusual.
Plus of course some can be violent as a result of various conditions - don't underestimate how strong some elderly folk still are! Of course not their fault but should families really be putting themselves - inc kids - at risk out of duty?
Helena's point is also true, people's motives are called into question too.
"I work in another public sector where there is six months' sick pay. The way people are suddenly fit for a phased return on the day their six months' pay ends is nothing short of a miracle." Doesn't surprise me.
"Stopping consultants from doing private work wouldn't necessarily increase capacity in the NHS as many of them would leave. It would also mean that people needing procedures not available on the NHS would have to go abroad for them." Stopping them from doing it while being an nhs employee is certainly possible. There would have to be planning to ensure those who left to go into private practice were replaced, and then there'd be consultants in the private sector for those who can afford and choose this. I'd prefer Drs who were committed to their nhs patients. There's also been issues with Drs using their position within the nhs to acquire private patients ("you need X treatment which you'll wait Z months/years for on nhs/nhs doesn't cover BUT I do it via my private practice and you already know and trust me" which needs stamped on imo! It's deeply unethical imo.
"It would be nice if (at least) the senior doctors recognised that they are actually on a pretty good wicket compared to the vast majority of people, many of whom work harder and longer. Their pay and conditions have been retained (with good reason - major doctor shortages being one) whilst many services for patients have been cut to the bone." Absolutely!!