Westministenders: A Year of Johnson

[RedToothBrush]

So having given the benefit of the doubt...

... whats your reflections?

Good (and yes do have some thoughts on the positive - challenge yourself on this one as its important) and the bad (and yes this is the easy bit but keep it within reason)?

Zoom consultations, whilst they have their place, will be used to yet again, to underfund Primary care.

At the moment, it may be working well but that will used as an excuse to cut funding, its what Tory Govt's do, they hate the idea of the NHS, they see it as a socialist construct and they want rid BUT can't be seen to be destroying it.

How are they going to spot child abuse, domestic violence like this?
How are they going to make people confortable enough so patients will teLl what is going on (I’m thinking MH issues for example)
How will they ensure privacy and confidentiality if people are at home with a partner or a child listening ?
How will they spot a change in skin colour like jaundice, esp on BAME patients?
What about children, people with disabilities/visually impaired etc.....

People will be misdiagnosed....

That's my view jajas
I worked in a hospital prior to having ds2 (11) and as a mother of a very poorly baby/toddler/child I used the walk in centres a lot!
Sometimes we did need to go to A&E but we were saved quite a few unnecessary visits by using that service.
(Ds1 had nutropenia and thrombocytopenia as a baby/toddler and it caused him many many infections)
It was usually younger people and parents with very young kids ime - 65+ folks tended to wait to see "their" gp on a Monday.
Certainly if my local gp surgery was/is anything to go by!
I used to do tallys whenever I attended the gp surgery.
It was always 90% 65+ in the waiting room.
How many will find zoom appts accessible? How many will just leave it till they require serious intervention?
Its a worry.

I think a huge spike in misdiagnoses and medical negligence on the way....

...you can almost see their mind working can't you?

Need a prescription for an easily treatable medical issue? Zoom or phone appt! (Won't need so many pesky suport workers/cleaner's/admin staff...)

Need to be seen f2f? Ah, just pay £££ per appt and you can get a f2f appt at your convenience madam!

Some people won't even realise what we've lost:(

Johnson told us he hoped by November, we would "back to normal" and certainly by Christmas

"It is my strong and sincere hope that we will be able to review the outstanding restrictions and allow a more significant return to normality from November at the earliest - possibly in time for Christmas,"

"At a news conference at Downing Street, the prime minister said the plan "remains conditional" on continued progress in controlling the virus and preventing a second wave of infections that could overwhelm the NHS."

"Mr Johnson added he was "hoping for the best and planning for the worst".

🐿

I ve very recently, just had a tele consultation, i'm reasonably articulate and knew my symptoms well, the GP wanted me in and i was seen the next day, 45mins in total with two GPs, it was as if i was at a BUPA hospital..... really, nothing was too much!

This isn't going to last, once the Govt realises we are getting (or some of us) a great service, the cuts will come and the less articulate, the vulnerable will fall through the cracks.

But as seen with care home deaths, that doesn't matter, so long as they aren't seen to be the cause or its out of the public view, they won't care.

@yoikes

I think a huge spike in misdiagnoses and medical negligence on the way....

Or people will just get fobbed off until they are so ill it can’t be missed. And the whole population gets sicker.

Well apart from those who can pay for a second opinion/f2f consultation/are educated enough to know what to say...

This concerns me too, yoikes. I am very much in favour of online appointments being available as a choice for people who want them - they can work very well for certain groups of people. But they should never become the de facto default, with no f2f option available.

I can't see the Tories abolishing f2f appointments entirely. It would piss off their constituents, especially the associations where the average age is north of 50.

Telephone consults are convenient. But for certain things - for example, smear tests, concussion, meningitis and fever - you actually have to examine the patient. The scenarios listed above cover a range of ages and could have fatal outcomes if left untreated.

Doctors are a powerful pressure group in their own right and they quite like keeping their patients well.

They don't seem to be being listened to by this Govt and haven't for some time.
Possibly that was case years ago.
No longer.

@yoikes

They don't seem to be being listened to by this Govt and haven't for some time. Possibly that was case years ago. No longer.

The problem is that Tory voters have shown they'll put up with anything.

Yes @DGRossetti even their own deaths wouldn't change their minds

I worry the underlying message /agenda is 'UK good, Europe bad' - look, there's a second spike coming from Europe! Spain is dangerous! Come home to the UK where you're safer!

Er.....

even their own deaths wouldn't change their minds

Umm, they won't be able to vote Tory if they are dead. Or for anyone else for that matter.

@Peregrina I think ofor some of us that is about all we can hope for at this rate. Well, that and the idea the won't have completely demolished the NHS before, but that seems increasingly unlilkely.

Bit tipsy and catching up in between calls. Friend divorcing, friend moving and friend getting dream job. Been a spectrum of emtotions tonight!

Aargh, local restrictions being brought in across Greater Manchester in an hour and a half, but no detail to be seen about what you can and can’t do

At least they’re acting decisively for once. Probably someone pointed out that it’s Eid and things could go very wrong very quickly...

'Heartless and reckless' to force shielding people back to work, says TUC

The recent rise in cases must be especially worrying for currently shielded workers

www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/30/forcing-shielding-people-back-to-work-heartless-and-reckless-says-tuc

Prof Peter Openshaw, of Imperial College London, who sits on the government’s Sage group of Covid-19 advisers, said there was growing concern that transmission of the disease would increase in the next few weeks – just as those shielding may return to work.

Where I live, 90% of F2f appointments at the 12 doctor GP surgery are with elderly folks with multiple comorbidities and no internet

Hancock:

"We’re constantly looking at the latest data on the spread of coronavirus, and unfortunately we’ve seen an increasing rate of transmission in parts of Northern England.

We’ve been working with local leaders across the region, and today I chaired a meeting of the Local Action Gold Committee.
Based on the data, we decided that in Greater Manchester, parts of West Yorkshire & East Lancashire we need to take immediate action to keep people safe.

The spread is largely due to households meeting and not abiding to social distancing.
So from midnight tonight, people from different households will not be allowed to meet each other indoors in these areas."

My parents have the internet but no way could they dial into a video call with the dr. When we tried for his birthday during lockdown I had to call my dad on the landline and talk him through how to answer it on the ipad.

I had my annual GP interaction this week. Sort of. I take HRT which requires an annual review / blood pressure check. Requested repeat prescription online. Got text from Dr to say prescription had been sent to pharmacy but could I fill in an online for and he would then do a telephone consultation.

The text said the online form needed my weight and blood pressure which I could get either using a home machine or from a pharmacy. Except my pharmacy doesn't routinely take customers blood pressure and isn't paid for it if they do. So I filled the form in without blood pressure reading. I got a notification he would call for my consultation within 36 hours. He hasn't.

I live across the road from the surgery but they want a pharmacy to take my blood pressure instead of a practice nurse or the GP. I imagine I'll have the same issue when I request the next prescription in 6 months and we are in Covid Brexit hell. Assuming the HRT has made it through Dover...

The very elderly are the highest users of the NHS and the least likely to be online

I also just read the thread about a bakery worker being sacked for accepting cash from an elderly customer to pay for bread
So a v elderly woman is supposed to go all the way home to get her card ?
A minority of the most skint people can't even get cards ....so they can't buy bread ?

Getting away from f2f and away from cash can disadvantage the most vulnerable in society
They needs to be room for both

I feel fortunate to live somewhere that still uses mostly cash
I don't know of a bakery or market in my area where they'd accept anything else !

choux BP gadgets are very cheap - unless you are skint, I recommend buying one to save future hassle and also for self-monitoring
Of course, those who are skint .....

@QueenOfThorns

Aargh, local restrictions being brought in across Greater Manchester in an hour and a half, but no detail to be seen about what you can and can’t do

At least they’re acting decisively for once. Probably someone pointed out that it’s Eid and things could go very wrong very quickly...

Tbh this is the kind of age I expected in Jan /Feb (without the We Have No Idea What This Means) so in some way it does seem that they are listening to PH but...not with the campaigns you'd expect to keep the public informed. All through this we've been told "listening to the science" but knowing they aren't and now it seems to be the science bit is coming along but with disregard to the public. Facepalm time again. I don't even know why I keep trying to tell people that THIS is what I have a degree in and I can't work. I bet the sexual health GUM clinic are all fighting each other about how to explain to the public what the Big Govt has just decreed.