Guilt Free Railing 17

[WouldBeGood]

Happy New Thread, Railers!

I’m glad you mentioned that about NHS. Lanarkshire and GPs @Y0uCann0tBeSer10us. It really freaked me yesterday, so much so I had a nightmare about DP having a stroke/bizarre accident, and I was running about trying to get medical help but not able to!

WTF is it all about?

@Y0uCann0tBeSer10us
Ridiculous isn't bottom line Lanarkshire doesn't have enough GPs or Doctors.
People have let niggles go to the point they are no longer niggles so people are sicker and lots of bugs and viruses going around that people have lost their immunity too.

Pre covid it was pointed out to me Lanarkshire struggles to attract Doctors from elsewhere - doesn't have the benefits of city life that would attract younger Doctors and lacks the glam outdoors life that attracts people to other areas.

Also there are better learning and career opportunities in the cities.

Essentially it comes down to staffing pressure as far as I can tell @WouldBeGood. Massive numbers of staff (10s of thousands) are off for 'COVID-related reasons', which I presume includes isolations as well as those actively ill. NHS Lanarkshire hospitals went to their highest alert level last October (short term my arse) and now GPs are reducing services to the core ones - basically life threatening issues. How you're supposed to know if your problem is serious before being examined, I don't know. Surely that's why you see the Dr in a lot of cases! Will she consider reducing quarantine times like England just have to reduce pressures though? Seriously doubt it. It is actually causing me anxiety too, the knowledge that help isn't there if you need it, so I completely understand where you're coming from!

I feel really fucked off too. I’ve paid taxes for years to pay for my nhs care. Now I’m supposed to fuck off so I don’t bother them if I do get sick

@Lockdownbear, yes this issue has been building for many years but they've consistently failed to address it. In the years before COVID they had already massively scaled back out of hours GP provision and health visiting/baby clinic services. The system was already stretched, so you add in COVID protocols (and an SG who are really slow off the mark on reducing isolation times) it was a disaster waiting to happen.

@IsurviveonCoffeeandWinein2021I'm obsessed with American politics, and am a political podcast junkie. It somehow feels easier to hear about the shitshow that is the US, rather than wallow in our very own shitshow.

@BlameItOnTheBlackStar I'm currently watching house of cards 🙈 your right it does somewhat distract me. Frank underwood is a fucking nutcase.

The Lanarkshire stuff, surely it can't be legal to outright stop GP services. I know they went to telephone etc in March but they at least gave the illusion of being open. @WouldBeGood I might not be correct but I think your a lawyer what's your take on it?

It's truly shocking!
Having just spent nearly 8 weeks fighting infections because it took 5 weeks to realise I had an antibiotic resistant infection because of telephone assessment only (not Lanarkshire) it's really dangerous!
An infection can spread (as was my case) and turn into sepsis if not treated early! But people wouldn't consider a minor infection to be life or death! Until that is becomes that way as it becomes uncontrolled!

Scottishskifun that's terrifying. How are you feeling now?

You can't just run a supposed health service with no gps! It's catastrophic.

I don't live in Lanarkshire (though I'm very close to it) but like you lot I was horrified to hear about the temporary restrictions on accessing Gps there. Lanarkshire has had one of the highest rates of covid in Scotland, and still does so couldn't it be allowed to draft in health professionals from other areas of Scotland temporarily or have an exemption on the self isolation rules? I know that's easier said than done but the current solution to the problem of being short staffed will surely only make things worse when Gps reopen normally. I can't think gps in many of the rural areas are any busier than usual. The incidence of flu is down this year.

@MaxNormal

Scottishskifun that's terrifying. How are you feeling now?

You can't just run a supposed health service with no gps! It's catastrophic.

I'm fine thankfully and it was caught before turning really nasty but had spread from my lungs to my kidneys so took some battling and very strong antibiotics to get it under control. I was having regular follow ups in England to check if I needed to be admitted for IV antibiotics, I'm pissed off at my GP because that was 3 separate consultations, so many weeks and they didn't once do a swab to find out why it wasn't clearing (wrong sort of antibiotics!!!) But the effort required to monitor and get under control was way way more then if I had been able to see my GP for 1 or 2 appointments!

@mibbelucieachwell
Drafting in GPs from elsewhere isn't such a daft idea is probably quiet easy especially if they are operating remotely over the phone anyway, what does it matter where they are, providing they have access to the persons health records?

The NHS needs a shake up, maybe it makes more sense to run GPS like NHS24.

Maybe I'm being too simplistic

@mibbelucieachwell

I don't live in Lanarkshire (though I'm very close to it) but like you lot I was horrified to hear about the temporary restrictions on accessing Gps there. Lanarkshire has had one of the highest rates of covid in Scotland, and still does so couldn't it be allowed to draft in health professionals from other areas of Scotland temporarily or have an exemption on the self isolation rules? I know that's easier said than done but the current solution to the problem of being short staffed will surely only make things worse when Gps reopen normally. I can't think gps in many of the rural areas are any busier than usual. The incidence of flu is down this year.

This is another thing that worries me @mibbelucieachwell - this 'solution' will only lead to a larger backlog of problems that will need to be dealt with at a later date (by which time many minor problems are now more serious). As it is our GP has been 'on the day' only since the start of the pandemic - it was already really difficult to get one of the routine appts assigned each day if you didn't get through in time, so there will already be a backlog of patients with niggles who are just waiting for normal service to resume because they are put off taking one of the emergency ones. If and when they do get back to running properly again it will take months or even years to get back on track.

I'm really pissed off that no-one is taking this seriously. They could be sharing staff between areas, dropping isolation requirements for staff, doing something about the excessive (at this point) distancing rules that surely must be causing more problems than they solve at this point. They could even be looking into using private provision just to get through this period. But no, the solution, as always, seems to be to shut down services and tell the public to lump it because it's only 'short term' (21 months and counting).

Surely Scotland is small enough that there’s no need for all these health boards and separate budgets, etc?

I dunno, centralising the police force didn't really seem to improve matters. Don't tempt the SNP into centralising more than they already have done!

That’s true @BlameItOnTheBlackStar 🤣

That's true they seem to mess up everything they touch.

Meantime, c. £7m spent on the Scot Gov car service, a fleet of 41 chauffeur-driven cars at their disposal, apparently.
Money well spent

Money superbly well spent. Up there with the council electric cars with no chargers cluttering up half the carports. Biggest ever order of Renault Zoes very green

again.

The SG managing to hide behind all the other news presumably.

How have they spent that when it’s been lockdown??

@OnceUponAWhine

Meantime, c. £7m spent on the Scot Gov car service, a fleet of 41 chauffeur-driven cars at their disposal, apparently. Money well spent

Wtaf......... So £10 million has been given to health boards to help with long covid.....for estimated 74,000 sufferers in Scotland!

Constantly told there is no funding and they have spent 7 million on cars........

SNP the party that cares about the people......yeah fucking right!

£170k per car??!

I think much of that can be down to Nicola being driven to and from Glasgow rather than staying in the official residence in Edinburgh. Plus, Humza now lives in Dundee but has a Glasgow constituency and also has to go to Edinburgh.

Their choices are not very green. What would Patrick Harvie say?

This is more despair than railing.

A friends DM passed away recently in the care home. Funeral is next week, unfortunately the DF has tested positive for covid. If he was at home it would be fine but as he is in a care home setting the isolation period is still set at 14 days, so technically shouldn't go to his own DWs funeral even though he's past the 7 days used by everyone else.

Friend is hoping to smuggle him from the home, but then not sure if he'll be allowed back afterwards. She lives 2 hours drive away and has a busy full on job, so goodness knows what happens if they don't let him back.

It's inhumane that scenarios like this are still playing out, almost 2 years on.