Second Life: National Health Service (UK): (Photo credit: rosefirerising)
Here’s an excellent, MUST READ article from the Guardian. Check it out!
via Crisis in A&E over shortage of consultants | Society | The Guardian.
The article describes how MPs are the latest to raise the alarm bells about falling quality in A&E departments.
Once again, the crisis seems to be caused by David Cameron’s Government and the bungling bureaucrats in the NHS.
Any thoughts?
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Dr Alf's Blog 
Falling consultant numbers are part of the A and E problem but not all of it.
Much more needs to be done in the areas of existing consultant productivity and rostering consultants better so that peaks and troughs can be dealt with.
A and E fills up at weekends because people who engage in night clubbing,excessive drinking and drug taking frequently fight,get injured and end up in hospital.
Those people need to be surcharged so that the NHS recovers its costs and a message is delivered to all those who think “larging it up” and “getting bladdered” are cost free activities.
A and E also fills up because David Cameron and his Ministers refuse to renegotiate the out of hours contract with the BMA which then encourages malingerers and ordinary members of the public who have had accidents to go to A and E departments.
Adding more consultants also fails to deal with the issue of their private practices and businesses such as the one” Dr Hilary” the formerly libidinous ITV doctor is involved in,which in his case promotes miniaturised hearing aids.
The Guardian’s analysis fails to deal with the bigger problem which David Cameron is not dealing with,which is demand.
Demand has to be reduced by getting people to take responsibility for their own health rather than being wrapped in cotton wool and expecting others to take that responsibility.
What needs to be done?
1)Variable taxes on foods and a campaign to promote,thinness,exercise,diet and a personal philosophy of life which promotes self reliance,stoicism,time management,stable relatIonships, non smoking and sobriety.
2)Renegotiating the out of hours contract with the BMA
3)Bringing in expert systems to lessen the need for so many consultants
4)Providing Kaiser Pemanente mobile phone apps to enable people to self diagnose simple ailments and undertake gentle exercise
5)Re educating the public about malingering and cracking down on malingerers who clutter up doctors surgeries causing genuinely sick people to be overlooked and end up in A and E at weekends
6)Remove sugar and excessive salt from cereals,fast food and packaged/tinned food along with Bisphenol A and other carcinogenic and harmful chemicals such as Aspartame and Fluoride
7)Make car,house and contents insurance cheaper for people who live a lifestyle characterised by 1 above
8)Extend the probationary period for new and young drivers and toughen up the driving test so that testosterone fuelled night driving by new young drivers and which often results in accidents and trips to A and E, is curtailed
9)Encourage vitamin supplementation and cooking of proper food so that people who become depressed(40% of the UK population) ,do not end up drinking excessively or engaging in activities which make them more likely to end up in A and E
10)Promote traditional marriage in the tax system(people who are married live longer,are more healthy and tend to go to A and E and doctors who might refer them there a lot less)