NHS: UK doctors say patients can't expect supermarket level service

http://www.thecommentator.com ^ | june 24, 2013 | Robin Shepherd

[lowbridge]

The psychiatrists in Britain's basket-case National Health Service certainly have the words; but the construction comes from real estate: Denial, Denial, Denial. Do you have the words to convey your horror at the sheer contempt for patients expressed today by the Chairman of the British Medical Association, effectively the state sector doctors' union in the UK?

Speaking at a conference, and as reported by ITV, Dr Mark Porter said:

"We all want urgent care at weekends and evenings to be of the same high standards as patients can expect on weekdays.

"But the calls we sometimes hear for a Tesco NHS, full service, 24/7, are just ridiculous when the health service can barely afford its current model."

Sorry, this is the year 2013. If I can buy a bar of chocolate for my daughter on Sunday afternoon at the supermarket, what has gone wrong when I have to wait, and then beg, the following morning so she can get seen by a doctor for an ailment that, who knows, may present a serious risk to her health?

That, ultimately, is what socialised medicine means -- your child's health is less of a societal priority than your prospects of buying a Kit-Kat.

The National Health Service is widely billed in Britain as, "the envy of the world." It just isn't. In fact, it is something approaching a laughing stock. If other Western countries envied the NHS, why haven't they dropped their own systems (usually compulsory insurance combined with a much greater role for the private sector) and adopted the NHS model?

Here's why. Cancer survival rates in the UK are now falling below levels in some of the formerly communist countries of central and eastern Europe.

[KarlInOhio]

Supermarket? No, you'll get an old Soviet store.

You want beet? Come back next month, we might have beet then.

[Vaduz]

Socialized anything does one thing FAIL.

[dfwgator]

"'Fractured tibia, sergeant'? 'Fractured tibia, sergeant'? Ooh. Proper little mummy's boy, aren't we? Well, I'll tell you something, my fine friend, if you fracture a tibia here you keep quiet about it! Look at him! (looks more closely) He's broken both his arms and he don't go shouting about it, do he? No! 'Cos he's a man - he's a woman, you see, so don't come that broken tibia talk with me. Get on at the double. One, two, three, pick that crutch up, pick that crutch right up."

[BitWielder1]

Why the heck not? There is a reason we went from standing in line at little stores with one clerk who went to fetch one item at a time to opening supermarkets.
Parallel processing. Profit driven efficiency and customer satisfaction.
There is no reason that wouldn't work for health care too.
In the US there are plenty of walk-in clinics, a.k.a. "Doc in a Box" where you can get quick help for minor ailments. Works quite well.
Why do the left abhor the profit motive when something really important is at stake?

[AnotherUnixGeek]

UK doctors say patients can't expect supermarket level service

Especially disturbing when you consider that they're talking about UK supermarkets, not American ones.

[the scotsman]

Oh dear, whats your problem with UK supermarkets?.

[Secret Agent Man]

many of their supermarkets there suck in terms of service. this is really bad.