All ill

It’s almost a polyclinic now

Just came back from the GP and you would think on first sight that the whole of South Shields has taken ill today, very crowded! Same story at the pharmacists, we ended up missing the first as the queue was out of the door, the second was almost as bad!

No major complaints about it, our group practise is almost like the polyclinics that some are already decrying, the range of services is extensive, appointments are not too much of a problem, and you will always get seen by some doctor even if you have no appointment. We had taken young “Missy” to see the Nurse Practioner, her mouth, tongue and lips have become quite swollen and blistered over the last 4 hours, she’s very lethargic, and overnight some these blisters had burst and bled. She has hardly ate for two days.

The nurse asked;

“Is she stressed over anything?”

Six years old – pfft!

Related post

• The weekend from hell

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Coercion or compulsion?

Labour MP with a Stalinist streak

Can you imagine Cllr. Jimmy Foreman announcing to South Tyneside parents that they cannot have a school place for their infants unless they have all had the MMR jabs and can provide a certificate to prove it?

No, neither can I.

Yet a Labour MP, Mary Creagh (Wakefield) has proposed just such a Stalinist measure, somehow thinking that compulsion is so much better than coercion and persuasion. What sort of warped thinking is this? It’s hardly the way to get parents on your side is it?

My view is that there are many benefits to be gained from these inoculations but they are counterbalanced by some small risks that I, as a parent, was willing to take. Others are not, and see the risks as much greater than I do, I respect their views and have no objections to them exercising their choice. There are many who prefer to have separate inoculations rather than the combined dose, and some GPs still harbour doubts about the risks attached to the combined vaccination.

Creagh wants to influence debate within the party as it begins to prepare its next general election manifesto. She chairs a group of Labour MPs which will make public health proposals that can feed into the party’s policy forums, but stressed yesterday her idea was in its infancy.

As far as ideas go, this one should be denied a place in the nursery of educational thinking, compelling people and removing choice is unlikely to lead to a greater uptake of these important vaccinations. The state should never be elevated to a position of principled morality assuming that individuals are incapable of making reasoned decisions.

Nanny needs to be ignored from time to time!

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Jenkyns slams “death sentence”

NICE decides against Tarceva in England and Wales

Lung cancer is not nice, and neither is the decision of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence in England and Wales (NICE) in respect of Tarceva, purely on the grounds of cost effectiveness of course. NICE has decided, for now, that Tarceva, the drug which has had a great beneficial effect for South Shields cancer sufferer Jimmy Jenkyns, cannot be prescribed for new patients as it is not “cost effective”.

Needless to say, Jimmy’s wife Deanne has slammed the decision, calling it a “death sentence” for future sufferers.

Incredibly, if you live in Scotland Tarceva can be prescribed for you, for free! In fact, due to the disproportionate amount of tax payer subsidies provided to the Scottish Executive via the Barnet Formula, all prescriptions are free in the land of the Caledonians.

It irks and niggles me something rotten, so heaven knows how Jimmy and Deanne must feel about the situation. The drug is working so well for Jimmy that he has been able to return to work, I spoke to him only yesterday and he was looking very well indeed.

I really wish David Miliband could have some incisive influence over NICE and the NHS overlords who are making these decisions!

Jimmy and Deanne have a busy message board here, why not give them a shout and offer some support.

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Prescription to kill polyclinics

Cameron could be right you know.

South Shields is blessed with a number of very good health centres where groups of GPs offer a number of services including nurse practitioners, specialist clinics, physiotherapy, and counselling sessions etc. We also have a mix of general (single) GP surgeries that see, perhaps, fewer patients. However, it is accepted that these facilities are few and far between in the outlying estates necessitating a journey towards the busier parts of town for many people.

I fear that the government’s plan to introduce giant “polyclinics” could see many of the smaller GP surgeries disappearing altogether, and for people in villages or smaller townships this could be a great inconvenience. I do not see it likely that places like East and West Boldon, Cleadon Village, Whitburn or Marsden, and Biddick Hall would get one of these “polyclinics” built within their midst, and they would all find themselves having to make longer journeys to see the doctor.

Therefore I think that David Cameron, the Conservative leader is right to oppose the plan as it could have terrible effects upon smaller communities who have already seen the loss of their local post office, local pub, local shops, and local police station. It’s another statist corporatist plan to provide bigger and better because they know what is best for us – and choice isn’t what is best!

Dr. John Crippen writes further in Centre Right illustrating the difficulties in staffing the proposed “polyclinics” and outlining his fears that it will lead to a two tier health system with the poorest suffering most, once again.

” If that is what the people of this country want, then so be it. As long as you know what you are going to lose.”

It makes you wonder if Labour has almost given up fighting for the hard pressed in society!

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