The NHS Hospitals and GP surgeries routinely discriminate against patients, the degree of discrimination varies but the end result is if you are a vocal white middle class non smoker then you will generally receive the best the NHS has to offer. On the other hand, if you are non-white, poor, disabled, obese, or a smoker then you will be discriminated against. So the politicians cry of free healthcare only applies to some and not to many !

The primary purpose of the NHS is to treat all patients equally, this is increasingly no longer the case, Healthcare depends on where you live ie. whether your in a poor area or rich are and who you are.

Increasingly patients in their hundreds of thousands are being forced to seek effective GP diagnoses privately from healthcare companies such as BUPA which continues to report booming take up of their healthcare diagnoses products.

For many a visit to their GP surgery is a total waste of time. Many GP's drunk on a more than tripling of salaries under New Labour, from self imposed pay rises due to imbecilic government contracts, now work far less hours than in the past. GP salaries have gone from below £50,000 to as much as £250,000, the net result is for GP's to be last into the surgery and first out, with possibly as little time devoted to the patients seen increasingly as a nuisance in the way of enjoying new found wealth. The patients sidelined to deteriorate for many to the point of no return, unless they have the education and vocal skills to challenge ineffective dismissive or dangerously incorrect GP diagnoses, that not only fails to treat patient conditions but actually puts the patients in danger, due to careless or allegedly deliberate misdiagnoses and treatments.

It is a known fact backed up by statistical evidence that when doctors go strike the death rates plummet.
The instances of reported malevolent racist treatments such as Kings College NHS Trust (Caldecot Clinic) Racist directors should be fired are on the rise.
Doctors missed cancer diagnoses 50 times in asian patient,It was only diagnosed when he visited family in Sri Lanka
Doctor Failed to Diagnose Cancer Threat
GP's dismissive of 56 year old asian women from Sheffield, repeatedly dismissed as having nothing more than environmental flu, when she had weeks left to live.
The NHS has been accused of allowing six people to die because of "institutional discrimination" against people with learning disabilities.
Six-year-old dies after doctors fail to diagnose brain tumor eight times
Mencap accuses NHS of "institutional discrimination"
Report calls for end to age discrimination in NHS
Was the GP Shipman the killer of 215 patients a one off ?
Mother dies after eight doctors fail to diagnose fatal infection

So if you live in a poor area, are non-white, a smoker and possibly also overweight, you don't stand a hope in hells chance of effective GP or NHS healthcare in today's Britain, a first world country with third world healthcare for many ! A possible solution to the problem of GP's abusing their independence and inability to manage themselves in a professional manner in the interest of patients rather than their wallets, is that they should be brought back under direct NHS control

By Nadeem Walayat

Comments

Mr Smith 15 May 07, 21:49	GP's are useless Yes we have all experienced crap GP's, they dont want to investigate you properly,or they do,but can end up misdiagnosing us. I saw over 200 doctors before getting a proper diagnosis,and I was pointed in the right direction by someone with no medical background-(and thats a dig at all those who say you should only listen to medical 'experts'). They occasionally get it right ,but not often enough. I think most GP's are lazy and their solution to a problem is to give their patients pills, maybe it is because of the gross overpayment of salaries ?
Bob 16 May 07, 10:19	The sooner the medical closed-shop is broken up, the better. It'll never happen though: The Doctors are too well organised.
Julie 16 May 07, 20:13	Not all doctors are rubbish ! If your doctor stinks then change doctors. My doctor is very good, though I admit the other doctors in the surgery do not have a clue. And yes you could call me middle class :)
King Pin 16 May 07, 20:18	Crackdown on screening proposed Have you seen this bullshit ? Doctors blocking private testing becuase they then cannot ignore symptons ! What a joke the NHS and GP Surgeries have become ! Crackdown on screening proposed There should be a clampdown on private medical screening, government advisers are set to recommend.The National Screening Committee is considering how best to regulate the industry, Pulse magazine reports.It is acting because of fears there are too few checks on the sector - and too much pressure on the NHS.Tests cost from £10 for a cholesterol check to thousands for a body scan, but people can then be sent to the NHS for further - often unnecessary - checks.Sir Muir Gray, programme director of the National Screening Committee, said the whole industry would face close scrutiny and tough new regulations.He told Pulse: "We are thinking of how we control private testing because it's an example of low value activity which generates work for the health service, may cause harm and does not benefit the individual."Lots of GPs I know are very concerned about people who go to a private clinic for a blood test and then the people who run the private clinic say 'Oh your kidney results look a bit funny - just go and see your GP'."The Royal College of GPs is backing calls for tougher regulation.Professor Mayur Lakhani, chair of the RCGP, said: "Screening is becoming increasingly popular and is not without hazard if done in an unprepared way."Working to national standards would bring added peace of mind." Dr Peter Mace, BupaWellness' Assistant Medical Director said: "We refute the allegation that health assessments cause patients anxiety. Our experience is quite the opposite."We identify a health issue for around a third of customers which they were previously unaware of."

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