The Guardian carried this story last night:
Ministers may allow GPs in England to halt regular monitoring of millions of patients with underlying health problems as part of the urgent new blitz on delivering Covid booster jabs.
Sajid Javid and NHS bosses are locked in talks with GP representatives at the British Medical Association (BMA) about relaxing rules which mean family doctors undertake checks on people with diabetes, high blood pressure and other conditions that mean they are at higher risk of having a heart attack or stroke.
This profoundly worries me. What is being said by a banker to doctors is that they need have less concern for those with underlying health conditions in the UK. So those with chromic conditions of varying forms from heart-related issues to asthma, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, and maybe even mental ill health, many of whom will be taking many drugs a day to provide them with the best balance of health that they can enjoy, are now being sent the message that their doctor is to no longer required to monitor their continuing health.
I am aware that medication reviews, unseen by patients because they are done by GPs outside surgery opening hours, form much of this ongoing care. These reviews are needed to make sure that the conflicts between the many drugs that a patient can be prescribed are managed, controlled and even eliminated. They take a lot of GP time. They're done for one reason. That reason is to stop harm from being done.
And now Sajid Javid is deciding that this harm can be done.
In the absence of such checks you can be sure it will be. The risk from having these conditions will go up. For some that will, quite probably, be fatal.
But is that an issue that Sajid Javid will worry about? No, of course not. When those deaths happen he, or his successor rather more likely, will simply blame the GPs for being negligent, and leave them to battle the resulting claims for negligence that will ruin those GP's careers, mental wellbeing and family's lives, because that is what happens in these case. And at that point, he will know that those GPs will be all on their own whilst he will be long gone.
Sajid Javid is, for his own expedient reasons and precisely because he is not willing to ask for an increase in NHS resources that are so urgently needed and which the country can afford, is passing the buck to those whose risks he neither comprehends nor cares about, whether that is those with chronic conditions or those who care for them.
I sincerely hope that doctors ignore him.
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Given our current situation this may well be the best use of the limited resources available… I am happy to leave that decision to medical professionals.
The issue is that our situation was not “given” it was “chosen”. We did not need to get to this point.
We can’t create trained staff out of thin air…… but we can start the process of recruitment/training now but if the plans on care are anything to go by then don’t hold your breath.
I think its worse than that. This relates more to the QOF – quality and outcomes framework. GPs get paid to achieve a % of the target eg annual BP checks on patients etc. The good ones did this sort of care anyway and the bad ones didn’t. IF Javid is going to say stop doing them then he is also going to have to make some pay arrangement anyway, thereby the incentives will be lost. And as you say, for those with chronic illness eg diabetics, are likely to end up with problems that could have been avoided- ie creating more demand on hospitals down the line and more social care as they go blind / have feet amputated etc.
This is the absolute opposite direction of travel that is needed – and we don’t even know if the current covid vaccinations will work against this variant. Or what giving the booster after only 3 months will do. A political pigs ear all because they won’t ask us to wear masks, work from home and stop going to parties.
Long time this simply increases demand on the NHS, as you say
Mental health conditions/treatment are often overlooked in senarios like these. The treatment of mental health conditions can cause problems with physical health, high blood pressure, stress on kidneys and even eyesight problems to mention just a few. These all need to be regularly monitored face to face and with blood and urine tests. Many sufferers are not good at shouting for attention, others stop taking their medication and things quickly spiral out of control. Thats just a snapshot of the issues facing the mentally ill and those responsible for their care, what is absolutely certain is that picking up the pieces uses up a lot more resources than maintaining decent supervision.
We still are not being presented with facts.
It will be a fact very soon that more people are going to die than should have.
And our NHS will carry on being put through a mincer feet first – so that when spring arrives it will mostly have been destroyed.
Our government and opposition are conspiring in this ‘Reset’ as they play dangerous geopolitics.
Here is exactly what we should be doing.
Merkel still showing leadership as she leaves the stage. As the guardian reports:
“In what German media called “a lockdown of the unvaccinated”, Merkel also announced a blanket ban on those who have not been vaccinated or recovered from Covid entering bars, restaurants, theatres, cinemas and other leisure facilities.
In areas where the incidence rate exceeds 350 per 100,000 people, discos and nightclubs will close and private gatherings will be limited to 50 people indoors and 200 outdoors – providing everyone involved has been vaccinated or recovered.
If there are unvaccinated people in the mix, households may invite a maximum of two outside guests, not including children under 14. Masks are to become compulsory in schools. “
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/02/germany-could-make-covid-vaccination-mandatory-says-merkel
There is not a SINGLE region of England less than 350 incidence rate. The South West is 520 and South East 580.
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/cases?areaType=overview&areaName=United%20Kingdom
The people of Bexley neither know or care and the media isn’t telling them as they collude with the State. It will be an unpleasant realisation for half the country that they can’t ever return to a free at the point of use NHS and insurance policies to get treated for most ‘elective’ treatments as they finally realise … I’ll stop there.
It is a sad fact that we recorded 4.8 million cases from the start of the pandemic until 1 July 2021, and then 5.5 million more cases in the five months since then. The effect of the vaccine can be seen from deaths increasing from 128,000 on 1 July to 145,000 on 1 December.
There are already tens of thousands of people dead and millions more infected in this country, with who know what long term consequences, than should be the case. This government has failed us, again and again.
And I agree, it is difficult to see how the NHS will survive in anything like the form we are used to.
Sad but true
No Norberg am I. Never wrestled with a bear.
But with nu or is it xi driving pundits to despair
I have a piece good news I’d like to share
https://twitter.com/ShellenbergerMD/status/1466481475541299200/photo/1
I’m sure I commented on this the day before.
Maybe I took the man and not the ball?
Anyhow, it’s all collateral damage to people like Javid.
He – and the others who come from the City to rule over us – are used to seeing opportunity in chaos if it enriches them and their constituents in the City and Wall Street. It’s as simple as that really.
And as we sit here contemplating that – what do you think the Tory party spend was on sending online lies to the people of Bexley? And if we could look at the content of that send, what would it look like? How many of the good burghers of Bexley might have seen it on their phones?
And where did the Tories get their money from in the first place?
These comments too might be controversial – but its good to air them now whilst we can.