Reinventing The Wheel: The Sequel

A Clunk-jawed Fucktard Today.

What do politicians do when they are desperate for a quick boost in popularity? They repackage old tired ideas and pretend that they are actually revolutionary cutting edge ideas. This is certainly the case for gawping fat Gordon's latest jaw hanging warbling on health screening:

"Patients in England will be offered screening for early signs of heart disease, stroke and kidney disease, Prime Minister Gordon Brown has

You will not be surprised to learn that the Dr Rant team are characteristically unenthusiastic, and stoically unimpressed. In actual fact GPs have been screening for heart disease, diabetes, stroke and kidney disease for many years now through the Quality of Outcomes Framework (QOF) and the GMS2 contract. Unfortunately, the government won’t pay us to hit the more aggressive targets for blood pressure and cholesterol that medical evidence suggests we should hit. These are the targets which science suggests will get the best results for the population at large but the government prefers targets that are less arduous (and less expensive on the drug budget).


There is absolutely diddly-squat-fuck-all-bees-willy-gordon's-weener new about this. The only newish thing in the screening proposals is the idea to screen elderly males for abdominal aortic aneurysms (which they've actually refused to fund thus far when asked). Even if screening were brought in for these aneurysms, it would still be highly questionable as to whether the NHS would have the capacity to operate on them.

If you were wanting to introduce a genuine revolutionary shift in emphasis from disease treatment to disease prevention how would you do it? Dr Rant would discuss the concept with those that he was relying on to deliver it first, and curry favour with the 'providers' with the proven track record and the trust of the public (i.e. the GPs). The Clunk-jawed Fucktard thinks the best way to do it is keep the GPs in the dark, give his private sector mates the heads up to hand them the 'competitive' advantage, and announce/crow about it on Shit-Badger Cuntavison (aka GMTV) with the most vacuous waste of oxygen in Britain - Fiona Fucking Phillips. The fact that virtually every involvement of the private sector in Gordon's brave new NHS has thus far been a total disaster doesn't seem to have dampened his enthusiasm.

He's even gone to extraordinary lengths to alienate and anger the only people who could possibly deliver his 'grand vision'; the GPs. Presumably we're being lined up for the blame when this initiative goes the same way as all New Labour's other bright ideas - to hell in a very expensive handcart.

Fiona Phillips: Not worth the effort of thinking up a witty comment.

The biggest lies from the Clunking Fister come in the form of this new 'personalised' service that he promises us. One wonders how shutting down your local GP and forcing you to travel further to a giant portacabin polyclinic will do this. The lack of continuity of care provided by the pathetic Walk in Centres (WICs or WANKFESTs) and polyclinics will no doubt have a massive negative impact on the amount of time that is wasted in inappropriate patient attendances to Accident and Emergency departments. Not to mention the fact that WICs are often manned by non-doctor, 'Noctor' people who have had around 4 weeks of training in how to diagnose and manage medical problems, that makes them only just a little bit more expert in health that politicians.

It's another load of hot air from Gordon, and we go further down the road to generating an NHS that resembles the Soviet Union system of the 1960s, that simultaneously and paradoxically embraces the worst of pseudo free market idiocy and cronyism. Your local doctor and a good local hospital will soon be a thing of the past, as they are replaced by the unhappy medium of a distant polyclinic, which can neither provide the continuity and personalised care of your local GP, nor the high standard of care for the bread and butter medical and surgical emergencies. Gordon will give us the worst of both worlds, by cutting costs and privatising the NHS in the process.

Business as usual it would seem.