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22 comments:
Bugger Me - It's the Stepford GPs...
I find this website very sinister (and not just because of the smiling). There is no hint as to WHERE are these mythical Virgin Health Centres, bar a mesage that they are "recruiting in the M4 Corridor". There's not much on the WHAT or the WHY, either.
Are they inviting GP surgeries to sell their buildings to Beardie and he'll develop it into a lovely new polyclinic? Or is this them setting out a stall to Dept of Health/PCTs (ie touting for business generally)? Or are there already "sleeper" health centres ready to spring into action all over the Thames Valley at the hint of an APPMS contract or the refusal of a local surgery to stay open till 8pm every day of the week including Sunday?
I rather worry that this website can state that "The same local GPs working within the NHS will be loking after the same patients...their NHS services will still be free at the point of delivery...and the Virgin Healthcare premises will be located so that they are still close by to where patients live", and seem to suggest that this is some as-yet-unreached nirvana! Surely this is what we...er..have NOW? Virgin seem pretty confident that they are going to have my patients but that I will work for them not myself! It's pretty brazen...
...unless they know something that we don't!
I think I'll book myself onto one of their courses and find out
Just been talking to someone who is a bit "in the know".
Seems that these places will be set up with the plan to take the PBC stuff away from the hospital to there.
But it needs the GP to take the work there.
I couldn't understand how they would convince the GPs to sell up and move in...seems the don't have to do that (though they can). These places can be just up the road from the GP where the problem gets diagnosed then they wander down the street to get treated at the Virgin centre.
Once Tesco get to run all the practices you will be able to get a loaf of bread with your check up and browse new DVDs while waiting for your mole biopsy.
I thought this was a wind-up. It may still all be wind as any idiot can set up a website (as I have shown) and, so far, that is all there is but it is all very sinister and Nulabour.
I note they might be recruiting midwives so will be recreating the Virgin Birth.
We need to get the bu99ers out and we need to do it soon before we all have to wear red baseball caps and tell our patients to "have a nice day" or get sacked.
I am really angry. This has to be stopped.
"Once Tesco get to run all the practices you will be able to get a loaf of bread with your check up and browse new DVDs while waiting for your mole biopsy."
They are already offering check-ups. BP, wt, cholesterol and you get a free pedometer all for a tenner. They will probably offer to sell you a carrier bag full of medication too. Every little helps
A WHOIS search reveals it is unlikely to be a wind-up:
Registrant:
Virgin Enterprises Ltd.
Virgin Enterprises Limited
120 Campden Hill Road
London W8 7AR
GB
domain_admin@virgin.com
+44.2073132000 Fax: +44.2073132091
Domain Name: VIRGINHEALTHCARE.NET
Registrar of Record: Corporate Domains, Inc.
dunno if any of you have seen some of the newest/largest consulting rooms built by boots and sainsburys, theyre certainly better kitted out than the GP surgery down the local housing association estate, doesnt take much imagination to see a doctor in there rather than a nurse doing jabs etc
i should buy some share in medicentre, who owns them? i should look it up, gotta be worth a punt against you fucking nationalised industry failures
Virgin owns them! (will own them)
GPs are, whatever else they are, not a nationalised industry failure, unless of course you see the failure to nationalise the GP service as a failure... .
I for one welcome our new corporate masters...
just cos the nationalised industry (the nhs) has hired some freelancers (some GPs) doesnt stop it being a nationalised industry failure
seriously when you read the misinformed Shite that is currently lapped up by the populace - I think fuck em - UK patients will get the healthcare they deserve - through ignorance or through apathy.
The rants have and continue to warn . They will be fine - dr's and nurses are a valued commodity in monetary terms to these private providers so the rants really will be fine. Nicer buildings, no staffing or equipment worries and clear start stop times and all of the stuff patients love about their gp' a - a personal contact - a relationship will simply melt away. Unless you can afford it.
Private healthcare providers can ONLY operate anywhere by replacing medical staff with nurses. I know I've worked for one.
those who say GP should be open to market forces are getting their wish but I fear the reality is radically different from what they think. The loser will categorically NOT be the GP's.
Frankly, when we're like the dentists and can pretty much pick and choose who we see and when ( the logical conclusion to Gordon's agenda) life will be much easier and way, way more profitable.
any memories of long term relationship with GP have faded in many parts of the country, as you are seen by an ever changing locum anyways, so i dont think that aspect would worry many people
private GP you definitley get to see the GP and not a nurse, which is more than can be said of many an nhs GP practise
just noticed on the web there is a private A & E in Manchester, more akin to the out of hours centres they have on the rest of the planet, wish I could move back there that would solve a lot of problems
I agree with anon - I'm a GP - sounds good to me too. - Guys private fees are sweet and the patients really do get what they pay for - bring it on. The battle's way over - enjoy the peace that is privatized healthcare for the few.
There can be fewer more satisfying things in the world in an item of svs health centre than the wealthy worried well. Can you hear me say cash cow.
see THIS is why our colleagues across the pond are so happy and so beloved of their patients. Indulge and earn. Cater to want and not need.
For UK in 2012 see michael moore's Sicko.
rants no-one gives a fuck give it up and let the good times roll - you put up a brave fight but as you can see from the comments above - the folk you're trying to save want the illusion - let em have it - buy that porche and chill out.
My American GP pal just bought a lakeside in mineapolis minnesotta at 1.3million.
gordon isn't stupid if you track the economic effects of the health care industry in the US you will see side revenues are massive. I mean - ok - you might lose your house if you get sick but you can't make an omlete etc..
Lastly - as I said - I worked for a private firm - and you only get to see the GP after your insurance company or your wallet says you can. ONLY after money changes hands. Good system ... For Docs...
...and for the avoidance of any doubt:
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSN0765165020080108
This is how effective private healthcare is.
For some of us, our experience of NHS GP 'care' is so poor, and so lacking, that we might as well be living within a privatised system of health.
We are not a minority either.
I ended up selling my house to buy private treatment for my daughter that the NHS (and by that, I mean you GPs) would NOT provide. She has improved vastly because of this treatment (though still very ill), but we are now in poverty. However, we were in poverty before because of the danger of reposession following me having to give up work to care for her: oh yes, GPs wouldn't help with that problem either.
Currently I'm trying to get a GP to write a letter to the council detailing how ill she is. They've been dragging their heels for 3 months now, and I'll still have to pay for the privilege if I ever get the **** thing! They don’t seem to want to write this letter- even though it’s part of their role and we won’t get the help my daughter needs without it!
I can't afford any more private care for her - and yes that lot will drop you like a hot potato if you can't pay. But our GPs will not give her the treatment either. So she's been left floundering. We’re trying to work out her options- but I’ve been fighting for her rights for many years now and I’m exhausted.
This is the lot of many patients in the NHS today (they are not a minority). They are the people trapped in a 'it's psychosomatic' diagnosis (which has become a default diagnosis for any illness that requires investigation that might actually cost MONEY and TIME). Once you've been given THAT diagnosis- you are SCREWED. Even when clear clinical and laboratory abnormality and devastating impairment becomes obvious, the mind-set has solidified in the GP's surgery- for ever it seems. The 'heartsink' category has even spread to all the other members of our family, me included. I've got a health problem that I can't get taken seriously either- so I'm having to put up or shut up- and try and work out other means of dealing with it- so far without success. And the mind-set follows from doctor to doctor as well.
When I hear all this patient bashing on these blogs and in the comments section of online newspaper articles- patients are stupid, they don't know how good they've got it with these GP's - they get the healthcare they deserve- I do wonder what my young daughter did to deserve such an appalling cavalier attitude towards the (possibly permanent) loss of health and all the life opportunities healthy kids take for granted. The one thing I do know is that we might as well have no GP at all, for all the help we have gotten from them. The ‘Sicko’ portrayal of the NHS was rather rose-tinted, to say the least, and this has already been remarked upon elsewhere.
There are many people in similar situations to my family. You GP bloggers with your contemptuous attitude towards patients (and yes that’s exactly what you have- I could fill pages of examples of offensive comments about them from yourselves) are living in cloud cuckoo land if you think you can get patient support with your current attitudes. The firemen couldn’t get it in the end. The police are unlikely to either. The postmen- the railwaymen- they couldn’t get that support either.
A large amount of people in this country are struggling to survive on meagre salaries or welfare (which Hain wants to take from some extremely ill people- haven‘t heard a dicky bird of outrage from you lot about that!)
Doctor bloggers complaining about their salaries, or their training issues, while demanding patients visit during work hours (when they might face being disciplined or sacked or lose their already meagre pay), or slag them off for some faux pas they’ve unwittingly committed, induce little else besides impatience and resentment, in the circumstances.
Now I’m sure I’m going to get lambasted for this- careful, thoughtful, patient-advocating discourse has been conspicuous by its absence on these pages. But sometimes- things need to be said. The Emperor needs to be told he’s naked.
For some of us, our experience of NHS GP 'care' is so poor, and so lacking, that we might as well be living within a privatised system of health. We are not a minority either.
I ended up selling my house to buy private treatment for my daughter that the NHS (and by that, I mean you GPs) would NOT provide. She has improved vastly because of this treatment (though still very ill), but we are now in poverty. However, we were in poverty before because of the danger of reposession following me having to give up work to care for her: oh yes, GPs wouldn't help with that problem either.
Currently I'm trying to get a GP to write a letter to the council detailing how ill she is. They've been dragging their heels for 3 months now, and I'll still have to pay for the privilege if I ever get the **** thing! They don’t seem to want to write this letter- even though it’s part of their role and we won’t get the help my daughter needs without it!
I can't afford any more private care for her - and yes that lot will drop you like a hot potato if you can't pay. But our GPs will not give her the treatment either. So she's been left floundering. We’re trying to work out her options- but I’ve been fighting for her rights for many years now and I’m exhausted.
This is the lot of many patients in the NHS today (they are not a minority). They are the people trapped in a 'it's psychosomatic' diagnosis (which has become a default diagnosis for any illness that requires investigation that might actually cost MONEY and TIME). Once you've been given THAT diagnosis- you are SCREWED. Even when clear clinical and laboratory abnormality and devastating impairment becomes obvious, the mind-set has solidified in the GP's surgery- for ever it seems. The 'heartsink' category has even spread to all the other members of our family, me included. I've got a health problem that I can't get taken seriously either- so I'm having to put up or shut up- and try and work out other means of dealing with it- so far without success. And the mind-set follows from doctor to doctor as well.
When I hear all this patient bashing on these blogs and in the comments section of online newspaper articles- patients are stupid, they don't know how good they've got it with these GP's - they get the healthcare they deserve- I do wonder what my young daughter did to deserve such an appalling cavalier attitude towards the (possibly permanent) loss of health and all the life opportunities healthy kids take for granted. The one thing I do know is that we might as well have no GP at all, for all the help we have gotten from them. The ‘Sicko’ portrayal of the NHS was rather rose-tinted, to say the least, and this has already been remarked upon elsewhere.
There are many people in similar situations to my family. You GP bloggers with your contemptuous attitude towards patients (and yes that’s exactly what you have- I could fill pages of examples of offensive comments about them from yourselves) are living in cloud cuckoo land if you think you can get patient support with your current attitudes. The firemen couldn’t get it in the end. The police are unlikely to either. The postmen- the railwaymen- they couldn’t get that support either.
A large amount of people in this country are struggling to survive on meagre salaries or welfare (which Hain wants to take from some extremely ill people- haven‘t heard a dicky bird of outrage from you lot about that!)
Doctor bloggers complaining about their salaries, or their training issues, while demanding patients visit during work hours (when they might face being disciplined or sacked or lose their already meagre pay), or slag them off for some faux pas they’ve unwittingly committed, induce little else besides impatience and resentment, in the circumstances.
Now I’m sure I’m going to get lambasted for this- careful, thoughtful, patient-advocating discourse has been conspicuous by its absence on these pages. But sometimes- things need to be said. The Emperor needs to be told he’s naked.
For the last three nights, my AMU has looked like the hospital scene in Threads. We are going backwards so fucking fast, it wouldn't surprise me if they bring back workhouses for the poor.
I agree with both anonymous dr? And anonymous patient who double posted above.
It seems clear that contempt exists on both sides my point would be that at least in their flawed way the rants are at least trying to get a message across to benefit patients (unless you've been taking the stupid pills its plain the effect of current changes won't really matter much to the rants)they seem to want things to succeed and although like everyone they moan about their jobs - its a free country its their right to do so.
lastly to anon. patient - your absolutely right there are people in this country who work real hard and are bring shafted right and left as fsrcas h
change your damn practice - I'd have a full and frank discussion with your doctor. It is unwise to continue to harbour your current ideas without letting your dr's know how you feel. They are just folk like anyone else I think you would be surprised if you spoke to them in the coherent insightful fashion you have just written - having a hard to classify disease isn't the fault of your dr and neither is it yours. I would ditch your preconceptions and I'm pretty sure those healthcare professionals you come into contact with will ditch theirs in return. But like every human interaction you pretty much get back what you give out.
its about time Drs and patients spoke with a bit less assuming what the other's agenda is
but I don't know anyones individual situation so this is just
my 2c.
Amazed at you in UK's rank stupidity in wrecking yourHS you really, really have no clue do you...
Personally, it's about time they gave parts of the NHS to proper business people to handle.
I'm not into the idea of NHS going private, but it seems we're already two steps into that already anyhow.
However, when the NHS can't break even (or make the 5% anuual cutbacks the govt called for years ago - not sure what the going rate is nowadays) then it's time for a culture change.
Virgin has achieved many sucessful business ventures and their track record speaks for itself - let's just hope Branson's plans doesn't involve any hot air balloons replacing ambulances.
Essentially, it's no different fm the way things are run now; it's just the names of the systems have changed; as long as the govt retains responsiblity and, if/when there's a major fuck up we can still call for the head of minstery to "fuck off, and fuck now" (I loved that Liam-line) then I'd much prefer the 'business' to be run by business people with balanced outcomes/economy agendas; not vote-driven ones.
In my experience (railways & telewest) Virgin are totally incompetant and I wouldn't want them anywhere near healthcare.
Tainted halo..how do you get a system with ever increasing costs to make cutbacks?
You remove services or become more efficient, cutting services always drives greater cost reduction that efficency savings...give the programme to a private provider...how do yo uturn a profit? by making the biggest savigs possible...gues what goes? Not the managment. Enjoy "efficient" healthcare in the future.
Tainted holo - your comments might be taken more seriously if you weren't living in Australia
“lastly to anon. patient - your absolutely right there are people in this country who work real hard and are bring shafted right and left as fsrcas h
change your damn practice - I'd have a full and frank discussion with your doctor. It is unwise to continue to harbour your current ideas without letting your dr's know how you feel. They are just folk like anyone else I think you would be surprised if you spoke to them in the coherent insightful fashion you have just written - having a hard to classify disease isn't the fault of your dr and neither is it yours. I would ditch your preconceptions and I'm pretty sure those healthcare professionals you come into contact with will ditch theirs in return. But like every human interaction you pretty much get back what you give out.
its about time Drs and patients spoke with a bit less assuming what the other's agenda is”
With the greatest of respect, anonymous, did you not see the details of my daughter's experience? Preconceptions? Human interaction? Assumption of agenda? Do you not think that I (and my daughter, for that matter) have already tried and tried to speak in a thoughtful coherent fashion to our doctors, time and time again?
It's not a case of how I 'feel'. It's a case of what has been done to my daughter. And the story is depressingly familiar. This seems to be a frequent experience, of many patients with ‘difficult to diagnose illnesses‘ across the domain of human health. Some of this is the fault of government instruction and ideology (including around spending), some of it is the encouragement of the return to notions of hysteria by key movers and shakers, but individual doctors are also culpable in this, for allowing themselves to be led in this way without using their critical faculties, and for patient-blaming, which is an easy option for them and keeps them in their own comfort zone, but is devastating for the patient. So there is a problem with the system- and it is complex. But doctors cannot escape responsibility for this state of affairs.
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