Why General Practice is Dying
Dr Vernon Coleman MB ChB DSc FRSA
A friend of mine went to the doctors’ surgery for a blood test.
Doctors don’t do things like this anymore. They are far too important.
And so a nurse took the blood sample.
The result was an unnecessary bruise and a painful arm.
I saw the vein beforehand. The bruise was a result of nothing more than rank incompetence.
It happens a lot.
Another friend went to have her blood pressure taken. The nurse had no idea what she was doing. The level she recorded was dangerously misleading.
In the olden days, doctors used to do things like this themselves. They took blood samples, tested urine, measured blood pressure, weighed patients, syringed ears, put in and took out stitches and so on. They even provided slimming advice and talked about healthy diets.
It was all part of being a doctor.
And it was important because it helped to seal the relationship between doctor and patient.
Nurses in general practice didn’t have clinics and appointment systems of their own – they went out to see patients at home. They dressed sores, made sure bedbound patients didn’t develop bed sores (whenever a patient develops bed sores it is a sign of incompetent nursing), checked operation scars, gave injections and did a thousand practical things that made life easier for patients.
These days patients who want to have a dressing changed have to drive to a hospital 30 miles away, struggle to park and then wait four hours to be seen. While in hospital there is a good chance that they’ll pick up one of those nice deadly bugs that can’t be treated.
Things have gone wrong because doctors and nurses have become too damned lazy and too damned self-important.
Doctors now work librarian hours. They spend most of their time having meetings and filling in forms. Nurses study for degrees and want to be treated with respect rather than affection. Most GPs are female (for political reasons) and since female doctors often seem to have no sense of vocation they want to work part time – thereby cutting their tax liabilities but giving themselves a good income and lots of free time.
General practice has been destroyed from within.
It won’t recover until doctors and nurses learn that they exist to serve their patients, to make their lives better and to ease all the many pains and discomforts of illness.
Today, general practice exists to provide doctors and nurses with well-paid undemanding jobs. It has no future at all.
Copyright Vernon Coleman April 2019
To find out how to survive your doctor read How To Stop Your Doctor Killing You and Coleman’s Laws – both by Vernon Coleman and both available on Amazon as paperbacks and as eBooks.
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