Doctors read my mind

[wendigo100]

It is well known that NHS managers and clinicians are gaming the target system to make waiting times, etc, look better.

Sure, two patients with simple ops see an improvement, but the difficult cancer patient shunted aside for them might not. And all of a sudden we stopped being able to book GP appointments more than 48 hours in advance, so now it looks like everyone is seen within 48 hours!

[Rantor]

It is well known that NHS managers and clinicians are gaming the target system to make waiting times, etc, look better.

Sure, two patients with simple ops see an improvement, but the difficult cancer patient shunted aside for them might not. And all of a sudden we stopped being able to book GP appointments more than 48 hours in advance, so now it looks like everyone is seen within 48 hours!

Absolutely, its only human nature.

The recent mega-investments in the nhs that have shown such uneven, and often marginal, improvements seem to indicate that the basic model is not fit for purpose.

I can't see how things can change as the nhs is nearly a state religon (there is a good original quote on this.) I have members of my family who work in the nhs who will seriously say that taxes should be set at whatever level necessary to pour in however much money it takes.

More realistically, many people are afraid of us going to the other extreme (American style.) Given that debates on controversial subjects in Britain ain't always that nuanced this is not an unreasonable poistion.

It only took a year of living in a country with a wellstructured healthcare system to see the difference in terms of quality, choice, speed and affordability.

I can't see anything really changing too much for the better in the near future for the biggest employer in europe.

[Old Greg]

It is well known that NHS managers and clinicians are gaming the target system to make waiting times, etc, look better.

Sure, two patients with simple ops see an improvement, but the difficult cancer patient shunted aside for them might not. And all of a sudden we stopped being able to book GP appointments more than 48 hours in advance, so now it looks like everyone is seen within 48 hours!

There certainly is gaming, but waiting times have still dropped considerably for surgery - therer simply aren't masses of people waiting for 2 years + for surgery. Cancer and suspected cancer patients don't, in my experience get shunted around for simple ops (not saying it has never happenned) and cancer is one area where there is very little gaming (I've never known of any) simply because the DH will come down like a ton of bricks for any breach of cancer waits and a hundredfold for a cover-up of it.

The 48 hour business for GPs is a different kettle of fish in that it was a very poorly implemented project ('Advanced Access'), which was intended to give everyone the opprotunity of booking within 48 hours (I remember when I lived in London and couldn't get a routine GP appointment for 2 weeks). But it got badly mangled in implementation as as you say, has caused a whole load of problems.

[Mailman]

If you don't work - there's no reason why you can't get a daytime appointment.

Apart from the fact that you cant get in anyways because all the other poor sick scum are stinking up the system!

Mailman