GP's 'rationing' healthcare already ... and they're not even being 'bonused' on it yet!

The number of patients being referred by their GP to see a hospital specialist has dropped by almost 5% over the past year, prompting fresh concern that access to care is being rationed as a direct result of the pressure on NHS finances.

GPs in England referred about 3.6 million patients for a first hospital consultation between April and July, according to data from the Department of Health (DoH). That was 4.7% fewer than the same period in 2010 – 3.8 million referrals.

The number of patients being seen by consultants after a GP's referral also fell during the same period, from 3.1 million last year to 2.9 million – a drop of 5.2%. The two sets of figures do not match because many patients remain on waiting lists.

The British Medical Association (BMA), the doctors' trade association, said that reductions in patients' access to healthcare were happening more often.

"The NHS is under a lot of pressure to do less, for example through referral management initiatives, which seem to be on the increase. These may save money but for every lost referral there is a patient who is not getting diagnosed or treated, and a hospital that is more likely to encounter financial problems," said a BMA spokesman.

John Healey, the shadow health secretary, also warned that some patients may be missing out on drugs, surgery or other treatment because of the falling number of referrals.

"While it is important to reduce demand for hospital care, patients will want reassuring that they are not being denied necessary treatment," he said. "These figures show the huge pressure on hospital finances at a time when David Cameron is wasting millions of pounds reorganising the NHS bureaucracy."

The NHS in England is struggling as its budget increase this year is just 0.1% – after a decade of big annual rises – while it seeks to save £20bn by 2015. The efficiency drive was ordered by the NHS's chief executive, Sir David Nicholson, in 2009, intending to free resources for the growing number of patients, especially elderly people, with long-term conditions such as cancer, diabetes and obesity. Nicholson has told the NHS several times not to limit services in order to meet the target.

GP's are not being 'bonused' to 'ration' healthcare yet but make no mistake ... plans for GP commissioning has this at its heart ... e.g. the less spent on patient care the more their consortium will profit ... and the more the consortium profits the more the GP's will receive in dividends (i.e. cash straight into their bank accounts) ... to compliment the multimillion pound windfall they'll also receive when they decide to sell off their 'stake' in their consortium. 

Conflict of interest? You bet! Government prepared to fix this fundamental flaw in the reforms plans? Absolutely not! The real reason for these reforms is cut the healthcare budget ... and 'rationing at source' (i.e. at the point where people might be diagnosed and/or referred) is the simplest and most effective way the Government see to do this ... but they know they'll have to 'bribe' the GP's to get them to do this!

Some GP's are clearly already 'signalling' their 'enthusiasm' and 'ability' to do this ... whilst others steadfastly refuse out of principle. What people fail to realise is that not only will they be rationing healthcare, these soon to be multi-millionaires will also be looting the NHS of the finance is desperately needs to spend on healthcare!

Hippocratic oath - or Hypocrasy ...?

When diagnosing patients in the future ... will patients believe and have trust in what their doctor says and recommends? ... or will that vital trust be broken ... with patients trusting them little more than politicians? **

Unsure ... well if you need more information in order to decide ... why don't you listen to what trustworthy and honorable GP's say ... and/or the latest news on GP's being caught charging the NHS for treating patients that don't exist ... or who died years ago!

** Age old saying: 

Question: "When do you know a politician is lying?"

Answer:   "When their lips are moving!"

"Weapons of mass destruction", "I pledge not to raise tuition fees", "I'll cut the deficit, not the NHS" ...

Lack of Opportunity and Lack of Responsibility

Riots flared up last week as thousands of people (mostly young people) took to the streets and looted shops. 

Young people currently face a plethora of challenges, e.g. double the rate of unemployment, the stopping of Education Maintenance Allowances (EMA) and the tripling of tuition fees ... and on getting older they face a lifetime of debt slavery and paying of their mountain of debt (now estimated to be around £60k due to the tripling of tuition fees) and crippling house prices too (due to Government policy and corrupt bankers). The truth is they have been completely let down by Government and given little opportunity or hope ... partly because they were seen as an 'easy target' in the cuts (as most of them do not have a vote and those that do rarely vote anyway)!

Yet there is no excuse for young people doing this. Rather than protesting directly to those responsible for creating this mess (i.e. the self interest and greed of the politicians/bankers), they have also shown their own ignorance and greed ... by destroying their own communities and looting shops instead! This inexcusable ignorance, shown by a small minority, in effect condones the self interest and greed of those who actually created this mess (i.e. the politicians and bankers).

They did not loot Libraries/Waterstones for knowledge ... and they did not loot farmers fields because they could not afford to eat either ... instead they looted JJB, Carphone Warehouse and Dixons for trainers, blackberry's and flat screen TV's! ... All organised using social media ... and their expensive Blackberry's and iPhones! Greed and self interest has in effect bred yet more greed and self interest, destroying communities in the process.

A lack of responsibility, by Government, parents and the 'politically correct', has in effect led to a lack of accountability and responsibility in a growing number of young children, who uncorrected by their parents and the system, want to do nothing ... but expect everything (nb playing computer games doesn't count*)! Rather than an outward looking, helpful and hardworking society, Government over the last 20-30 years has overseen the creation of an inward looking, selfish and lazy society ... where 'value' is determined by "what you have", not "who you are" or "what you do" ... 

"Greed is Good" and "Money for Nothing" have become mantras for many ... which is why rising house prices has become a national obsession (e.g. look at the number of house programmes on TV) ... and is why financial services, such as banking and insurance (who create money from nothing - they counterfeit it, charge interest on it, and gamble it) was seen as the future for Britain ... whilst manufacturing (i.e. people actually adding value and making things) was classed as too 'hard work', boring and irrelevant (nb look where Germany is now, having taken the opposite view ... despite having to prop up the Eurozone, and having already had to absorb the problems of East Germany and the collapse of the Berlin Wall too).

We need to heavily tax the creation of money from nothing (including gambling and counterfeiting by bankers) ... and provide tax incentives for creating jobs. We need an economics where "People taking responsibility for adding value and continuously improving the situation for others (e.g. customers, communities, overall environment), based upon fundamental values such as trust, honor, responsibility and respect".

And we need to turn around the accountability and responsibility of young people, parents and 'leaders' (including politicians). Young people should be held accountable for their actions, and parents for their children. Politicians need to also be held accountable for their failure to reward the values any civilized society needs to be founded upon ... namely Trust, Honor, Responsibility and Respect. They should also reward 'People taking responsibility for adding value and continuously improving the situation for others', and heavily tax/outlaw those things that do not or do the opposite (which includes most of the practices of banks, insurers and parasitic no-win-no fee lawyers).

The Government are desperately trying to deflect blame onto Gangs and are calling in an ex-New York Police Chief to sort it out ... but the failure is a mixture of ignorance, a lack of morality, responsibility and social justice (nb the gap between the rich and poor has spiraled in the last 20-30 years). 

The current Government is deliberately dividing society, rather than bring it together, and trying to stop society turning its gaze on their immoral actions ... e.g. whilst all this is going on, George Osborne is looking to follow Boris Johnson and his call to cut the top rate of tax for the rich (which will make the gap between rich and poor even greater), whilst increasing taxes and cutting services for the young and poor! 

They both claim this is needed to 'boost' the economy - what a joke! ... the rich simply use their money to accumulate more money (e.g. by buying up and then renting houses, excluding young people from home ownership)! If they really wanted to boost the economy they would invest in young people and the future and providing tax incentives for job creation, not tax cuts for the rich! He would also boost tax revenues by taxing areas that generate 'money for nothing' too (e.g. land values, housing speculation, investment banking and insurance). 

Unfortunately ignorance is not bliss, and as seen last week, ignorance can result in actions that are totally misguided and counterproductive! Unrest will unfortunately continue to grow whilst power is unbalanced and self-interest and greed remain acceptable mantras in society** ... and for things to change for the better, looters need to be replaced by serious, responsible, and organized protesters, who are keen to see justice, trust, honor, responsibility and respect ... not just in society ... but from their 'leaders'.

* Many young people are today immersed in computer games, including 18 rated ones such as Grand Theft Auto, which involves them stealing, killing,  rioting and looting! Such games must make it harder for them to distinguish between good and bad, right and wrong, fiction and reality ... when doing all the wrong things is 'rewarded'!

** Cameron's comments about holding people to account, and fixing the morality in society, are I'm afraid mostly smoke and mirrors and spin (from an ex PR spin doctor) ... because the courts are doing very little in terms of sentencing, and his chancellor has yet again shown they are continuing with their plans to raid the poor for the benefit of the rich. Just like the NHS, Cameron/Osborne will try to push ahead quickly ... before any subsequent review is completed (just like he did with GP commissioning)!