GP provision per capita - regional variations

[Lucy Lass-Tick]

Once again, the region's at the worst end of the statistics ... https://www.msn.com/en-gb/health/medical/incredible-map-lays-bare-staggering-gp-shortage-in-uk-with-one-doctor-for-3-000-patients/ar-AAPwe6u?ocid=msedgntp&fbclid=IwAR2m6L10eUwF_AwAy4Dvs4bdLSLJd55YSWV_TemHrNqryBqzB9-bJl7KOHM&pfr=1

[eddy]

Look forward to seeing the "it's all labours" fault narrative replayed after 11 years of a conservative gov

[Inspector Knacker]

No need to, you just highlighted the problem yourself. 

[eddy]

But surely its still all their fault yea?

[Inspector Knacker]

This region has had the worst statistics for decades.... including under Labour too. Those 'statistics' neither surprise me or alarm me anymore.
I doubt you'd be getting agitated and aerated if a Labour Government was in power. Wonder why.

[The Great Dictator]

   The closure of the hospital was instigated 20 years ago by Labour Health Secretary John Reid MP under the watchful eye of the Blair regime.

[Inspector Knacker]

   The closure of the hospital was instigated 20 years ago by Labour Health Secretary John Reid MP under the watchful eye of the Blair regime.

I remember well the fly 'Dr' Reid saying the hospital would never close while he was health secretary..... no one bothered to ask him what happens when he's not.
Days of glory....vague sketches of vague hospitals where no public transport ventures that would never happen, JCB lessons for MP's at the ground breaking ceremony sham and what hasn't been said about our glorious Councillors 'performance' .
The hospital that never was, never was.
Attempts to blame the Tories/ Lib Dem's for cuts to our hospital services (on the recommendation of our departed Labour candidate, his name escapes me) were set in motion long before they took power, but it's a nice deflection.
Good job possibly, wasn't Tony a big fan of PFI, where even changing a light bulb boosted the bill.

[eddy]

If am being pedantic the original post was about GP services, not hospitals.  So yea, my original point still stands.  Its just easier to go on a feeding frenzy about the hospital and all the blame being on labours doorstep

I think the point am making here is sh!t seems to stick to labour yet falls off the gov like Teflon.  Its curious.  When its been 30+ years and we still have no A&E will it still be BlairPFIliebour scum who are the cause? 

Anecdotally, my auld boy worked in the estates dept at North Tees for 30+ years, he was charged with various new developments, wards, buildings etc.  He told me at the time the big problem was the hospitals (Hartlepool and North Tees) did not have enough staff between them to manage the service requirements at both, so consultants had to spend their time driving between the two and got quite fed up.  Going way back they struggled to attract people to work in the trusts, which was why Hartlepool merged into North Tees trust, in simple terms (he said) they didnt want to move their family to Hartlepool / Stockton.  Behind closed doors a lot of consultants were for "consolidation" of services at one site to save the faff.  He used to get quite agitated when it was portrayed as being a political decision, saying it was what a lot of the people on the ground wanted to happen.  Sure you will tell me this is all to the contrary but this is what he was working through at the time and hearing from folks at North Tees and Hartlepool.

This wasnt a problem unique to Hartlepool either, there are a lot of towns in a similar boat.

[eddy]

Also re: PFI, I am the first to admit that wasnt Labours greatest hour,

Although at the same time throwing £37b at Dido and her Test and Trace hasnt really crowned us in glory either.  But thats a Tory thing so is best kept off here......

[Inspector Knacker]

No one said it was, but dragging that out to deflect/distract away from the original point is the oldest, tiredest trick in the party political book of 'Let's Talk About Something Else Eh?....

[Lucy Lass-Tick]

No one said it was, but dragging that out to deflect/distract away from the original point is the oldest, tiredest trick in the party political book of 'Let's Talk About Something Else Eh?....

AKA 'whataboutery' in certain circles?

[Inspector Knacker]

Anecdotally, my auld boy worked in the estates dept at North Tees for 30+ years, he was charged with various new developments, wards, buildings etc.  He told me at the time the big problem was the hospitals (Hartlepool and North Tees) did not have enough staff between them to manage the service requirements at both, so consultants had to spend their time driving between the two and got quite fed up.  Going way back they struggled to attract people to work in the trusts, which was why Hartlepool merged into North Tees trust, in simple terms (he said) they didnt want to move their family to Hartlepool / Stockton.  Behind closed doors a lot of consultants were for "consolidation" of services at one site to save the faff.  He used to get quite agitated when it was portrayed as being a political decision, saying it was what a lot of the people on the ground wanted to happen.  Sure you will tell me this is all to the contrary but this is what he was working through at the time and hearing from folks at North Tees and Hartlepool.

This wasnt a problem unique to Hartlepool either, there are a lot of towns in a similar boat.

The dog wagging the tail. If you're some pensioner making a bus journey to visit someone in North Tees you have my deepest sympathy. But like some big chief said when this was pointed out, most people have access to a car...oh really? Move into the real world pal?
I've heard all this 'anecdotal' cr*p from the outset,  always the same script. Unfortunately the script comes up regularly across the country when a merger to improve services by removing  services rears it's head. Nowt new there..... services run for whose convenience.

[eddy]

I can only relay what he told me at the time, and his job was to talk with consultants to scope and design new wards, operating theatres etc.  its not really second hand or anecdotal, its what a lot of them were saying at the time.

Thats not to say its right or is a good call, but if the people who are doing the actual work are pressing for "consolidations" then its not as much of a political football as its made out to be.  But like a lot of things the actual reasons behind a decision is often more complex and nuanced, its easier to say "group x" closed it down.  Makes it sound like some sort of arbitrary choice taken in isolation of all stakeholders which plays a treat on social media to people who arent as up to speed with the finer details of what is actually going on !   

[Inspector Knacker]

I was getting the story about consultants like the anecdotal one being fed to me when the salami slicing started here over 10 years ago and was a union rep, not in the health service I should point out.
There are various valid reasons sometimes for change, but this script kept cropping up continually, same process, same old alibi explaining why 'making access more difficult was better for you '...George Orwell couldn't have put it better.
I listen to experts, but some 'experts' make the mistake of thinking they're above questioning by mere mortals, even when the obvious drawbacks are pointed out. Experts then become dictators.

[diSme]

I listen to experts, but some 'experts' make the mistake of thinking they're above questioning by mere mortals, even when the obvious drawbacks are pointed out. Experts then become dictators.

Oh, so it is actually ok to question the experts, but only sometimes,, when it suits you.....

I'll trust the experts every time, the 'theories' of the 'bloke in the pub' have little relevance to reality.