Wednesday 18 February 2015

NICE starts punch up in the surgery : GP brawls go viral



Everyday some government ministry, some national body or some kind of pressure group tells us how important, nay,  imperative it is for us or someone else to take a particular action.  "Don’t give medical treatment to people who are a little more than chubby or they'll just get fatter", "don’t help poor people or they won’t want to go to work", "don’t cut bankers pay and bonuses or they’ll all want to go to another country", "criticise and financially starve our state education system because investment companies will then put their money into places like free schools and the new academies", "don’t let children have a childhood or they’ll not want to be a part of a hard working British family or worse still they might not worship the capitalist system".

When all these and so many other pronouncements are clarioned, they are so fervently expressed, it can seem as if the whole of the universe will fall in if the latest edict is not acted upon.

Today it was the not particularly fragrant NICE's turn to pronounce. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence is directing GPs who don’t prescribe antibiotics to set upon those of their colleagues who do. There may well be a good enough medical reason to reduce the usage of antibiotics but let's carry out the discussion in a considered, civilised way. 

I don’t often go to my local surgery but when I do I don't like to see the doctors having a punch up in the waiting room.   Divide and rule may be one form of governance but it does not make for a peaceful, kindly, caring community.

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