How long have the comments on BBC articles been like those on the Daily Wail? I hadn't read them in a while, but sheesh...

I made the mistake of looking at the comments on a Huffington Post article. That was a serious error of judgement and just reinforced my general rule that comments on the internet are to be avoided.

I've noticed this too - they're becoming synonymous in terms of approach. I've long suspected that the BBC are no longer impartial but receive benefits of sorts in order to play to Govt spin.

Just watching Newsnight (albeit on iPlayer) and amazed at how Jeremy Twunt is adamant that GPs are to blame for A&E pressures when evidence given by experts show it's not down to GPs. The Govt ignoring evidence....Hmmmm..where have we heard that before?

To be fair this applies to all politicians. Though this minister seems more inept than any other.

The problem is that he's trying to spin it to blame GPs entirely for the A&E crisis. It doesn't take into account the new services (minor injury units, walk-in centres) which "count" towards A&E attendances. It doesn't take into account that A&E attendances have risen only in the last four or five years, and the GP contract is now nearing ten years of age. It doesn't factor that the general population are older, more frail, with more co-morbidities. As a result, when they're poorly, they're very, very poorly.

Jeremy Twunt on the other hand is adamant it's down to GPs abandoning out of hours. Yet it's the Govt who then tendered these services to private companies. It's the Govt who gave these contracts out to their friends instead of GP co-ops who were willing to take on out-of-hours. Has it been publicised that Twunt has a financial interest in private healthcare companies?

I look at the GP partners in the practice and they're spending more time with paperwork than they are with patients - and they're seeing around 33% more patients/day than before the 2004 contract.

People make a lot of comparisons with consultants coming in at night and covering nightshifts. But there's a big difference between what a consultant does and what a GP in out-of-hours does. I've seen a total of five consultants in five years coming in overnight (excepting Obs & Gynae where they're almost always in). The consultants come in for the difficult cases. They don't go doing ward rounds at night. They don't write up drug charts, prescribe fluids etc. They have a team of junior doctors doing that for them. A GP basically has to do all of that team's work but in the community, without the benefit of any special tests. If a consultant was up all night writing out prescriptions and seeing ward patients with a fever, you can be damn sure they wouldn't be fit for work the following day, their clinics would be cancelled and operating lists would be cancelled, all because of EWTD and it'd be unsafe. Somehow it's acceptable for GPs to work all day and then see patients all night too.

Being within the system you clearly have more access to the problems than we generally see. I barely see my GP, but he is expected to know about my condition even though it is so rare that I do not expect him to ever see another with it, plus I can deal with it myself. Though my doctors practice is never open when I expect and some days are appointment only.

I was guessing Stevanger.
I'll find out at 8am when I check-in.

I forgot about Stavanger. So off to one of Statoil's rigs or petrol stations?

I think it was alluded to in the Newsnight programme but basically people aren't looking after themselves. I reckon on some days about a third of what I see are coughs/colds ie self-limiting illnesses.

Twunt talks about how GPs should know their patients from Adam, but TBH unless you're a regular attender, you won't show on peoples' radar. I can name some patients but they're the ones who are terminally ill, or troublemakers and quite frankly, if you're neither, I'll struggle to remember you. Which is a good thing TBH.

Nope. Just meeting up with the rig before it sails for west of Shetland.

I am taking better care of myself than I used to, but that was partly because for a long while I was incapable of doing so. So after many years of ready meals I am actually getting a healthier diet and my health is improving. Though many people may simply not have the time or money to look after themselves any better. Incomes are stagnant and problems of diet have been an issue for years. When they get in from work they are too tired to cook properly. Doctors usually remember me because my condition is so rare, but other than that they rarely see me.

Turns out I'm flying to Haugesund.

It's more down to laziness than being too tired. I work a full day every day and have 3 hours commuting on top of it so I am out of the house usually 12 hours a day. I am always tired yet I cook a proper meal most nights and a couple of days a week my boyfriend cooks. It is only on very rare occasion we'll have a 'ready' meal like throwing a pizza in the oven or a take away.

Depending on what you're cooking you can have a proper meal done in 20 minutes. I find that either you know about food and how to cook or you've never know and probably never will. I also sometimes cook a meal that will last a couple of nights so I may be cooking for a couple of hours one night then it's just warming up the next.

Recently saw a segment on the One Show where older men are being taught how to cook. They've usually been married all their lives and when the wife dies the cooking skills go with her. It was great to see men not only socialising during the classes but learning a new skill late in life. There's hope for us all but people have to want to do it in the first place.

I agree totally

I also commute into the big smoke but cook from scratch most days - did a lamb curry last night and there is enough for tonight. We have a takeaway or a ready meal maybe once every 2 weeks or so


It is cheaper to cook than to get ready meals - its either laziness or ignorance. Yes you need to shop smart and work out when supermarkets put stuff out into their “out of date shelves”

When I was a student I had a very limited budget but ate well – OK a lot of mince eked out with extra veg but it meant that I had more money for the necessities of life like beer and women than my mates who ate a lot of pizza’s etc. I used to go to the markets on a Saturday afternoon when they were shutting up shop and get loads of meat and veg very cheaply