Drug prices

[Alan B]

Try this one:
Kent Live

Around 5,000 people could be left without a GP after a Folkestone surgery announced it will close

Further down the article:

Joanna Smith, 27, said: "Every single other GP in town has closed its doors to new patients as they are already at full capacity, I've rang every single one and checked.
"This will leave 5,000 people in Folkestone without healthcare. I don't know where they expect these patients to go, 5,000 people is a lot of people to find new spaces for, especially when everywhere is full already.
"We rang every single GP surgery and nobody, and I mean nobody, is taking on new patients.
"Ones further afield keep telling us they won't take patients out of their area and we keep getting rejection letters from places saying they are at full capacity.
"What are people with ongoing health conditions supposed to do if they can't get health care?"

Or perhaps this:
Telegraph

GP crisis as soaring numbers refusing to take patients

Soaring numbers of GP practices are demanding to close their doors to new patients and force current patients to go elsewhere as doctors warn that services are "teetering on the brink of collapse".
New figures show that last year 104 GP practices applied to NHS authorities for permission to stop accepting patients – more than twice as many as two years before.
A further 45 surgeries asked to “shrink” their practice boundaries, throwing existing patients off their lists, while 100 more practices are threatened with closure, an investigation by Pulse magazine found.
Doctors said they were unable to cope with “vast numbers of people” moving into some parts of the country, forcing them to close their lists to newcomers, or divert existing patients to new surgeries.

[Scot Dutchy]

I have been with this doctor for 13 years in a well established population demographic. This is something new.

I with a medical centre. It is the first line care in our health care system There are three groups working in a cooperative. My group has 4 doctors. One has been assigned to me but the other three can fall in anytime if he is not available. This is the way all first line care is organised. It is very efficient and the doctors are not overloaded.

[Sean Hayden]

-block online diagnosis sites in the UK? -encourage superior American doctors to relocate?

Seriously though, this problem sounds bizarre doesn't it?

[Scot Dutchy]

Bizarre is an understatement. Nobody cares a damn about the NHS. The 1% have private care who is worried?

[Svartalf]

I never have to wait for a GP appointment.

I don't either.

I have, my GP does not give appointments and it's on a first come first served basis

[Forty Two]

I never have to wait for a GP appointment.

I don't either.

I have, my GP does not give appointments and it's on a first come first served basis

There are some doctors who are so popular they are full up. A good doctor who is practicing for a long time can become very popular with patients, who then flock to him or her. However, in my town, there are more family and general practitioners than you can count, and there is always one someone can see. People can shop around for doctors where I live.

There is, of course, crap involving which insurance companies a doctor is "in network" with, depending on the kind of policy involved. But, that's more of a nuisance than a problem. All you have to do is verify that you're buying an insurance policy that has your preferred doctor "in network" or you ask the doctor what insurance they are "in network" with and get that insurance.

If a particular doctor has a waiting list, there are a dozen others that don't. That's still the case in the US, although over the last few years the new laws, including Obamacare, are doing their damnedest to bring long wait times and such here to the US, too.

[Scot Dutchy]

I never have to wait for a GP appointment.

I don't either.

You dont have a GP.

[JimC]

...but he may have a Jeep...

[Forty Two]

I never have to wait for a GP appointment.

I don't either.

You dont have a GP.

If GP means "general practitioner", of course I do.

[JimC]

We go to an excellent medical centre, and can usually arrange to see our regular doctor, but if not, the others have full access to our records, and they all seem good. A % of the fee is covered by Medicare. At the same centre there is a radiography service, a pathology service for blood tests etc., (both of which are free, covered by the government) and a surgery where various specialists can visit, plus an in-house pharmacy. Pretty well a one-stop-shop...

[pErvinalia]

I've been with my medical practice for prolly nearly 15 years (11 of those with the kids), and with the same doctor there for about 8 or 9. I still use them even though I live over 100 kms away now. All the doctors/medical centres in my new locale aren't a shade on my regular doctor.

[Strontium Dog]

Oh Britain, you rainbow pissing, gumdrop shitting bastids. I long to run beneath your blueberry skies.

I have to say that our system seems to be under a lot of pressure these days and creaking a bit.

That's because the old and decrepit would rather see their GP to get a free prescription for paracetamol rather than paying 18 pence over the counter for it.

These are the people clogging up the system. Ironically, the same clowns who voted for Brexit, who will see the NHS get even worse as all the Europeans that sustain the NHS stick two fingers up to racist Britain and go home. So at least there will be some justice in the end.

[pErvinalia]

Any evidence that old coots getting a prescription for over the counter medicine is what is causing the problems in the NHS?

[Strontium Dog]

Any evidence that old coots getting a prescription for over the counter medicine is what is causing the problems in the NHS?

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/po ... 19661.html

Providing paracetamol to patients in England cost NHS over £70m last year, official figures show

Almost £400 million has been spent on the drug in the last five years

The NHS spent more than £70m giving paracetamol to patients in England last year despite the medication being available over the counter at a fraction of the cost.

Family doctors issued more than 21.7 million prescriptions of the everyday painkillers at a cost of £3.23 per item, despite the pills being sold for as little as 19p in supermarkets.

The 2016/17 figure of £70.18m, revealed in response to a written parliamentary question tabled by Labour MP Grahame Morris, shows the bill has fallen from £84.86m in 2015/16 and £86.88m the year before.

And this is just paracetamol and just in England. Not even including the other cheap OTC drugs, or anything in the other nations of the UK.

So the question is: do you think the millions of people getting prescriptions for paracetamol are:

a) the people who have to pay £8.60 for a prescription? or
b) the people who get their prescriptions for free?

[pErvinalia]

Ok. 70 million is a fuckload.