GPs can lick my balls

[Riff Raff]

Goodness me, wish I'd seen this thread earlier. Where do I start?

Unfortunately nothing is predictable in medicine, and emergencies don't stick to a schedule. And there are good GPs and bad GPs. In general (yes I know there are exceptions to the rule), the ones who consistently run late tend to be pretty thorough. I had a fantastic GP in Auckland who was always running late, but by crikey she was thorough and she made sure all her patients understood what was happening to them, why it was happening and why they needed the treatment she was prescribing. I'm still trying to find a GP like her in Wellington.

But here's a point to consider when looking for a GP who runs on time. If your GP services a lower socio economic area or has a lot of elderly patients then they are going to be running late 99% of the time. These GPs will have high workloads and will deal with a lot of emergencies. Elderly patients have a nasty habit of not wanting to bother anyone - like little nana who's had chest pain since 3am and should have called an ambulance then, but waits until the surgery opens to get an appointment. So now not only does the doctor have to spend time tending to the patient, but they also have to spend extra time ringing the hospital to arrange admission and writing the referral letter. Those living in lower socio economic areas tend to wait until they're really sick before going to the doctor, either due to ignorance or lack of funds.

I can't remember who it was now who had been turned away from hospital with asthmatic child, but why on Earth did you not call an ambulance if your child gets that sick and you believe they need to be in hospital? At least ambulance staff can begin treatment en route and are trained to deal with life threatening situations.

I have a number of problems that I need to see my GP about so I will be booking a double appointment. Not many others think to do that.

[Brett]

Brett, I'm not referring to YOUR ignorance & prejudice, I'm referring to that expressed in this thread. Clearly you're not ignorant & your prejudice, if you have any, is pro doctor. It's stating the bloody obvious (again) but some GP's are clearly better than others, some not so good one's have a better bed side manner & vice versa. Also a specialist/surgeon will happily take his kids to the GP when he feels the need. Our family GP (a Seth Efrican) is a highly qualified FRACGP & one of the best Dr's I have had.
Big UP to all the good medics out there

All good!

B

[scissorhands]

I had a persistent cough that was so persistent I just ignored it. Of course all the sheilas at work, and then my wife started nagging me to go to see the dr about it. Started nagging every time I coughed, told me it could be some chronic disease and shit manifesting itself, blah blah, wah, wah. Went on for weeks/months.

So I eventually get an appointment. Go see the Dr. Sit in his office and get stared at by all the people there in their pajamas as the receptionist asks me at least 5 times if I have a community services card, and thinks I must be richer than the DR when I say 'no'.

A quick flick through the latest woman's weekly on the coffee table, looking at the pictures of the royal wedding. Nice dress, Di looked good in it.

Get in to see the Dr, explain to him about my cough, hack up a bit on him. he "aaahs, hmmmummms and ohs" He tut tuts a bit, tells me it doesn't appear to be anything majorly wrong with my lungs, says it's probably viral then he tells me that in his opinion anti-biotics won't do any good (which i understand if it's a virus), but he'll give me a prescription for some, and recommends I don't get it filled. He also gives me a prescription for something for my cough.

I go out, pay the full whack to the receptionist after going through the 5 act charade of explaining that I don't have a comm services card to her. I pay the prescription fee and head out of the cesspit and down to the chemist.

I decide not to get the anti-biotics at the moment, and just get the other prescription filled. I hand it over, they look at me, read it and tell me it will be about 10 mins.

I mooch about a bit bouncing between the shelves with the sports braces, the hair dyes and the feminine hygiene products. Wander down the street and look in a couple of shop windows then back for the prescription. Finally it is filled, they charge me $12.40 and hand me a brown paper bag.

When I get back to the car, I decide that it's as good a time as any to start my treatment. I open the brown bag to see
A FUCKING PACKET OF STREPSILS with a pharmacy dose sticker on it.

2 days later I get a packet of strepsils from the supermarket for about $5.80

Cunt could have just told me to HTFU, ignore the women, and go get myself a couple of packets of strepsils, and he might have had some respect from me. Maybe it was just that they like to rort the taxpayer funding, and didn't realise I was paying all of this out of my own pocket?

Bah.

pure gold, so realistic, +10

BTW I'm sure some of the good medics here will offer a bit of advice...???

Maybe more of a shit show with a retard like me (who deserves to clash and deserves bad treatment) connected to the intern net

If you try the intern net you will find lots of ways to improve on the cough, like menthol and eucalyptus on your chest, around you nostrils at night

Give me $50 and you can read some old womens magazines too, seems some of the writers are moonlighting on KB

[Brett]

This thread has become....

[imdying]

As it doesn't cost me anything to go to the GP, I thought I'd put him to the test and booked myself in for this morning. I was able to get an inconvenient (to me) appointment for the same day when I rang on Monday (at 2pm), but I didn't really need to visit so did it before work today.

Arrived 1 minute late (8:31, was caught out by lovely 8am earthquake traffic as haven't travelled that route since then). They seated me in the waiting room, and I had just enough time to read the article in NZ Top Gear on the V8 Ariel Atom, plus half of the article on some white car called (I think) an SSC which is/was faster than the Veyron.

Doctor grabs me at 8:39 (i.e. 8 minutes waiting) and takes me through.

Now I remembered what was said about bastard patients with multiple enquiries, so I made sure I was that bastard. He checked my various ailments (ok admittedly they were all bullshit and exaggerated for the purposes of the test, but hey!), and also checked my weight and blood pressure because "he doesn't see me often".

They charged me $38 (which I zip zapped and will get reimbursed in my next pay) and sent me on my way by 8:55, at work just after 9.

- I was able to get a same day appointment (if I'd wanted it) within 3 1/2 hours
- I was made to wait 8 minutes
- I was seen for 16 minutes
- They charged $142 per hour

All in all a quick process that didn't cost much and was quite pleasant. If you're not happy with your GP, change.

[White trash]

- I was seen for 16 minutes
- They charged $142 per hour

Also, some bike shops charge close to that as an hourly rate. No shit.

I bet your average bike mechanic incurred nowhere near the debt or had to study anywhere near as hard as your average Dr.

[pritch]

If you're not happy with your GP, change.

Edzackery!

My rugby days are long gone and until recently I had little cause to bother the health services. Mainly only visiting the GP for annual checks for my driving licences.

The current GP does not normally keep me waiting more than a few minutes, in addition to the usual women's mags there are National Geographics as well as issues of a boating magazine and Top Gear.

More recently I've had two lots of surgery and an eight week course of treatment at another hospital. Almost without exception the various staff have been brilliant.

The one real exception would be the booking office at my local hospital who can be pretty much relied on to drop the ball. Their systems really do need looking at. That's OK though, a staff member of another Dept warned me not to trust them. So I don't.

Having said that, standards vary do from location to location, I do hope that any of you who need urgent treatment for you or yours get it when you need it

[Usarka]

All in all a quick process that didn't cost much and was quite pleasant. If you're not happy with your GP, change.

Anyone know a good GP in mianus

[jaffaonajappa]

Anyone know a good GP in mianus

You could try Dr Thumb. Hes usually found in a bathroom near you?

[scissorhands]

I'm at a loss with these medical idiots, rooooaar. Best to lick your own

[Zedder]

Looks like the whambulance is late today too I sure as hell wouldn't want to do their job, fuck that, too much stress. I'll stick to being a man slut.

As long as you're on time though.

[scissorhands]

pubmed article from British medical Journal http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...jcred00606-003


Compensation for medical misadventure and drug injury
in the New Zealand no-fault system: feeling the way

RICHARD SMITH


Legislators all round the globe are having problems in finding
just and efficient systems for compensating people injured by
medical misadventure and drugs. The medical malpractice
problems of the United States are notorious, and in that country
there are just as many difficulties with compensating people
allegedly injured by drugs.'-3 In Britain the Pearson Commission
reported five years ago on the problems of compensation
for personal injury,4 yet its recommendations have never been
seriously debated.5 There has been no great increase in the
numbers of cases of medical negligence, but there have been
whispers of unhappiness with the system.6 For compensation for
injury by defective products (which would include drugs) the
Pearson Commission recommended a system of strict liability,
whereby the plaintiff would not have to prove fault on the part of
the defendant,4 and such a law is now being fashioned in Europe.7
But several commentators have criticised this proposed
scheme,8-10 and American experience with strict liability does
not suggest that it will lead to justice and efficiency.2
Many people believe that real progress towards justice and
efficiency in compensation could be made by the introduction of
a no-fault system, whereby injured people were compensated by
a central fund without having to resort to the courts.3 5 Such a
system exists in New Zealand for compensation for "personal
injury by accident"; I have discussed the general aspects of the
system in articles published in the last few weeks (24 April,
p 1243; 1 May, p 1317). Some cases of medical misadventure and
drug injury are covered by this scheme. This article examines
more closely how the New Zealand system compensates these
two categories of injury.
Medical misadventure
Some New Zealand doctors think mistakenly that actions
through common law for medical negligence are finished. All
New Zealand doctors still have to subscribe to the defence
societies, but it is widely thought that the Accident Compensation
Corporation will cover all cases where negligence might be........

[scissorhands]

NEW ZEALAND: MISADVENTURE COSTS CLIMB
By Glen Scanlon from http://campaignfortruth.com/Eclub/01...nturestats.htm

MEDICAL misadventure has cost ACC $91 million in seven years, with the annual cost climbing to more than $20 million for the first time in the past year.

ACC Healthwise general manager David Rankin said yesterday that medical misadventure continued to have a "very high" under-reporting rate with just 20 per cent of cases reported. The cost of claims was expected to be $280 million during the next five years.

A patient safety study issued last week by Professor Peter Davis, of the Christchurch School of Medicine, found that more than one in eight public hospital patients would suffer a medical mishap.

ACC statistics show the number of medical mishap and medical error claims it accepted rose to 721 in the year ended June 30, 154 more than in the previous June year. Last year, it received 615 new medical error and mishap claims, one more than in 1999-2000 and 182 more than in 1998-1999.

Medical mishaps and errors cost ACC $22.09 million in the June year, an increase of $15 million in seven years. Costs in the June year were $6 million higher than the previous year.
In the seven years, ACC has accepted 4847 medical mishap and 763 medical error claims.
The most claims accepted by ACC in the seven years was 629 from general surgery. Gynaecology supplied 516 and orthopaedics 439.

The highest number of medical error claims related to general practitioners, with 159.
The number of ongoing claims handled by ACC has grown from 66 in the 1995 June year, to 1515 in the past June year.

Dr Rankin said the number of new claims had levelled off with the end of the inquiry into Gisborne pathologist Michael Bottrill, but many people were still not aware of their rights to claim.

The reasons for under-reporting were not clear but New Zealanders had a high respect for doctors and were reticent about sending their doctor to the "cleaners". Many were also caught up in the devastating consequences of misadventure. By the time they were ready to complain it was too much for them to find everyone involved.

Dr Rankin said ACC was using publicity to try to make people more aware of their entitlements. The cost would continue to grow because people were living longer and the cost of health technology was increasing.

Medical Association chairman John Adams believed ACC's figures were fairly representative of the extent of medical misadventure. Most people were aware of the scheme.
Dr Adams said the facts spoke for themselves - "12.9 per cent of hospital admissions in New Zealand will be associated with adverse effects of some description, of which 6.3 per cent are preventable".

A lot of effort was being put into the issue of quality medical care and trying to reduce errors by targeting medical systems, Dr Adams said.

New Zealand's rate of medical error was comparable to those in Australia and Britain.

Medical errors and mishaps CLAIMS for medical misadventure arise from personal injury resulting from medical error or mishap. Medical error is the failure of a registered health professional to observe the standard of care and skill reasonably expected in the circumstances. It includes situations when the health professional is negligent about a diagnosis. Medical mishap is an adverse result of treatment by, or at the direction, of a registered health professional. This occurs if the adverse result would not occur in more than 1 per cent of cases where that treatment was given, and hospitalisation, significant disability, or death resulted.

ACC does not pay lump sums for medical misadventure though that is to change from April 1. Victims receive weekly payments. In the case of accidental death, ACC will pay a funeral grant of up to $3186. The victim's partner can also receive $4563 and children and other dependants $2881 each.
Independent Newspapers, quoting The Dominion, 8th December 2001

Phillip Day's Comment: After recently touring that fine country New Zealand, and meeting some of its people in December, the medical establishment predictably reacted to my message of the extent of iatrogenic death in New Zealand with disbelief, feigned outrage and cries of "Nonsense!"

I think it's high time these authorities were brought to account. The answer is not higher compensation claims, but a complete reorganising of how disease is treated from the outset. Nutrition should blaze the way forward, with somatic treatments applied strictly where needed. As usual, this is not the message the pharma-complex wishes to hear, but hear it they shall, if the people of that great country organise and cry loudly enough for a end to 'medical misadventure'.

[scissorhands]

MEDICAL MISADVENTURE AND ACCIDENT COMPENSATION IN NEW
ZEALAND http://www.victoria.ac.nz/law/resear...e-4/howell.pdf

Whos killing who http://www.canlaw.com/rights/whokills.htm

Wakie wakie

[Coolz]

The old sheila has become a bit forgetful lately with reguard to her domestic chores. When I tactfully raised this matter with her I was aghast to discover she was also afflicted with deafness. Remembering Scissorhand's informative post I got the drenchgun from the shed and that night,when she was sleeping, I administered a liberal dose of Hydrogen Peroxide to her left ear. The results were not as I had expected and I had to rush back to the computer to google 'Cure for raving mad woman'.
Well Witchdocta,a medical expert from Haiti, recommended a Lobotomy and Lector from Bedlam was kind enough to post step by step instructions. So now I'm sharpening up my favorite filleting knife while waiting on the drill to charge. Dam I love this internet,so many experts at your fingertips,havn't had a dull day since I got it installed.