Wednesday, April 06, 2011

Off the rails


It would be nice to think that doctors were so fully ahead of their game that they had time and energy to spare for garbage like this. For all the money they are (over) paid, though, the service offered is worse than ever, and that is just when you are trying to getting to see them.

From personal experience, I find that unless you are on the phone within 15 seconds of the booking line opening in the morning, you can forget a same-day appointment - or any time in the same week. Then to expect anything like a decent diagnosis and effective treatment – for anything other than the most basic of ailments – is going too far. Things are so bad that you must forget GPs. If you think there is anything serious, bypass the system and admit yourself to casualty.

Then to see this sort of stupidity, in a system that is already dysfunctional, tells you just how far so-called professionals have gone off the rails. You have two rear admirals and two professors of health, who have completely lost it, so much so that they are telling doctors to "use their position of trust in society to build support for action on climate change".

"Although discussion is good", they say, "we can no longer delay implementing tough action that will make a difference, while quibbling over minor uncertainties (sic) in climate modelling . Unlike most recent natural disasters, this one is entirely predictable."

"Doctors, often seen as authoritative, trusted, and independent by their communities, must make their voices heard in calling for such action." They must, says one of the four - Hugh Montgomery, professor of human health at UCL - "take up the climate challenge just as they did with the harm from tobacco".

We are back to "foxtrot oscar" time. The medical profession is having a hard enough time convincing me that they can deal with the issues for which they are paid. The very last thing I am interesting in hearing from them is their ill-informed views on climate change. To use their positions to push them would be an abuse of trust. And it is quite disturbing that these people can't even see that.

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