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PaperclipPerfector  6d ago (text post)   24853 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of November 18, 2024

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My only experience with a NP was getting misdiagnosed with asthma when I had whooping cough. The actual doctor (when I did see her) diagnosed me correctly in about a second. Prior to that I didn't really know what a nurse practitioner was.

I certainly agree that the doctors' cartel (the British Medical Association) are a gang of scoundrels though. The UK has a chronic shortage of doctors and a chronic oversupply of students who want to be, and are smart enough to be doctors. But the BMA artificially limits places at medical schools to keep their wages up, leaving the UK reliant on imported doctors who are objectively worse (with no disrespect to @selfmadehuman, I'm sure you're great).

The situation in the UK is as bad, indeed worse because of immigration as you say. The native (and 2nd/3rd generation immigrant) doctors who run the BMA and the colleges limit places because they know that almost all senior jobs in hospital trusts and places in elite surgical specialties will go to British-trained doctors because of networking and because they interview better than ESLs, and want to limit their number, forcing the NHS (as you say) to hire incompetents from abroad.

It’s got to the point where literally every elderly relative I have left can tell a horror story about their treatment at the hands of the NHS. I wouldn’t go to the NHS for a serious problem if you paid me.

For some things iirc you have no choice, even in London, because the private capacity just isn’t really there and they’ll just refer you back to the private ward of an NHS hospital.

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