A bat out of hell

The original problem, of course, was Kenneth Clark in 1990, doing what Mrs. Thatcher told him - internal market and fundholding.
Until then, hospitals provided services, and tailored them to demand, rather than some idiotic forecast of need.
GPs could refer any patient to any hospital or consultant, and if the patient lived at Land's End he/she could be referred to John o' Groats if that was what was wanted - no 'market hassle' or managerial interference.
At the start of the internal market, the number of senior managers in the NHS went from 800 to over 40,000! These all needed assistants and secretaries - guess where the money came from - that's right, patient care.
Kenneth Clark is back in Government - if he were a doctor he would have been compulsorily retired by now! (You wish).
John David Baines

Are we doctors just pushovers and work again for 1 an hour like we used to? [6,000 for 6000 out of hours]. When oh when will we have a bit of backbone and define our workloads - how many patients we will safely see in one day, how many hours we will work in one day and how much we need paid per hour? A good start is what legal aid pays to solicitors per hour or management consultants per day. JOSEF KURIACOSE

Sorry Copperfield, wrong album. 'I would do anything for love' is not from 'Bat out of Hell'. But just like DH and Government why should we let the facts get in the way? Bryan Moore

Like a bat out of hell <br>
I'll be gone when the morning comes <br>
When the Parliment's over <br>
Like a bat out of hell all the money will be gone gone gone <br>
Like a bat out of hell all the money will be gone gone gone..... when the morning comes <br>
But when the Parliment's done <br>
And the sun goes down <br>
And moonlight's shining through <br>
Then like a sick bean counter... before the gates of heaven...<br>
I'll come crawling on back to you... E.Norma Stitz

I'm just coming to the end of my F2 GP placement which I've absolutely loved (which is good - I'm already signed up for GPST...) My trainer got me into Copperfield pretty quickly. Most of his stuff has me laughing out loud, a couple made me laugh til it hurt.

This one, however, is not funny. I get this horrible sinking feeling that the whole profession is going down the toilet.

Tell me it's all going to be alright! Tell me it's just a bad dream and when I come out the other end of my training as a fully paid up member of the college that I'll actually get to use my sympathetic head-tilting skills on real patients and not have to deal with *gasp* finances?

James LaBouchardiere

Er, Bryan Moore, think it might not be Dr Copperfield who has got his 'facts' mixed up. He merely wrote:
'Back to Mr Loaf. "I would do anything for love, but I won’t do that," he sang on one of his hits,' not specifying Bat Out of Hell. Unless, of course, the article was corrected after your comment? Gareth Lloyd

Batty and hellish sums it up for me. Nothing will change the impulse of successive power brokers in government from wishing to stamp their 'improvements' on the NHS. So far in the last 10 years they have all succeeded in sapping any remaining goodwill left in any of us. And so the merry-go-round keeps revolving! hugh martin

Chaps(and Norma), this is an opportunity to work smarter not harder. Our GP Co recently won the local OOH contract, so we can ensure our patients get a good service, but we don't physically have to provide that service ourselves. Those who have a big mortgage or a wife with a shoe shop fetish are welcome to do shifts, but there is no compulsion.
We have spent the last 13 years moaning (quite rightly) about the last lot of useless WOFTAMs. The new lot are giving us an opportunity to put up or shut up. We should definitely do the former, if only to pay for the Bentley's MOT. Robin Jackson