Jumping on the health Nazi bandwagon, the one-eyed monster is to tell us how to live our lives or we won’t get NHS treatment:
Patients could be required to stop smoking, take exercise or lose weight before they can be treated on the National Health Service, Gordon Brown has suggested.
I see. And remind me, who is it, exactly, who pays for the NHS?
In a New Year message to NHS staff, the Prime Minister indicates people may have to fulfil new “responsibilities” in order to establish their entitlement to care.
It is not up to Gordon Brown – or anyone else for that matter to decide for us what our responsibilities are; not least when his nanny-state-finger-wagging puritanism is directly responsible for the erosion of personal responsibility in this country. How dare he presume to have the moral authority to lecture us about what our responsibilities are, how dare he!
The new conditions could be set out in a formal NHS “constitution”, Mr Brown says.
Oh, for fuck’s sake! More posturing.
Despite the NHS commitment to provide free universal care, it is already common for doctors to set conditions on patients seeking treatment.
It is not free, for fuck’s fucking sake. We the taxpayers of this country pay for it. It is not free!
One thing I have noticed recently during visits to the GP have been a series of ever more personal questions – how much do I smoke, how much do I drink, how much exercise do I take? I think in future, the answer is going to be increasingly; that’s my concern and has nothing to do with why I’m here. If I have a problem with my hay-fever, then, yes, something that might have an effect on respiration may be appropriate. If I go in with a gammy knee, then none of those things is relevant.
How I live my life is my concern. It is not the government’s concern. Some of it, if relevant may be the concern of medical practitioners seeking to help me. It is not up to them or their profession to judge me or my lifestyle choices. The risks I take are a judgement that is mine and mine alone. And, to reiterate; I pay NI contributions – that means that I am paying for my treatment. If I am to be denied treatment because some purse-lipped, finger-wagging puritan disapproves, then I expect to stop paying for a service I am not going to receive. I’ll then take out private insurance and get the service I am paying for. That, surely, is fair and reasonable…
This is a rather worrying start to the New Year from Brown.
Do you think there could be a link between the NHS Spine database of medical records and this here threat of restrictions on ‘entitlement to NHS care’?
Entirely possible given the track record of these obnoxious control freaks. I have opted out of the spine with the full support and co-operation of my GP who expressed concern about the whole idea of the database.
When Brown falls off his legs with his massive coronary (and please may that be very soon) is he going to be quizzed as to his former remarkably unhealthy lifestyle before being allowed treatment? Or will the NHS merely seek to recover the costs of his treatment from his estate?
It is certainly our money, and we have not by any political means entrusted this cash to Brown to withhold or otherwise as he sees fit. Where in his manifesto did he make this plain?
These people are actually out of touch with reality and with the population. This oppressive dictatorial state is provoking its citizens to complete anarchy.
“The new conditions could be set out in a formal NHS “constitutionâ€, Mr Brown says.”
It will undoubtedly end up an NHS treaty complete with red lines…..
And what of people who are prone to certain health issues through no fault of their own? Diabetes as an example. As has been mentioned by a precious poster, G Brown is hardly an example of great physical fitness is he?