O/T. The Government's handling of Covid

[MadAmster]

MA...just for information and clarification...what’s the situation with surgeries and dentists in Holland?

GP surgeries and dentists open for business, appointments only, 1.5m distancing, face masks compulsory when you enter and in the waiting room and when you walk to the doc's room. Once inside you keep your mask on with the GP unless he needs to look inside your mouth/throat. Obviously in the dentist's chair you remove the mask.

People with breathing difficulties are exempted from mask wearing.

On the hospital front, they are filling up rapidly with CV patients for both "standard care" and the ICU. That means that they have already cancelled about 20% of the "normal elective procedures", Critical needs like people who've just had a heart attack, need cancer treatment is, as yet, unaffected.

Care homes. Some of the "chains" have rehoused people and designated 1 or more of their homes as a CV home, thereby ensuring that those "clients" without CV19 aren't in close proximity to people with CV.

[ramAnag]

GP surgeries and dentists open for business, appointments only, 1.5m distancing, face masks compulsory when you enter and in the waiting room and when you walk to the doc's room. Once inside you keep your mask on with the GP unless he needs to look inside your mouth/throat. Obviously in the dentist's chair you remove the mask.

People with breathing difficulties are exempted from mask wearing.

On the hospital front, they are filling up rapidly with CV patients for both "standard care" and the ICU. That means that they have already cancelled about 20% of the "normal elective procedures", Critical needs like people who've just had a heart attack, need cancer treatment is, as yet, unaffected.

Care homes. Some of the "chains" have rehoused people and designated 1 or more of their homes as a CV home, thereby ensuring that those "clients" without CV19 aren't in close proximity to people with CV.

So...‘surgeries and dentists open for business, appointments only’...sounds about as ‘normal’ then.

Disappointing that the Dutch system seems so much better than our own.

Touching on Ram’s point...not sure to what extent these are local management failures or a more centralised failure. Government seems able to order schools back and approve the return of University students and yet seems powerless where GP’s and dentists are concerned.

Something needs to improve before Swale and Andy resort to the ‘Marathon Man’ school of dentistry...hopefully not on each other.

[Geoff Parkstone]

"Disappointing that the Dutch system seems so much better than our own."

I find that hard to believe, I'd have thought you'd be loving it, as KK once opined, to have developed something else to whinge about. Now, how do we make this the government's fault?

[Geoff Parkstone]

Oh yes, in case you didn't know, most if not all GP and Dentist surgeries are privately owned, whereas the state schools that have been ordered back are, unsurprisingly, state owned. So how do you make a private business go to work as normal if they prefer to adopt different operational procedures? Maybe remove NHS funding? That's gonna work and help the process.

And before you say it, no, that doesn't give you the excuse for advocating school closures. Schools maybe a contact environment but teachers don't have to look into pupils' mouths or stick their fingers up pupils' arses. Oh hang on, strike that latter point..... it's part of the syllabus for the Catholic RE teachers isn't it?

[ramAnag]

I suspect, from the reactions to my original post so far, that most people will regard your above two posts as both a little silly and unnecessarily aggressive.
Really don’t know what gets into you sometimes.
The question I raised is whether we should be expecting more from our dentists and GP’s and what role, if any, Government has to play in getting them to cease what has been described elsewhere as their ‘disappearing act’.
I have absolutely no desire or intention of ‘advocating school closures’ and neither am I seeking to ‘whinge’ about anything.
The facts are that obtaining advice from a GP or treatment from a dentist seems to have become virtually impossible here since last March.
A first hand comparison was sought from MA in Holland and he suggests a situation which is near the old normal over there...ie, both services appear open by appointment only.
As for your comparison with schools...of course dentists and doctors are likely to be involved in more physical intimacy than most teachers...but they also work on a basis of 1-1 and are perfectly placed to have the right protective equipment for every eventuality. Teachers tend to be working in groups of at least 1-20 and, like shop workers, police officers, hospitality workers etc are less likely to be readily prepared for each and every eventuality.
Maybe you should chill a little before going on the offensive next time.

[MadAmster]

My GP has sent out the annual reminders for the flu jab which I no longer take. Sick as a dog for 6 months after the last one and it ended up as double pneumonia. No jab since then and no flu either. To avoid having too many people present at any one time they have split the alphabet in 4 and appointed a day and timeframe for each individual based on the first letter of your surname, spread over 4 days.

I used their online contact form, as usual, to inform them that I won't be taking up their offer, yet again.I also informed them why they don't need to invite me for the CV-19 jab, if there ever is one, which I very much doubt, and why that is so.

I also asked for a date for my annual check up

[Andy_Faber]

Strangely my dentist is chasing me to go in, very much open for business.

[ramAnag]

Strangely my dentist is chasing me to go in, very much open for business.

Probably after some Dremel dentistry tuition from you.

[Geoff Parkstone]

I suspect, from the reactions to my original post so far, that most people will regard your above two posts as both a little silly and unnecessarily aggressive.
Really don’t know what gets into you sometimes.
The question I raised is whether we should be expecting more from our dentists and GP’s and what role, if any, Government has to play in getting them to cease what has been described elsewhere as their ‘disappearing act’.
I have absolutely no desire or intention of ‘advocating school closures’ and neither am I seeking to ‘whinge’ about anything.
The facts are that obtaining advice from a GP or treatment from a dentist seems to have become virtually impossible here since last March.
A first hand comparison was sought from MA in Holland and he suggests a situation which is near the old normal over there...ie, both services appear open by appointment only.
As for your comparison with schools...of course dentists and doctors are likely to be involved in more physical intimacy than most teachers...but they also work on a basis of 1-1 and are perfectly placed to have the right protective equipment for every eventuality. Teachers tend to be working in groups of at least 1-20 and, like shop workers, police officers, hospitality workers etc are less likely to be readily prepared for each and every eventuality.
Maybe you should chill a little before going on the offensive next time.

Jeez, you used to have a sense of humour a year ago!

[ramAnag]

Jeez, you used to have a sense of humour a year ago!

Back when you used to be funny, you mean.

Just read your two posts again...#353&354. They’re clearly hysterical, I’d say more but I’m busy sewing my sides up.