Selfish activists and arms-length GP appointments

INSULATE Britain and the state of GP surgeries were the topics raised by columnists in the media lately.

The Guardian

Gaby Hinsliff said the corridors of her once-bustling GP’S surgery were eerily quiet; the waiting room deserted.

“This nervous arm’s-length handling of patients – fending some off with telephone or video consultations, staggering appointments so that the unknowingly infected don’t mingle with the frail or immunologically compromised – exists for good reason,” she said. “But it also means distressed people wait longer to see a doctor, while fuelling understandable fears of something being missed over Zoom.

“Given the daunting challenge now facing the NHS as it struggles to get waiting lists down, Javid may well need to push health professionals far from their comfort zones in the coming months. But if he wants their co-operation in doing so, he’ll have to show he can be flexible too. To mangle an old saying: politician, heal thyself.”

Daily Express

Ross Clark said the offer by Health Secretary Sajid Javid of £250 million to help GPS maintain appointments through what could be a difficult winter was a substantial sum.

“At the very least, you might expect the doctors’ union, the BMA, to welcome the money and to agree to the condition that Javid has put upon it – which is that surgeries must hit targets for face-to-face appointments,” he said. “But sadly that is not how things work at the BMA. There is no reason why GP surgeries should not by now have reverted to their pre-pandemic levels of service. Pubs, shops, theatres have been open for months – and hospital staff have had to see patients face to face throughout the crisis. Given that many of the patients most in need of NHS care do not have the internet, it is difficult to see how it could be any other way.”

Daily Mail

Jan Moir said the halt to Insulate Britain’s campaign coincided with half term in England.

“Far more likely that Insulators are laying down their cudgels and tubes of glue to enjoy one last week of sunshine at their gite in the Dordogne or second home in Cornwall,” she said. “Or perhaps they’ve been roped into babysitting the grandchildren, as per.”

She said she was looking forward to the campaigners resuming their activities in time for COP26 in Glasgow next month.

“If they honestly think Glaswegians are going to put up with their disruptive nonsense for five minutes, then they really are on another planet – one that is beyond saving,” she said. “When it comes to this motley band, I try to be reasonable. To consider the views of others, to listen to their arguments. Yet with Insulate Britain and their mother ship, Extinction Rebellion, the red mist soon descends.

“By refusing to move aside for ambulances or desperate drivers trying to reach sick relatives, they lost any shred of decency that was left. The actions of these selfish activists are completely unforgivable – but they don’t care whom they upset, so long as they get their smug mugs on television or in the newspapers.”