This is via Andy Fugard on twitter, and is based on official data for consultation rates in GP. Just look at the raw number of consultations per person. In the area of medicine I know something about, with the increased ‘dumping’ of patients from secondary care to primary care, these numbers should be — and need to be— a lot higher. This is a system that is unworkable, and broken; and where the NHS is content to rearrange the deckchairs as the ship sinks. Tweaks around the edges will make no difference. Nor should anybody be surprised: these demographic changes were taught to me by John Grimley Evans in my first term at med school almost 40 years ago. Do not ask why students are getting coy about careers in general practice. Nobody in Westminster or Edinburgh has any idea what to do. (median, 25th and 75th percentiles, by sex). Remember: there is nothing unexpected going on here.
