THE (BRITISH) EMPIRE STRIKES BACK : DOCTOR WHO?
Read Time:2 Minute, 15 Second
A very successful play called ‘Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell’ springs to mind, or, if you prefer, what passes for my mind.
I am certainly not as unwell as Jeffrey Bernard quite simply because he is now dead and I, to the best of my knowledge and, slightly worryingly, to the best of England’s medicals professionals knowledge, am alive.
The possibility of a doctor announcing with some embarrassment “Oh dear Mr. Dinners, you’ve been dead since 2009. Didn’t anyone tell you?” occasionally plays on my mind.
Where is this leading you may ask yourselves?…or not as you please.
Firstly, my apologies for Monday being the new Sunday. The after effects of a small operation – well, ‘small’ according to the surgeon – nearly two weeks ago are still making themselves felt, resulting in my incapacity on Sunday.
I am merely attempting to caution the people of America that ‘Cough Cough’s’ medical reforms may not turn everyone into the ‘happy clappy’ citizens many of you seem to believe.
I hope I’m wrong mind you. Being on the ‘receiving end’ so to speak of free health care I can categorically confirm that in England, ‘free’ freqently means you would no more have paid for it than fly to Mars.
Now according to an opinion poll, a large number of American doctors are threatening to retire or close their practises as a reault of ‘Cough Cough’s’ reforms…..
……“Two of every three practicing physicians oppose the medical overhaul plan under consideration in Washington, and hundreds of thousands would think about shutting down their practices or retiring early if it were adopted, a new IBD/TIPP Poll has found….”
Interestingly I can find not one single named doctor anywhere in any news site or even by Googling.
Who are these doctors who are so riled up at the thought of free health care? They would still be paid, I assume, by the state? Somebody will have to pay them anyway so why are they so up in arms? And who are they?
Perhaps the people of America can advise us of who they are.
Only out of curiosity you understand. We have our own Doctor Who and the new series starring Matt Smith as the regenerated David Tennent was, franky, supurb.
You don’t find Englands Doctor Who griping on about ‘Cough Cough’ and his health reforms, so precisely which doctors are?
As far as I’m concerned the people of America are just as entitled to the same standard of health care we get in England.
And the best of British luck to you!!!
Until, hopefully, next Sunday I bid you good day as I retire once more into the bathroom. In case you’re eating I will say no more….
Happy
0 %
Sad
0 %
Excited
0 %
Sleepy
0 %
Angry
0 %
Surprise
0 %
0
0
I get it! I get it! I know there’s loads of Yanks who’d sooner have the crap we get from the NHS than nothing at all!
Just saying. If you’re going to have health care for all if it isn’t good quality then it just might kill you!
As for Matt Smith. Very impressed with Episode 1. Plenty of zany humour and one liners, a fish like alien and a new sidekick in a police uniform with a the smallest mini skirt I’ve ever seen!
If the new Doctor doesn’t measure up someone better tell him not to come to the US. He has very big shoes to fill after David Tennant. Of course I’m still in love with Billie Piper and haven’t felt right about all the Doctor’s companions that came after her.
:), I have only seen the trailers but so far I am just not feeling this new guy. I like Billie too, Catherine Tate I enjoyed because I do watch her comedy show. I actually have been watching very old episodes, of the very first shows and it is truly mind chocolate to just get lost in for a while.
My son is hooked on the Doctor and after seeing the first preview of the new guy remarked that he didn’t look olde enough even to shave. Which I though was funny coming from my 14 year-old son.
I know this is hersey but I wonder if they could ultimately pull a “Jay Leno” and bring David back?
There are so many here that don’t have what you have, some even willing to marry for health care. It is shameful. Being alive certainly beats the alternative in my opinion.
Doctor Who rocks my world. I am a HUGE fan of that show. Cannot wait for the new season to start this month, to see how this new guy compares to David Tennant.
=^..^= (picture of a cat 🙂
Sorry for your inconvenience 4D but there are several thousand here in America who don’t have access to anything who might trade places with you. Glad you are back and just as irreverent as ever.
Glad to see you’re back, Mr. D — missed your posting yesterday.
I’d be curious to see a link to that poll and how it arrived at that result. Polls I saw during the political fight over HCR showed that most doctors favored it, and the AMA did endorse the bill which was eventually enacted.
Some doctors may oppose the law because it doesn’t go far enough. 70% of doctors favored a public option (a government health plan to compete with private insurers), but the law actually enacted does not include that feature, much to the discontent of reformers.
Britons’ complaints about the NHS are legendary, but the system to be implemented by our recent reform does not resemble the NHS. It will leave the private insurers in place, merely curbing abuses like cutting people’s insurance off when they get sick or rejecting people for pre-existing conditions. Cost containment is also an issue (our per-capita spending on medical care is far higher than Britain’s even though 15% of our population lacks coverage).
I notice, too, that as much as Britons want the NHS improved, there is no constituency for scarpping it and moving to anything resembling the chaotic system we have in the US.
I can only assume that Mr. Dinner’s slow recovery must be down to, instead of a “red hot poker” insertion, just a plain old “red poker”, big difference.