Why cant I get a face to face appointment anymore

 Subject: Why can't I get a face to face appointment anymore.

When did the medical profession devolve into being apothecaries. I know I'm being unfair to the pharmacy trade but the reliance on drugs alone to heal sickness is an acute disservice to patients with many complex ailments. The dentist who pulls a rotten tooth or the doctor who applies a splint to a broken leg is healing using old fashioned analysis and even older remedies. Today when we visit the doctor, (if we can get a face to face appointment), to also discus the deeper issues around which our suffering is linked.

Our medical complaint is often only the tip of an iceberg which a telephone consultation can only do poor justice too. A stammering often inarticulate description of where the pain is located amongst that jumble of organs which make up our body is only revealed by a hands on investigation the doctor pushing and probing to find the cause of the pain. Broad spectrum drugs are not the answer and since the doctor is seldom held accountable for their failure and you are personally expected to have read the warnings  in the fine print of the accompanying leaflet to avoid the danger of adverse effects.

How often having started a course of drugs you find the side effects are worse than the original illness. From statins to asthma inhalers these things are handed out like sweets at Willy Wonka's Factory, try one get one free. The follow up and the precautionary advice from the prescribing doctor is missing, feel free to abuse your body, the doctor advised you to use it.

How did we get here. The pandemic is initially blamed for doctors wanting to keep their patients at a distance but as the authorities, led by medical advice now feel it's ok to mix at a football match or in a pub,  how come we are not allowed to mix with them. I'm only describing GPs not the doctors in our hospitals who "bravely went where no man went before" dealing with very ill patents. No it seems our GPS are hesitant to get back to working as they used to for other reasons. Perhaps they never liked the unending stream of smelly poorly educated people who continually turned up at their door complaining of things which the patient, could do more about with a change of lifestyle.  Perhaps this "free at the point of use" has gone too far and certain classes of people should be reminded of their place in the order of things, after all the 'better off' are catered for with private medicine (as they are in education with private schooling) and the philosophy of "let them eat cake" is just starting to work its way through the ranks.