h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Don't worry that's my idea of an ideal holiday since I was about 14, Beach holidays just seem so dull.

Perhaps the fact that I hate the temperate to go above 28 degrees seems to be something to do with it.

hiya Z!

i haven't forgot to reply to you!

do i take it there is alot of animosity in hospitals if you work there then?

probably the same working anywhere really.

from what i can gather in society in Great Britain is there isn't that many young gp's around these days. Am i incorrect then? I've seen plenty of people who are there to learn but not atual gp's. At what sort of age would you actually become a gp then? would you have to be a locum first before been offered your own surgery?

Has Harold Shipman changed the way people percieve gp's these days do you think? i reckon there would be alot of checks now to see how a person actually died. I believe when he was commiting his murders it only needed one doctor to verify the deaths. am i correct there? i maybe wrong i usually am!

n as for beach holidays i'm like you i don't really like hot weather. mind you us brits are famous for moaning about any weather! the saying 'the grass is greener on the other side' springs to mind!

so you been scouting around then LOL

Phil

hiya kat!

you feeling better now?

i know what you mean about notfeeling ood first thing in the morning thats why i avoid it at all costs LOL i think the times 7am-11am should be banned!

i sometimes don't have my lunch til everyone else has their tea!

I've eaten my teat sometimes at 5am!

no you don't have to say weid guy this diddy! i already know LOL

's

Phil

Yawn!

Time for my bed me thinks!

Diddy!

hi diddy and z i hope you are both keeping well.

i have still got my cold and i feel run down. i am getting to bed now between 7 and 8 pm at night. 9pm is now what i call a late night. i think my cold is caused by stress. i have some bio-strath tonic but i am not too keen on drinking it as it has a very yeasty taste to it.


kat

Hi Diddy, I worked it out with my flatmate the other day, if work really hard to become a GP, and don't take any time off at all, you'd still be 30 before you became a fully qualified one.

Most people who want to go into General practice do it because it's the medical career option where it's easy to take time off to have children or travel. I certainly want to take time off to do volentry work in the third world before I settle down and become a grown up GP.

I remember the lecture I had the morning after Harold Shipman was convicted, the lecturer starting by sayign

"Welcome to the first day post Shipman, nothing will ever be the same, again no one will ever trust you now"

Even before Shipman, practices like his were on the way out, the trend has been for larger practices, where instead of just having a Doctor, there might be several doctors, a few nurses, and sometimes even cousellours and dentists. Since the new GPs contract they get paid more if they offer a better service, so it's easier to offer better service if there's a few GPs working together than one on there own.

Some things have changed but it's still possible for a GP to certify a death, if he or she wanted to

Sorry.. I pressed post when I meant to press preview. A GP can certify a death if he or she had seen the patient in the previous two weeks and knew the cause of death.

I think this is a good thing in 99.9999% of cases, because if someone has a long illness and dies at home, then the relatives can make the funeral arrangements quickly. It's very upsetting for everyone if a post mortem has to take place, the family have been through enough when nursing a terminaly ill realitve without having wait for weeks whilst waiting for a post mortem. It would be even worse for Muslims, because their religon says that people should be buried within 24 hours of death and that wouldn't be possible.

I think you have to have a balance, if you insisting on investigating every death then you would cause even more distress for grieveing realtives,EVERY TIME someone died of cancer, or another long illness. Even though there's the small possibility that the system could be abused, if Shipman was in a group practice, as most GPs are thesedays then someone would have noticed what was happening.

It's common for GPs to certify death it isn't common for people to die whilst they were alone with the GP, I think people these days would notice if that was happening just beacuse of Shipman.