Bigger and better?

What they did with hospitals, making them bigger and more remote, it seems that the Government is now doing with GP practices.

Super-practices, called polyclinics are to be brought into being by amalgamating GP practices. (I presume that this will not happen in remote rural areas, where there could be 20 miles between one doctor practices, on the grounds that travel problems for doctors if not for patients will eat into time and costs.) Communities which have lost, or fear to lose, their post office, police station and shops, will again feel devastated at the possibility of losing their doctor to some distant location.

It is possible to see how patients in some urban areas could gain from the process - having under one roof doctor, nursing and social care services, although travelling difficulties could even there be an issue for elderly patients.

Lord Darzi, the health minister foresees 150 of the new polyclinics in London, or about one for every 25 square miles. The impetus is from a Government completely out of touch with rural areas, as shown by their decision on post offices. At the very least their policy will require that every patient drives, or has access to public transport, or increasingly to private voluntary schemes.