As crazy as it may sound, the days of large offices for doctors seem to have long gone with many now “desk hopping” as the various Health Trusts around the UK look to cut more and more from their bottom line costs. But is this starting to affect the services on offer?
Many doctors are now suggesting that office space in surgeries and hospitals is now at such a high premium that there is literally not enough to go around. Doctors are now being forced to carry masses of files to whichever desk is available, putting at risk the whole confidentiality issue of patient records. While there has been no official denial of the results of the recent study we can only assume that there is some truth in the claims.
Gone are the days when doctors had spacious offices in which to store their records and those of patients and we are even seeing a lack of areas for examinations. It seems that as costs in the NHS continue to creep up, not only are we contributing more towards the service but in many areas there is a reduction in quality.
It has long been known that both the Conservative and the Labour governments have been looking to push the UK population towards private healthcare in an attempt to reduce future dependence on the NHS. In many ways the NHS has been a victim of its own success with more and more people from around the world making use of NHS services, often without contributing.
Hospitals and surgeries are run more like businesses than the medical practices of old and while it would be wrong to say that some changes were not needed, it seems that medical care really is starting to suffer in the current environment.
