Corri,

"after all, as Demos points out - it's a business. " - Corri

Yep, a business with what is own in Economics, a vertical demand curve". It's just visiting the WC: "If you have to go, you have to go". Unfortunately, increasing medical practitioners exploit this situation, and, even then do not render good service. I have no problem paying for a professional's time, but expect these guys to do their job, poory. Besides,GPs are generally no educated than an engineer and usually less educated than a PhD.

Demos, Corri et al are correct, it is comercial; high fees times high turnover. It is dangerously commercial, hasty doctor not taking the time to actually analyse a blood test is no better than a truckie speeding on defective tyres.

Corri,

Please let me try again:

-- Unfortunately, increasingLY medical practitioners exploit this situation, and, even then do not render good service. I have no problem paying for a professional's time, but expect these guys to do their job, PROPERLY. Besides,GPs are generally no educated than an engineer and usually less educated than a PhD.

Posted by Oliver, Wednesday, 23 January 2008 4:39:26 PM

All,

It pays to research from reliable sources and in part manage your illness: I returned to that HK doctor today. He said that NLR was ok.
His face went expressionless, when I handed him from university sources, a peer review journal article on the NLR measure. He then admitted he hadn't heard of the ratio and my it is not commonly used by onologists. My source? ... The Journal of Surgical Oncology.

I don't mean to be a broken record, but hello! over population! I lost my first child, because a 70 year old was having a heart attack!
Go figure. Its a long and sad story.

Dont forget the good news stories though. I have recently had my second child (he's 3 weeks old), and my local GP has been excellent, as has the local maternity ward. Circumstances forced me to have my baby elsewhere, at the regional base hopsital. I quickly requested a transfer back to the local hospital, where I was treated like a human being, and my concerns about my baby's health were listened to (ended up he has a fairly serious breathing problem), unlike the base hospital, which treated its patients like cattle, and refused to listen to my concerns about my child. Actually, he ended up jaundiced, and it took me a full day of pestering staff at the base hospital that he was getting jaundiced, and even then they were going to simply discharge us. I got my transfer instead and the local nursing staff took one look at the child and went into jaundice panic mode - I ended in hospital for a total of 9 days, where the base hospital were going to discharge me at 4 days. What does this go to show? The level of care and personal attention provided by local staff in smaller hospitals is of a far higher quality than large hospitals, where you simply become a number in the system. We dont need larger health systems in this country, we need smaller ones.

Yes we need like the "house doc's of old" who keeps on studying old knowledge which is not hampered by the pharm industry.