Leatherhead Matters

Have you heard of Hamburger University ? Yeh it’s in Germany innit?

It’s the global training centre for the McDonalds Corporation of Big Mac fame. McDonalds says:

“Since 1961, more than 80,000 restaurant managers, mid-managers and owner/operators have graduated from this facility” (my emphasis)

Hamburger University isn’t really a university because it cannot award degrees. However graduating students do receive credits towards further study at a real university. All credit to Ray Kroc the founder of McDonalds for investing in training for his employees.

But all that is by way of introduction to a new generation of McDoctors. You get the idea all ready….they are not real doctors as we have known them. The Government is no longer willing to fund their expensive training and the EU (Working Time Directive) wouldn’t permit their intensive & prolonged apprenticeship….elf & safety don’t you know!). So now we have a new generation of GPs and consultants being let loose to practice on you & me. GPs who have never seen you before and may never see you again (cf the tradition of the “family” doctor who knew your family & you from cradle to grave) and the consultant who is allowed to practice specialised medicine but, with thousands of hours less experience than in the past.

The Government have spotted that we, mere consumers of NHS services can’t tell the difference between a Mcdoctor and a real one (although I find the McGPs do tend to give the game away by asking me what I think is wrong,  when I present symptoms to them. Doh! You’re the expert….I’m the patient!. So, the weasly politicians think…. if the punters can’t tell the difference, why spend all that dosh?

It will probably show up in a few years time in international league tables of health outcomes but, the current politicians will be long gone. Like Patricia Hewitt, recently NHS Minister, who presided over an epidemic of hospital acquired infections. She now has a nice fat consulting job.