"The first week I started the regime the change was amazing. My energy returned, my skin glowed, the aches and pains and heat (inflammation) in my joints went away (almost all), the gastric reflux stopped. People commented on the change in me. I was amazed at how different and positive I felt. So thank you so much." Susie, Plymouth

"I can't speak highly enough of that man, he changed my life". Doreen, Worcester 

January 2011

From the desk of Dr Sam Shohet
BDS MGDS LiAc MBAcC ICAK 

GP Funding – Change the Deck Don’t reshuffle the Pack

Startling revelation
A financier friend of mine hit me with a startling statistic last week:

The health budget will account for 2/3 of the total National Budget within 10 years.

I am not much for statistics but he assured me that this is unsustainable and will break the UK economy regardless of what we do elsewhere as problems with banks, inflation and taxation will simply become irrelevant. Obama tried to tackle the problem in the US but failed because he was not strong enough.

Some realities
In its present form, the new responsibilities and funding for GP's will simply not work and will be just another rearrangement of the finances without addressing the REAL problem with our health system which is not and has never been about money. The problem with the NHS since its inception has always been about the lack of RESPONSIBILITY and ACCOUNTABILITY, and you can’t teach that at medical school anymore than you can teach medicine at business school.

The latest attempt at reducing health costs by making GPs directly responsible for their own budgets is nothing new. Dentists and opticians have always been responsible for running their own practices without intervention from government, local or central. They chose what equipment they bought, what materials they used, what drugs they dispensed, what courses they went on, what staff they hired and so on. They even met with bank managers to arrange the most cost-effective finance for their practices. Their incomes are derived from selling goods and services to patients who either pay privately or are paid for by an aid fund, in most cases the NHS.

This system is the same in Germany where GPs practise in exactly the same way only the aid fund is through insurance companies (Krankenkassen) – different name, same difference.

Medical practices in the UK though do not work this way. GPs have always had their hands held as they have always been employees of the State where cost is of no consequence.

The problem
It is all very well coming up with schemes and expecting results, but we must recognise the limits and the problems beforehand and put plans in place to ensure a successful outcome. We must remember that our average recently qualified GP has no idea about costs and budgets and learns them from his seniors who themselves have no idea and leave it to their practice managers who in turn simply write the cheques as the bills come in for the goods, tests, services and drugs ordered by the GPs. Our GP has only a few minutes to spare each patient and has no time to explore other avenues of improving him/herself, let alone his/her practice. The only information he/she receives is from representatives extolling the merits of this drug or that elixir, this stethoscope or that heart monitor. Our GP doesn’t read journals or keep up with the latest discoveries and even if he/she did, he/she would not think of taking it any further or acting on it. This is not just your average GP by the way; it is true across the board and right up to consultants and professors.

Now we are asking them, no forcing them, to become self-employed and to run their own medical business, overnight!

The solution
But we do have a once in a lifetime opportunity presented to us in this present climate of “do or die” to finally break away from our shackles and give way to a health service that is modern, directly accountable and wholly responsible. It all boils down to EDUCATION.

My idea is to set up an independent advisory body/company/organisation which runs courses for GPs/practice managers etc funded by local/central government. Perhaps it could be made as part of the CPD (Continuing Professional Development) programme GPs have to go through every year and provide education into cost effective, viable alternatives. Alternatives to treatments, drugs, surgery, equipment, patient management, aftercare…. in fact everything so long as ALL the choices and options are explored in order to arrive at the best, most effective outcome for patient health and wellbeing as well as the practice finances which, in turn, equates to public finances. Believe it or not there have always been viable, cost effective alternatives but they were never considered because, generally speaking, long-established institutions are averse to change, and they certainly don’t come any bigger than the NHS!

Harvard Medical School, one of the most prestigious institutions in the world, has grasped the nettle and has stopped teaching organ-specific conditions concentrating instead on system-based medicine and how each organ will react to a functional problem. This means that they no longer look at cancer, heart disease or diabetes as a disease or condition that needs to be conquered, but as a system breakdown which has resulted in cancer, heart disease and diabetes then to find the cause of this breakdown and devise an effective treatment which is person specific, not aimed at an organ or a disease.

A plea
I urge you to recognise that the medicine of old must be disbanded immediately and for all of us to embrace the modern medicine of the present and of the future. A medicine where we understand how genes work in tandem with our diet, lifestyle and environment to produce an outcome; where sickness is not inevitable and hardwired in our genes; where genes are plastic not static and their outcome is under our control and where the behaviour of the individual is not only the product of society but also the result of genes affected by our ancestral past

We don’t have all the answers yet but we can no longer just stand by and see a whole nation being brought to its knees as a result of our failure to see the wood for the trees or because we refuse to accept that there is a viable alternative and to grasp it no matter how quirky or far fetched it may seem. There has never been a better time to act than now with this government who seems really genuine in wanting to improve the lives of its citizens and recognising that politicians are themselves citizens affected by the same problems and, by improving the nation’s health and wealth, they will be improving their own and their families. We are all in this together and the only thing that has kept us apart (politicians and the general public) is ignorance of the facts. We have been kept in the dark for far too long. Now let there be light.

Warm regards

Sam Shohet

For more information:
01483 522133

This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it