Carole Malone : the dishonest, androgynous, publicity seeking, ex lard bucket in the News of the World recycles an article
Was it only last June, shortly before I took a prolong blogging break, that I wrote:
Sunday evening. Time for bed, really. My daughter, who is in the middle of “A” levels, comes in about 10.00 o’clock after a brief visit to boyfriend. She brought with her page 21 from today’s News of the World. Difficult to describe my daughter's manner – somewhere between angry, amused and upset. The article on page 21 is by someone called Carole Malone. I have never heard of Carole Malone but was distressed to find after a little Googling that she is a mate of Dr Rants.and so it went on. And on. And on. You can read it all here if you want.
Malone is an androgynous looking, peri-menopausal, dishonest ex-lard bucket married to a much younger Polish gentleman. This much I glean from Google. I have not yet moved on to abuse. Today, Carole has written the following in the News of the World:Lazy docs make me feel sick!
HOW many people have a story about a loved one who might still be alive had their GP a) SPOTTED they were ill, b) DONE something about it and c) BEEN AROUND when their condition worsened, instead of offloading them on to some faceless agency that knew nothing about their medical history and cared even less? My dad might still be alive today if HIS GP had spotted the early signs of bowel cancer (incredible he hadn't, as they were pinned on his surgery wall) and sent him to a specialist. How many of us feel conned and betrayed by GPs who in the past three years have had a 63 per cent pay hike? Their average earnings in 2006 were £118,000, while some pocketed a staggering £250,000, in return for which they have shaved funds off patient care and drastically cut their working hours….
Oddly enough, I have just had a late night email from same daughter, happily now at University, happily reading law not medicine, drawing my attention to another diatribe from said androgynous looking, peri-menopausal, dishonest ex-lard bucket still (I assume) married to a much younger Polish gentleman.
This time she says:
GIVE GPs A JABSad, really. Not only is Carole Malone an androgynous looking, peri-menopausal, dishonest ex-lard bucket married to a much younger Polish gentleman. She is also a con artist. She is recycling the same article and probably only gets away with it because the IQ of the average News of the Screws reader is in single figures.
I WOULDN’T mind that having had a 63 per cent pay hike in three years, most GPs get paid more than government ministers. I wouldn’t mind that 47 per cent of all extra spending on the NHS last year (£5.5 billion) went on higher pay for doctors and nurses. I wouldn’t even mind the fact doctors are getting twice the salary for half the hours they used to work (I’m lying—I DO mind that) if we were getting value for money.
But we’re not. Because now we learn that one third of patients can’t get an appointment with their GP within 48 hours.
What the hell happened to the concept of patient care? What happened to the idea that medicine is a vocation not a job? I’m sick to death of GPs, now earning as much as £250,000 a year, moaning about how we’ve got it all wrong and it’s the government’s fault their new contracts allow them to earn obscene amounts of money for greatly reduced working hours.
It isn’t. And they know it.
And the reason people can’t get an appointment is either because doctors aren’t running their practices properly or because surgeries aren’t open long enough. Most doctors no longer work after 6.30pm or at weekends and are happy to hand over their patients to foreign locums or organisations that diagnose over the phone.
And I don’t want GPs writing to me about the small print of their 2004 contracts. I know them off by heart and I know that while doctors once took a 40 per cent share of the gross sum the government gives them to run their practices, they now take 45 per cent, leaving less money for patient care.
But forget contracts, forget money, how can men and women who presumably went into the medical profession for the very best of reasons NOT give appointments to sick frail, frightened people who need them? How can they turn away ill people claiming they’re too busy? They’re doctors for God’s sake. Most of us don’t have the kind of responsibility they have (life and death). Surely that’s more important than finishing work on time and not working weekends?
And if it isn’t—they’re in the wrong job.
News of the Screws
It’s garbage. I know that. Any intelligent peson knows that. But, it gets me down. It gets most of us down. It’s another small slice off the medical morale salami. Roll on retirement.
Others may have a different opinion on Carole Malone, so I took a look at the Digital Spy forum to get a more objective view on her.
CM is the stereotypical person with low self-esteem who diverts attention away from her own self recognised flaws by slagging off others. Vile.
Carole Malone is nothing but a poisonous old hack who spits venom at anyone younger, slimmer, prettier or more successful than her (probably why she seems to have a vendetta against 99% of the female population).
She is consistent with her venomous bile,, hates any woman younger than her, thinner than her, even picking up on Emma Buntons thighs (which are probably about the same size as caroles arms). She is a nasty, self obsessed vile thing and should be thrown away and forgotten, dog dirt by any other name is still cr*p and that is exactly what she is. Journalist? Ha, delusional as well. She thinks she is controversial, when really she is seen as that bitter plump old hag that everybody laughs at.
I feel a little better already.
Labels: Carole Malone, dishonesty, lard-bucket
24 Comments:
I had no idea Carole Malone was a 'journalist' [of sorts] The reason I am aware of her existance is due to her regular appearance on Loose Women - a TV show on ITV1 aired in the week at lunchtime, in which 3-4 women, who are the panel, sit there and air their opinions on anything and everything. NHS bashing is low on the priority list, after things like how all men are evil but women love them anyway.
It's hideous, a truly shit programme. You should check it out. However, slagging off an individual based on their appearence is a bit low, even for you
Malone has forfeited her right to rational discussion. She is a thoroughly unpleasant "woman" with deeply misogynist views - she is always slagging of other woman on the basis of their appearance and their diet (or lack of it). She deserves everything she gets.
John
actually access to docs in the UK is piss poor
and general standard of care from bottom half of GP's is terrible
these are the hard realities which ring true to the public readng such articles
rather than worry about the way the press report these things, get back to worrying about why the public think the docs and nhs are so poor
why dont you pick a random inner city surgery, go and queue at the front desk, and ask for an emergency appointment, note carefully what the (untrained) receptionist tells you, and come back here at report back the reality you have found
sitting in your consulting room sheltered from the outside world by crap receptionists, and with customers who have no fucking choice but to use you, youre not really in any position to complain
at least folk have a choice of newspapers, a choice they sadly dont get with GP's who are imposed on them by the state
what bollocks you talk sometimes
'and general standard of care from bottom half of GP's is terrible'
Total, unfounded, illiterate rubbish. Thank God I am not you, life is hard enough without such a depressive and negative outlook. I suggest a spell in a developing country if you want to experience truly 'terrible' primary care. You and your whining ilk are like a national disease; you really don't know how lucky you are.
GP's do a fantastic job.
Those that don't know anything about the job might think about letting them get on with it.
Typical Crippen. The only defence he has against legitimate criticism of the GP "ravy train" contract is to resort to his usual ad hominem attacks, whilst hiding behind his own anonimity. Quite despicable.
The comments of no one above are bang on the money - your customer's experience is stroppy receptionists, slum surgeries, opening times to suit the social lives of doctors.
I think gps should really look at their value-added.
The gp service is essentially O-level chemistry/biology with a few nobs on - a knowledge area available now a couple of clicks away.
And boy was I absolutely pissed off to discover I'd paid possibly £50,000 in taxes over my lifetime for a three-minute consultation with a locum who couldn't speak English and, as I discovered, cocked the diagnosis up anyway.
oh yes, very poor GP services. I rang up at 8.30 this morning and had an appointment for 11 for my baby. I had to wait a whole 2 and a half hours from calling to be seen. In addition the cost of the appointment and prescription was free.
I think the service is disgusting, No one (what a dick head).
The gp service is essentially O-level chemistry/biology with a few nobs on - a knowledge area available now a couple of clicks away.
I hardly know where to start. Such astounding ignorance. Looking on the bright side, I suppose it might be that we are so good at what we do that we make it seem effortless.
As a GP, I (like the vast majority of my colleagues) work incredibly hard for the benefit of my patients, working huge numbers of hours (none of this 9-5 rubbish the Government keep spinning about) and my family and social life still have to fit around my work!
JC
Things could be worse. You could be married to her. That as you know would be a severe prison sentence. We must pay a moments silence to her long suffering husband. Although he may have had time to divorce her by now.
In conclusion, you don't like her. Why not just say that JC as opposed to taking the long winded way around.
Rita Pal
"peri-menopausal"
Wow. THAT'S the level of counter-argument? A woman's reproductive system status?
You must realise your argument is thoroughly weakened by your ad hominem attack, rather than explaining why Malone's argument is not safe?
If you cannot do that - it means her argument IS, after all, quite safe, and your name-calling is merely endemic of the level of ignorance and lack of rationality that passes for argument construction in the public domain these days, especially among those who see themselves as among the most 'intelligent', ironically!
Or is it a case of trying to win an argument by 'empty vessels making the most noise'?
I have three kids, one with a rare genetic disorder. I have had many run ins with the NHS - mostly resolved to my satisfaction and hope that it helps other patients in the same situation.
When it comes to my GP service - it is utterly brilliant and faultless...appointments that are given cheerfully and promptly, phone appointments if I just need to talk stuff over, anything I throw at the surgery, they sort it out for me.
Carole Malone may well have a legitimate gripe with one or other GPs she's come across, but she has no right to tar all GPs with the same hateful brush.
"As a GP, I (like the vast majority of my colleagues) work incredibly hard for the benefit of my patients, working huge numbers of hours (none of this 9-5 rubbish the Government keep spinning about) and my family and social life still have to fit around my work!"
And I wonder whether these "huge numbers of hours" exclude the part-time work that many GPs have the time for, e.g. out-of hours rotas, police surgeon duties? Not forgetting the other private work undertaken such as insurance, HGV and aviation medicals.
Whoa. I was about to comment on how wonderfully vitriolic this post was, but I can see it's touched a number of nerves. As a medical student who learns from an inner-city GP every week, I can say that what Carole Malone says is true - of a VERY SMALL number of GPs. Some of them really are just in it for the money. They sit in their consulting rooms printing leaflets off the NHS Direct website and almost literally kick their patients out with nothing more than a prescription slip.
But there are still others who go far above and beyond the call of duty. Carole and 'no one' above may not be lucky enough to have seen one of these, but they exist. Whoever said GPs don't make house calls anymore needs to get their head out of their arses. Happy Patient up there has the right idea.
I have an inner-city GP. I can't always get to see the GP of my choice, because he mostly does telephone triage and reports, but I can see any doctor on duty very quickly, same day if necessary.
More than once I have been there for something routine, it has been spotted by a receptionist or nurse that I am mentally unwell, and I have been whisked in to see a GP there and then.
All the receptionists, nurses and doctors are courteous.
OK, so they're not perfect. I wish my GP did a little more for his money at my annual review and they do seem to get in a pickle over my prescriptions, probably because they keep changing, but who's perfect?
The good stuff won't stop me whinging about the bad stuff, but the good stuff outweighs the bad stuff.
So I'd like to tell No-one that his experiences are not universal.
Crippen
You are the biggest misogynist going. Don't you realise the criticisms of carole could as easily be applied to yourself...
JC is the stereotypical person with low self-esteem who diverts attention away from his own self recognised flaws by slagging off others.
JC is nothing but a poisonous old hack who spits venom at anyone younger, slimmer, prettier or more successful than him (probably why he seems to have a vendetta against 99% of the female population).
You need some serious retraining.
Is there meant to be a difference in the "before" and "after" pictures ?
Anonymous - I think you meant to type CM rather than JC in your last missive, on the grounds that she genuinely is a poisonous old hack.
I do love it when JC goes off bang. Always excellent value.
Of course there are bad GPs. Just like there are bad anything. I have a theory that 10% of everything is crap. the other 90% works well, hard and with care.
Problem is, the way management is at the moment in trying to deal with the 10%, all they succeed in doing is pissing off the other 90%. The GP and consultant contracts spring to mind.
to the folks with good GPs who dont see what the problem is, great for you, please realise its not like that in large parts of the UK, and the patients having no choice of GP in practical terms encourages the lazier more useless GPs
to Dr C, sad you never seem to respond to critiques of your position on this
why dont you tell us how you think GP receptionists are going to improve? why dont you tell us what you think should happen to folk in inner cities with a crap GP and no choice of GP? why dont you tell us what you think of the patients in many parts of the country having no practical choice of GP
dont you get it yet?
This Cinderalla NHS service rests on an ideology propagated by 75 year-old females suffering chronic cystitis and profound philosphopical problems about their existence.
Fresh water and the water closet solved just about everything, almost a century ago.
The rest is a pillock in a white coat - no offence, Crippen - promising impeccable manners delivering inevitable incontinence and a comforting finality.
Do be do de dah. (Translation: I am now I am fuck all.) Frank. 1956
Crippo
That is known as Sturgeons Law after the science fiction writer.
His response to a comment that 95% of science fiction is crap was to agree and say that 95% of everything is crap.
It is the other 5% which makes it all worthwhile.
Not sure I would like those stats to apply to any medicine I take though.
I didn't say I didn't see the problems that some folk have with their GP service...my own inlaws who live in another local authority have a highly beaurocratic service, including the in house pharmacy which seems to put off all but the most determined from getting the help they need...
what I was trying to say is that not all GP services are bad, obstructive and in a family like ours where they could easily wash their hands of many problems by citing the rareness of my son's disability...they rise to the challenge with great flair and humanity. It's also great to be able to say that I have at least one statutory service where I don't have to continually take them on hammer and tongs like I do have to with many other powers- that-be.
That happy fact surely doesn't negate anyone else's concerns or problems.
Is my local (inner-city) GP perfect? No, by no means. Would I recommend them? Unreservedly. Whenever they have been needed for my children and, in particular for my elderly mother post-stroke, they have been nothing but kindness and helpfulness.
I simply don't understand the commment that there is no choice, incidently - I have a choice between at least five readily accessible local practices.
read some of the early posts over at
http://notdrrant.blogspot.com/
you will see that in many parts of the country there is no choice of GP in large areas
the conservatives raised this whole issue in parliament its hardly secret
GPs operate a cartel and dictate to new residents in their area which GP they can register with
the GP has all the power and the patients have none, the polar opposite of the competitive pressure needed to force GPs to ramp up their service quality
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