![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Apr. 11th, 2008 09:56 amDear NHS,
I came to you yesterday with some kind of flu-like illness. I'm going to leave aside the dismissive way in which the GP listened to my chest, said "you're fine", then switched and gave me high-dose antibiotics like candy when I said "I've been feeling a bit feverish as well" (don't, I don't know, take my temperature or discuss any of my other symptoms or anything); having dealt with Dr Sylvester at 19 Beaumont St (really, is there a person registered there who doesn't have a horror story about him?) I know I can cope with unprofessional GPs.
No, NHS. What I want to talk to you about is the obesity register. Never mind the overtones of things like the sex offenders register and [removed so as not to invoke Godwin's law] - I'm used to being treated as sub-human because I'm fat. (If you are thinking (and I know some of you are, it's too culturally ingrained, I won't hate you for it) that this is OK, necessary even, because obesity causes all sorts of diseases - please go here (warning: angry) or here (warning: heartbreaking) and start to educate yourselves.)
I'm resigned to all of that, NHS. All I really want to know is what it is for. Judicious googling has brought up very little explanation, except for a delightful Daily Express opinion piece containing the line, "According to this GP, he is paid a bit extra by Gordon Brown to put his larger than life patients onto the scales and then add them to a mysterious ‘obesity register’."
So, NHS? Why, when the GP opens up my record, does a little window pop up saying "patient on obesity register" ? Is it so that I can be reminded of my transgression, in case I had forgotten to feel shame leaving the house that morning? What purpose does it serve? Is this why every diagnosis I've ever had, from glandular fever to anaemia, has come after a test for diabetes?
I came to you yesterday with some kind of flu-like illness. I'm going to leave aside the dismissive way in which the GP listened to my chest, said "you're fine", then switched and gave me high-dose antibiotics like candy when I said "I've been feeling a bit feverish as well" (don't, I don't know, take my temperature or discuss any of my other symptoms or anything); having dealt with Dr Sylvester at 19 Beaumont St (really, is there a person registered there who doesn't have a horror story about him?) I know I can cope with unprofessional GPs.
No, NHS. What I want to talk to you about is the obesity register. Never mind the overtones of things like the sex offenders register and [removed so as not to invoke Godwin's law] - I'm used to being treated as sub-human because I'm fat. (If you are thinking (and I know some of you are, it's too culturally ingrained, I won't hate you for it) that this is OK, necessary even, because obesity causes all sorts of diseases - please go here (warning: angry) or here (warning: heartbreaking) and start to educate yourselves.)
I'm resigned to all of that, NHS. All I really want to know is what it is for. Judicious googling has brought up very little explanation, except for a delightful Daily Express opinion piece containing the line, "According to this GP, he is paid a bit extra by Gordon Brown to put his larger than life patients onto the scales and then add them to a mysterious ‘obesity register’."
So, NHS? Why, when the GP opens up my record, does a little window pop up saying "patient on obesity register" ? Is it so that I can be reminded of my transgression, in case I had forgotten to feel shame leaving the house that morning? What purpose does it serve? Is this why every diagnosis I've ever had, from glandular fever to anaemia, has come after a test for diabetes?
