Quote: cod'ead "Is this the barmpot who reckons the only people who should benefit from free (at point of use) healthcare are those that don't need it?'"
Basically, yes, he reckons that most illnesses are self inflicted and if so the inflictee should pay for at least some of their treatment, he specifically include type 2 diabetes in that, and he'll definitely include anything he can link to smoking, drinking or drug use, presumably if you can't pay then he'll just let you die and good riddance.
Must be very re-assuring if he's your GP, I'd want to take my solicitor in with me for appointments.
Which reminds me, I took up an offer from my GP to have a free health check last month and one of the questions was "How many units of alcohol do you drink in a week ?", I replied "None" to which the nurse then felt she had to explain what a unit was and then offered to put me down for maybe ten units ?
I had to explain to her that I knew what a unit of alcohol was and that "None" meant zero, I don't drink alcohol, I last had even just one unit months and months ago and its been a decade since I last sat down and drank four or five units in one session - she couldn't believe it, I reckon I must be almost unique around here now.