NHS IT will be fixed the day after the first fusion power station goes on-line

[hirez]

In receipt of a(n) SMS earlier in the week, allegedly from m'GP (who have quietly turned into a hopeless shower, which is sad) which went along the lines of 'We are updating our records and wish to know if you smoke. Please reply 'YES, EX or NEVER

Comments

[valkyriekaren]

'NEVER'); DROP TABLE Patients;--'

Oh, Bobby....

[hirez]

:D

[valkyriekaren]

Oh and I'm not sure they're trying to work out mortality or anything so complex. It's probably a Governmental box-checking exercise to determine how much funding to give to local smoking cessation services. So actually, lying may be the best policy if your aim is to see more investment in preventative medicine in your area.

[reddragdiva]

What is actually happening here: It is the first four months of the year, so every GP surgery is frantically trying to tick all the boxes for Quality Outcomes Framework payments, which have to be in by March 31st.

(These were introduced to turn GP patient management into a box-ticking exercise, with the incentive being buckets of money. They expected 75% payments in the first year of the scheme; it turned out to be over 90%, because the incentives worked. This was when you heard government ministers and senior civil servants making otherwise-incomprehensible statements about "greedy doctors"; what they were saying was "damn, they beat us." The QOF rules are tweaked each year to make it harder for the GP surgeries to collect, and never mind whatever they were supposed to be measuring.)

So in the first bit of the year you'll get your GP bothering you repeatedly to get you to come in and waste your time.

[I should save this for cut'n'paste.]

[bogwitch64]

yes, ex or never?? Those are terrible choices. What if you're 48 and smoked as a teenager? Craziness. I don't consider myself an ex-smoker, just a ex-stupid kid.