http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06 ... part-time/
So the GP's make enough money to only work part-time, there is a doctor shortage, which doesn't seem to be pay related. Not sure how privatizing this would change those metrics. Private insurance would like pay even less.
But details are tough when a soundbite will do, amirite?
But wait, wait times in the US are just as bad if not worse...
https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucejapse ... f64b172e74
And from 2014...
Americans are more likely to wait for office-based medical appointments that are not good sources of revenue for hospitals and doctors. In other countries, people tend to wait longest for expensive elective care — four to six months for a knee replacement and over a month for follow-up radiation therapy after cancer surgery in Canada, for example.
In our market-based system, patients can get lucrative procedures rapidly, even when there is no urgent medical need: Need a new knee, or an M.R.I., or a Botox injection? You’ll probably be on the schedule within days. But what if you’re an asthmatic whose breathing is deteriorating, or a diabetic whose medicines need adjustment, or an elderly patient who has unusual chest pain and needs a cardiology consultation? In much of the country, you can wait a week or weeks for such office appointments — or longer if you need to find a doctor who accepts your insurance plan or Medicare.
