I kept hoping that this was a terrible mistake, and that the story would be retracted. Alas, it seems to be be all too real, and an insult to the Hippocratic Oath.
From the Telegraph (UK)
An elderly woman was ordered to find a new GP because the “carbon footprint” of her two-mile round trips to the surgery where she had been treated for 30 years was too large.
Avril Mulcahy, 83, was told to address the “green travelling issues” over her journeys from her home in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, to the West Road Surgery.
The letter said: “Our greatest concern is for your health and convenience but also taking into consideration green travelling issues. Re: Carbon footprints and winter weather conditions, we feel it would be advisable for patients to register at surgeries nearer to where they live. We would be very grateful if you could make the necessary arrangements to re-register at another practice.”
…
“To be treated like this, just because I live too far away or for what I feel is a reaction to my complaint, is disgraceful. It feels like they are just coming up with an excuse to get rid of me.”
Given the treatment I have experienced for my views, I wouldnot be at all surprised if this grows. As Andrew Bolt says: “They really are mad you know…“
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I remember the UK from 40 years ago when everybody complained, with justification, about the shop girls. Looks like the shop girls are running the NHS. I tried to find the offending surgery on Google Earth, taking the “Estates” document as my clue. You know, the part about building new facilities and getting out of renovated houses, etc. No luck on the new facility at 12 West Road, Westcliff-on-Sea. Victorian is more like it.
@David Ross says:
The Hypocritic Oath
I swear by Mother Earth and Gaia and Algore, making them my witnesses, that I will fulfill according to my ability and judgment this oath and this covenant:
I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of the IPCC in whose steps I walk, and gladly propagandize such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow.
I will apply, for the benefit of the planet, all measures that are required, avoiding those twin traps of denialhood and anarchic nihilism….
The AGW Creed
appointed to be read at all environmental conferences
I believe in Global Warming,
which will destroy heaven and earth unless we change our ways.
I believe in Al Gore,
Who conceived the Internet
and the hockey-stick graph, born of Professor Mann.
It suffered under McIntyre and McKitrick,
was crucified, disproven, and was buried.
It was cast on the reject pile.
On the third day It rose again.
It was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science,
and is displayed in a prominent position in all IPCC literature.
It will apply again as soon as global temperatures start rising.
I believe in the CO2 tipping point,
the IPCC Assessment Reports,
a CO2 sensitivity figure of about 3 W/sq M,
the accuracy of GCMS,
an anthropic cause for all climate variation after 1970,
and grants everlasting.
AMEN.
Granny, (83,) makes complaint..
Practice manager, (read bureaucrat,) : Will rid me of this turbulent patient?
Make the patient the one at fault but Granny’s having none of it!
DaveE.
Man, all those carbon footprints sure are difficult to wash off the floors!
Shouldn’t she have been given the option of buying some carbon offset to allow her the 2-mile round trip instead of forcing her to register with a new GP? I’m sure she could afford it with carbon prices in freefall.
I wonder if they are also advising their patients to kills their pets ?
A medium-size dog has a footprint greater than an SUV. Cats are roughly equal to small Volkswagens while two hamsters have the same footprint as a plasma television. Goldfish are comparable to a pair of cell phones.
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/pet-dogs-damaging-environment-suvs/story?id=9402234#.T39cD9VYDTo
3×2 says:
“World is no madder than it ever was. Pick up your gun soldier – fight for the future as your grandparents did. For sure you will never win utopia but you can always kick the s**t out of those heading in the other direction.”
Thanks, 3X2 . . . . I needed that. And your damn** tootin’ I had an ancestor who survived Andersonville and my father stormed bloody Omaha Beach with his gun crew, fought in the Battle of the Bulge and came home to rock me in his arms 9 months later.
‘Once more unto the breach’ !
the bigger point here is how comfortable the person was using carbon footprint as an excuse to deny medical care.
get away from the “it was an excuse or not” memes, the fact someone was comfortable saying this is BAD.
Worry when the talk is of ‘energy footprints’ rather than ‘carbon footprints’.
================
Jessie says:
April 6, 2012 at 2:07 am
O/T
I had known the icon as belonging to Hermes, God of Cunning & Commerce, not medicine.
As below
Today, two serpent motifs are commonly used to symbolize the practice and profession of medicine. Internationally, the most popular symbol of medicine is the single serpent–entwined staff of Asklepios (Latin, Aesculapius), the ancient Greco-Roman god of medicine. However, in the United States, the staff of Asklepios (the Asklepian) and a double serpent–entwined staff with surmounting wings (the caduceus) are both popular medical symbols. The latter symbol is often designated as the “medical caduceus” and is equated with the ancient caduceus, the double serpent–entwined staff of the Greco-Roman god Hermes (Latin, Mercury). Many physicians would be surprised to learn that the medical caduceus has a quite modern origin: Its design is derived not from the ancient caduceus of Hermes but from the printer’s mark of a popular 19th-century medical publisher. Furthermore, this modern caduceus became a popular medical symbol only after its adoption by the U.S. Army Medical Corps at the beginning of the 20th century. This paper describes the ancient origin of the Asklepian and how a misunderstanding of ancient mythology and iconography seems to have led to the inappropriate popularization of the modern caduceus as a medical symbol.
The Symbol of Modern Medicine: Why One Snake Is More Than Two*
Annals of Internal Medicine (2003) April 15 V138
source: Ref 1 wiki article
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_of_Asclepius#cite_note-AIM-0
==========================
You can thank Hezikiah for your association of the serpent with Hermes of cunning and deception.., from his time the serpent was changed from association with wisdom and healing to the devil and cunning, and God in the OT became single. Asherah, symbolised by the pole and associated with the serpent and lion, was the wife of El the chief God at the time of Abraham when he first came to Jerusalem, the then City of Peace, and worshipped in the Temple. She remained the Mother of the gods/God the Mother as wife of the main God even with the Yahweh change; also known as the Shekinah, Wisdom, the Tree of Life. When Jeremiah went to Egypt and castigated the Jewish women there blaming the Babylonian events on her worship by the women in still offering cakes and wine, the women retorted that he was full of it, that the princes of Jerusalem had always worshipped her and while they had done so there had been peace there.
King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
And the LORD said unto Moses, Make you a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looks upon it, shall live.
Until Hezekiah destroyed it: http://bible.cc/2_kings/18-4.htm
http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/asherahasherim-bible
http://www.dhushara.com/book/orsin/asherah.htm
The association of the serpent with wisdom didn’t cease among the Jews, “be wise as serpents, gentle as doves”.
Two and two sometimes makes five but only now and then. Nevertheless, coincidences do happen from time to time.
Hmm … why would a Jolly Green GP practice in the UK need air conditioners hanging out back? I wonder what’s been done about those 9″ solid brick walls with a U-value of about 2.0 W/m2, must cost a packet to heat the place in winter. A fresh coat of paint wouldn’t go amiss either. Green would look nice.
I think you must mean Hypocritical Oath, Anthony. 🙂
but then… I read USA docs are refusing to treat or list patients that refuse vaccinations..
and so far, they are NOT mandatory nor should they ever be so.
nurses and docs fired due to refusal to take flu shots.
where both species are in short supply..
Carbon footprint or not, why hasn’t she signed on to the nearest GP? It’s barking mad that is.
@ur momisugly Steve C – would that be the hospital just across the river valley from a certain rather dodgy University? If it is, my understanding is the site was chosen because it’s also close to the private BUPA hospital, and the consultants wanted to be near their “other” place of work…