re: The people of Britain are freaking out about a 10 pound charge to visit doctor

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fatal gunshots.

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irrelevant indicators of how good our healthcare system is, and we live longer on average than Canadians.

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Have to disagree here. With anywhere from 1/3 to 1/2 of our gunshot fatalities being suicides I have to think that a portion of gunshot fatalities stand as a pretty good indicator of the poor state of mental health care in this country. While I do believe that the truly suicidal will find a way to off themselves, the ease of access to a gun can turn a rough night for a depressed/suicidal individual into a final night too easily. If you could wave a wand and remove guns from the hands of the mentally ill I think our overall fatality rate would decrease as the loss of the simplest/most efficient method of suicide would deter many of those who were not 100 % determined to end it.

I'm not advocating gun control as a result of this, I am however advocating better mental health care though. Too many stigmas and too many ways for people to slip through the cracks in our care and become just another statistic.