Following on from my frustrations with getting anything out of my GP, who still seems to be hiding away from the big bad bug, I did get a phone call in response to my email regarding blood pressure medication.
They asked me to complete a blood pressure diary, which I did and submitted it. I got a snotty email telling me to make an appointment with a nurse to discuss it in more detail and that they should not be contacting me with the results, as I was supposed to phone in. Er, yes… I have better things to do with my time than spend hours trying to get through to talk to someone. Phoning simply does not work. Either the line is engaged or you are on hold for forever and a day.
Anyway, I managed to get onto the online booking system and there was one – just one – nurse appointment available so I took it.
In the meantime, my dry cough resurfaced. About two years ago I’d gone though a number of tests all of which were negative, so the diagnosis was eosinophilic bronchitis, which, due to how it presents is difficult to diagnose, but treating the symptoms with a cortisone inhaler would work if the diagnosis was correct. Which it was. Brilliant. Job done. Every so often it has resurfaced and I’ve treated it successfully. Now I’ve run out and the cough is starting to annoy me again. It’s nothing like as bad as it once was, but the inhaler seems to do the trick and I need a new prescription. So I emailed. Got a response. Speak to a doctor.
Today, without any explanation, my nurse appointment was cancelled – please call to discuss.
After being on hold for longer than I was really prepared to wait, it looks like Push Doctor again in the morning. The service – and I use the word very loosely – is downright appalling. There are warnings while you wait to get through that the staff are working under difficult conditions. No they are not. They are hiding away from their core constituency who are paying a small fortune for a service that they aren’t getting and having to pay again to get that service from a private provider. Difficult conditions my arse. How much are we paying for these useless fuckers?
But I thought the NHS was the envy of the world? Free healthcare to the masses and all that.
/sarc , and from a damned Yank no less. Still – your experience sounds awful. A lot of the private practices here in the US hid under the bed and sucked their thumbs over covid, but at least they aren’t national healthcare.
Unbelievably awful frankly.
My surgery hasn’t reopened properly either. I’m in the ridiculous position of having to drive to the surgery for 8am to make an appointment to speak my doctor on the phone. And for the past two occasions, it hasn’t even been the doctor I asked to speak to. We are not getting value for money, and yet the NHS, like the BBC, keep telling us how fantastic they are.
OT
Excellent:
“Ukraine War: A Geostrategic Assessment”
A geostrategic assessment of the ongoing Ukraine war from Swiss Policy Research
https://swprs.org/ukraine-war-a-geostrategic-assessment/
I had a previous comment blocked or sent into the spam bin. I can probably remember most of it if you can’t find it.
Nope, not there.
I wrote it again and tried to post it. The message says that it has been blocked and if I think this is a mistake to send you an email.
Email me the text and I can see what the problem is.
It’s clear the GPs are going to resist return to normal until the Health Secretary imposes some consequences on them of not doing so.
And the likelihood of that being?
That’s one of the advantages of private medicine, the GPs only get paid if they see patients. If they make life difficult or unpleasant, people will go elsewhere. I’ve changed my GP to a Zimbabwean called Lovermore.
Crikey, that is some shit service LR. I can phone my gp’s surgery any time during opening hours, he calls me back and if needed I have an appointment that day or the next. This worked even at the height of lockdown. Bearing in mind this is the widely derided NHS Wales, I reckon I’m lucky. My doctor is ex-military which maybe makes a difference.
A common experience in my area as well. If you try to ring you can find there’s a queue of 50 to 70 calls in front of you. In real terms we don’t actually have a doctor service anymore. I recently had a cancer removed from the side of my face and that evening the wound started to bleed filling my ear with blood. I visited our emergency service to have it looked at only to be asked by the receptionist why I couldn’t deal with it myself at home.
Our surgery has gone awol as far as we are concerned. I think they are waiting until we all die. I find the hospitals are working well but GP’s are a waste of time.
So true, I recently tried to make an appointment to see my doctor and was offered one in 3 weeks time. That day I had occasion to visit our local undertaker,he saw me in 10 minutes.
It’s a common misconception that GPs are part of the NHS, they are not, they operate as private contract businesses, taking on work contracted to them by the NHS.
The fault lies in the contract which the NHS negotiated with these charlatans – but it’s been like that since the NHS began, because the government felt the need to bribe doctors to join it, they allowed the doctors free-rein to define their own terms and conditions of service.
A proper Health Minister would start by imposing a contract which specified the quality of service, with harsh financial penalties for failure – if they don’t like it, there are enough doctors elsewhere who would jump at the chance. But we’ve never had a Health Minister with the balls to take them on – the latest one is no different.
Well with the War as an added excuse and COVID still (in their eyes) a live issue, it seems very unlikely they’ll go back to before. With hyperinflation coming as a result of the war then I’d say you’ve got more chance of going to Mars than getting a face to face appointment. Don’t forget the government has basically admitted we all exist to protect he Health Service – not vice versa. I don’t think any party (barring Reform U.K.) demurs from that
The service that I get from my local GP surgery is pretty good. Appointments do involve waiting on the phone but nothing excessive. Repeat prescriptions are dealt with via a phone app and the place has its own pharmacy and I’m informed via text when it is ready to pick up. The place is still obsessed with mask wearing which is a bit tiresome. I would have thought that medical professionals of all people would know that the things can’t possibly work. I think that the reason that the NHS is such dangerous ground politically is because it isn’t universally awful and people who do get a good service think that they are getting it free.