To that end I am feeling any type of incompetency fairly acutely. Take today, I went to collect a prescription from the chemist that I ordered from the doctors on Tuesday. I was told that it is not ready until later today as apparently it takes 48 hours for the doctors to put it on the computer and print it out and then 48 hours for the chemist to dispense it, four days to get a prescription! A few years ago we had two lovely doctors. You could drop a prescription off in the morning and pick up your medication in the afternoon. They had morning surgery from 0900 to 1030, no appointment needed just go along and wait, you always got seen and surgery was usually over on time or by 1100. There was evening surgeries every night by appointment, but they could usually fit you in if necessary. There was a Saturday morning surgery for emergencies. Unfortunately the doctors retired and sold the practice.
Well I won't be defamatory about the new doctors but let me say, we are now in a situation where there is no Saturday morning surgery or Monday evening surgery. It now takes two weeks to get an evening appointment. You can still go up in the mornings. You turn up at 0800, surgery starts at 0900 and people are quite often there until 1300 or 1400 hrs. We now have a practice manager who sorts this out (!) Oh and whatever I go for, whether it's a pain in my foot or whatever, apparently it's down to the menopause and they want to give me anti-depressents!!!
Tollesbury has not grown significantly in size so there really is no need for the wait to see a doctor, they blame the government, I blame the surgery procedures and the government. I now use the drop-in centre at the local hospital and if I felt something was serious I would go to A & E. I have even resorted to a private doctor. The powers that be wonder why people are using A & E more, well if the rest of the country's services are as bad as our doctors I could tell them why. I would hate to go to a totally private health service like the US, but how can they possibly call this progress in the NHS. Give me the old days anytime, when a doctor even came out to visit, rather than this diabolical situation. Nobody should be allowed to be a Health Minister or NHS manager unless they actually have medical experience and know what they are talking about (that also applies to Education, Defence, Treasury and all other ministerial jobs). Giving the jobs to those with experience and knowledge might actually sort out the mess that our public services are in, rather than leave it to those with fanciful ideological ideas rather than practical knowledge. In fact let's go one further and say that no one should be allowed to stand for parliament unless they have had a least 15 years experience in the real world. That would get rid of the career politicians who really have no notion about the everyday problems and lives of normal people.
And now breathe....I feel better having got that out!
