09.13.05
GP Appointments
There has been alot in the news recently about the fact that about half of patients are unhappy that you can’t book a doctors appointment more than 24 hours in advance. They seem to forget that in the past it was the other way round and you actually had to plan your illness for a week or two in advance so you could see a GP before you needed emergency care or were dead. Today however I suffered the stress of this new phenomena for the first time. My son needs an appointment with our doctor in the near future for ongoing treatment. Both he and I would prefer to see the same doctor and not someone we haven’t dealth with before. If he were ill in the true sense of the word we wouldn’t much mind.
Yesterday I rang for an appointment. Because the GP is off on holiday soon the receptionist advised that he will be doing surgerys on Wednesday and Friday this week. I was asked to ring today at 8.30am to book. Unfortunately traffic problems meant I was stationery on the junction of the M10 and M1 at 8.30, but as soon as I arrived in the office at 8.50 I tried. it was engaged, but on the 7th or 8th attempt success………sadly all appointments for tomorrow were gone.
I can now ring at 8.30 Thursday for Friday morning, or 12 midday Thursday for Friday afternoon. What a crazy world the NHS I work for is!!
Post Script 15 Sept
Today i have booked an appointment for our usual GP on 26th Sept, Son and I are both happy with this. I may well write about the actual problem after this.
