An NHS experience
Can’t put the name to this one but a couple I know recently had an interesting experience at a new doctor’s surgery. Here are the steps in the drama:
It was a very large clinic that had absorbed all the previous surgeries in the area so there was no choice.
After registering with the surgery, they had the normal health checks and blood samples. Whilst he was having his, he asked the nurse what the doctor was like, the one on the welcoming letter and was told that that was just the head of the surgery. The procedure was to phone and be given whoever was available that day.
Was there no chance of a regular doctor? That’s not how they did it – you took your chances although obviously she didn’t put it that way.
…
A letter arrived saying the results had come back and could he contact the surgery for a “telephone consultation”? The number given was a premium number.
You guessed the next bit. It was impossible to get through for quite some time.
Eventually he did and after the usual intro came the options, only to be told he was in a queue.
He decided to try later.
This he did several times, with the same response.
The last time he decided to wait, five in the queue and after about ten minutes was put through, only to be given another selection of options.
He chose one, only to be asked to wait – this is a premium number, mind.
During the next few minutes, he was given the usual guff re ‘we know you are waiting etc’.
After a further five or six minutes, he gave up. Basically, he thought they had to have been taking the p…
He e-mailed them, stating that he really had better things to do than pay BT to make an appointment. Please send an appointment date.
He’s still awaiting the answer.
The writer asks me if I’d heard anything like it or is this way it’s all going, the NHS the envy of the world?
…
I’m not much use because I steer clear of them. About two years ago I broke a rib and and had to go to the doctors. It was a highly unfortunate experience I’d rather not go into. In short, the service was appalling.
I’ve decided not to get sick or injured in England. [I know, I know ...]
So I thought I’d put this to you all and see what you think.
Filed under: History & Culture, Society & human issues
The telephone has become the latest weapon in the arsenal of unscrupulous receptionists and managers; where one they had to confine themselves to brusque behaviour when you came into the surgery, now they can use modern telephone technology to create endless administrative work and thus justify their well-paid existence – the options-and-hold runaround is, I suspect, just an added refinement on the part of the company involved in leasing the system.
macheath recently posted…Le mot juste?
I’ve decided not to get sick or injured in England.
you are quoting Neil Kinnock there James – that must be a first
from Wiki-
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Neil_Kinnock
If Margaret Thatcher is re-elected as prime minister on Thursday, I warn you. I warn you that you will have pain – when healing and relief depend upon payment. I warn you that you will have ignorance – when talents are untended and wits are wasted, when learning is a privilege and not a right. I warn you that you will have poverty – when pensions slip and benefits are whittled away by a government that won’t pay in an economy that can’t pay. I warn you that you will be cold – when fuel charges are used as a tax system that the rich don’t notice and the poor can’t afford.
I warn you that you must not expect work – when many cannot spend, more will not be able to earn. When they don’t earn, they don’t spend. When they don’t spend, work dies. I warn you not to go into the streets alone after dark or into the streets in large crowds of protest in the light. I warn you that you will be quiet – when the curfew of fear and the gibbet of unemployment make you obedient. I warn you that you will have defence of a sort – with a risk and at a price that passes all understanding. I warn you that you will be home-bound – when fares and transport bills kill leisure and lock you up. I warn you that you will borrow less – when credit, loans, mortgages and easy payments are refused to people on your melting income.
If Margaret Thatcher wins on Thursday, I warn you not to be ordinary. I warn you not to be young. I warn you not to fall ill. I warn you not to get old.
JD recently posted…Bona Fides and Street Cred
It is getting better. Mainly because everyone who is ill, even for ingrowing toenails dies. That leaves it easier for those not ill to get their regular checks up, until they become ill then it’s game over.
@JD
And then there was pain
CherryPie recently posted…Over the Bridge…
Given that type of service, one wonders if some questionable quack would be preferable after all.
Isnt this to expected though? Since the 80s, the aim has been to “encourage” people into private healthcare.
What is that huge line for?
Good question. It was in a google search for NHS queues but I can’t guarantee it’s actually an NHS queue of course.
James Higham recently posted…Might Lib Dem voters conceivably have a rush of blood and do something for Britain?