I don't go to the doctor very often. When I do, I have mixed feelings about the experience. This practice is one of the better NHS practices, but something is going wrong with it. Like most, they no longer bother to open outside office hours, which is very awkward if you work away from home.
Last month I went there and saw Dr McCarthy. I felt fobbed off. I was led to suppose that my ailment would never get better and that it would always come back, which can't be true. But he also asked me to leave a urine sampe to test for diabetes.
When I rang back for the results some days later, they had no record of the sample. It had been lost, it seemed. I was asked to drop another in. Such things happen; they did send me a container in the post -- full marks for being helpful --, and I returned it.
When I rang for the result on this, it too had been lost! But this time the receptionist was a bit more clued up; apparently the sample from the first time had not been sent off, but analysed in-house, and the results were on the screen (and negative, thankfully).
Naturally I was concerned. But I could find no-one who cared, although one member of staff seemed eager to have a fight with me (ah, the joy of public sector 'services'!)
Is an NHS GP actually any use? For some time I have felt that very few of the minor ailments that I take to my doctor ever get sorted out. I get fobbed off, I get 5 minutes at most, and somehow I have lost hours of earnings for very little result. It simply isn't worth going there, most of the time.
Perhaps the answer is a private GP; restore the link between money paid and performance? Are any of these any good?
1 comment:
The "tests" are paid for (at a generous rate) by the NHS. Consequently, they are a nice little earner for the GP and they will therefore use any excuse imaginable to get you to take one.
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