At the risk of everyone thinking “Hey, Womble, welcome to the real world, mate”….
I’ve just tried to book an appointment with my local GP. It’s not urgent, and my only restriction is that I could do with it being towards the end of the day, so that it doesn’t stuff work up too much.
The Receptionist said, “I’m sorry, all of today’s appointments have been taken”.
So I said, “That’s OK, can I make an appointment for tomorrow, or Monday ?”
And she said “No, I’m sorry, you’ll have to ring again tomorrow. We open at 8:30” .
So I said “So I can’t make an appointment more than one day in advance ?”
And she said “That’s right”.
So then I put the phone down and launched into an unrepeatable tirade about the breathtaking uselessness of the NHS.
This is all down to the bloody government target nonsense about the percentage of patients who can get a GP appointment within so many hours / days of asking for one. My surgery will be able to say that 100% of appointments are booked on the same day that the patients requested them, and some bureaucrat somewhere will tick some bloody box and think it’s all fantastic.
But it’s not fantastic. It is unbelievably, unspeakably, stunningly bad service.
I remember a member of the public haranguing Tony Blair about this before the last Election, and he said he’d sort it out. Another broken promise. I honestly thought the practice had been abolished. Shows what I know.
If I thought I could ever get anything sensible out of my completely hopeless MP, I’d send her another bloody letter. But as she hasn’t bothered replying to the last one, what’s the point ?
Instead I shall just sit here and stew. And tomorrow morning I’ll join the 8:30 lottery, trying to get a same-day appointment which will be less convenient because I’ll have less notice and I may have to cancel some meetings. And if all the appointments have been taken I’ll have to go through it all again on Monday. But it’ll be OK because the surgery is meeting its targets.
These guys are just taking the piss out of us.
Looking Forward To A Labour Conference
16 years ago
3 comments:
The chocolate ration has increased to 20g per week.
I think you may be getting a visit from the Screaming Banshee soon. That article is right up her alley (ooerr Missus)
WoT,
I am totally on your side with this one. I have been ranting about this for so long now, I honestly thought I was on my own.
You have to ring on the morning you want an appointment, but to get a decent appointment you have to ring dead on 8.30.
Now, you ring at 8.30 and speak to the receptionist to find that all appointments at decent times for someone who works have gone. You ask if you can make one for the next day and they say you have to ring again the next morning.
What really gets up my nose is they say they cannot book appointments in advance, BUT when you speak to the receptionist whilst at the surgery and not on the phone they are glad to tell you that all morning appointments are for pre bookings, so when you ask to make a pre booking they then deny you that option and tell you to ring the next morning.
The only time I can get a pre booked appointment is when I have my contraceptive injection. For this I have to book 12 weeks in advance.
Now can someone out there please explain to me why this is?
I have had a rant here
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