A curmudgeonly old chap he ranted about this and that and seemed to see ill in much he saw around him.
I'm back at the doctors following up on a letter I received saying they had cancelled an appointment but not suggesting any alternative. I'd also left a sample with them which they had lost but seemed impervious to the suggestion that having lost the sample perhaps a phone call to explain and ask me to give another was treated with nothing short of astonishment. Apparently it was up to me to keep track and notwithstanding I was their patient for which they make a claim on me (my taxes) through the NHS to recompense them for their actions, they thought I was mad to think they had any responsibility, Hippocratic or not, for my well being.
I don't think I'm as bad as old Meldrew. Perhaps I have forgotten my Ps and Qs (my place in society) but the system and the attitude of the receptionists towards a patient leaves something to be desired.
The Health Service is a vast organisation and these pesky patients who turn up with their problems eat into the tranquillity of their day. We are the doctors right hand, nothing escapes us especially if it's a prospective patient.
The days of being on the panel, as the doctors list of patients was known, an individual who might have been brought into this world by the self same doctor. A doctor who knew the family as a unit, who had come to the "home" and treated whoever was ill. Who saw you as a real person, part of his flock of people and families of whom the doctor was intimately aware.
Today you are a number, "next please" with an email address and a physiology record held in a data bank. Like the record the treatment is based on statistical evidence attached to a symptom.
The true relationship with your doctor is lost in the efficiency of the system which has to be followed at all cost. 8 minutes per consultation and no more. Pity if you've come for "support", for that you need "private medicine", not the conveyor belt of your local practice.
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