Anyone who's had the misfortune to try to make an appointment with a doctor on a Monday morning ( or actually pretty much any morning ) will know just how broken this bit of the National Health system has become. Even if eventually you get hold of an often rude receptionist you'll be lucky to get an appointment. More likely you'll be told a nurse will phone you back at some indeterminate time. Object too strongly and you risk being removed from the Practice register. Nice eh ?
Take the case of a bit of back trouble. Now any intelligent person knows that back trouble can vary as between minor and bloody nasty. But if you get caught with a bit of back trouble on a Monday morning then God help you. Chances are that the best you'll get is a call from a nurse.
This happened to a family member recently. Following about six questions they were told "...it's probably a muscular problem. Take some paracetemol and put a hot water bottle on it." Well, guess what? Yep, this intelligent adult had already come to the conclusion that it was probably a muscular issue and knew how to deal with such things. The reason they wanted to see a doctor was to have an examination by a doctor to determine whether or not it was muscular; and if not was it some other minor disorder or was it bloody nasty!? And by the way if I wanted advice from a nurse I would call NHS Direct and avoid the frustration of telephone contact with a GP surgery.
But why such a problem getting an appointment with a General Practitioner?
It seems obvious that GP's in aggregate no longer work the hours they need to provide a service patients can reasonably expect. I'm not interested in why they don't work the necessary hours. Some say it's because there are insufficient or inefficient doctors; maybe it's because some GP's are idle or part-time; maybe they no longer really care about patients' well-being; perhaps they refuse to work a full day on Saturdays and Sundays; or quite simply they are badly organised. One thing looks certain: they are not underpaid and neither are they overworked. Just an fyi guys many people work in excess of 80 hours each week, and many work weekends and evenings and at night; and we're not talking about being "on call," and we're not talking about special overtime or other payments to compensate.
Is the apparent difference between some General Practitioners (and nurses) of today and those of the fifties, sixties and seventies (when the problems were less acute) the difference between a job being work and a job being a vocation? How many young GP's and nurses even understand the difference ? And they wont find the difference by looking in a dictionary.
Of course some GP's and Practice nurses do care. All we can hope is that their especially high ethical and moral standards rub off on the rest. I fear however these well motivated GP's are in the minority.
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