Excellent Service

[WoodlandsCamper]

So often we hear on this forum, and in life generally, of people moaning of poor service. However, I had good service today ...

I rang the doctors this afternoon for an appointment and was given one 55 minutes away. Having sat in the waiting room until the allotted time I was called in only 2 minutes late. ........

........... but it was only a flu jab by the nurse. It's a different story though if I needed an appointment for a doctor - there's at least a 3 week wait to get an appointment. hmy:

 

[Martin24]

When people complain about GP's running late, they obviously do not consider the reasons why. Can you tell someone they are dying in ten minutes? Makes me very cross when I hear them moaning in the waiting room.

 

[Mel]

I attend a hospital clinic a couple of times a year for a review. Generally they run to within half an hour of your appointment time, but the last one was extremely busy and they were running about an hour and fifteen minutes late. You should have heard the moaning in the waiting room. It was ridiculous. These people were being given first class health care FREE at the point of delivery and they moaned about waiting for less time than they would wait to board a plane to go on holiday.
In parts of India and Africa you would have to walk 20 miles just to see a doctor and then there wouldn't be the drugs to treat you. In the USA, us lot in that clinic who all had chronic conditions would have long since been refused Heath insurance.
Folks in this country have forgotten how lucky they are and if the would stop turning up at A&E because they have a sick cat( yes that has happened) or at the GP for every minor cough and cold, then the pressure on the system woul reduce.
Rant over
Mel

 

[pitpony]

Each month our local Health Centre puts a list up of missed appointments and on most occasions it is well over a thousand,

 

[pitpony]

So often we hear on this forum, and in life generally, of people moaning of poor service. However, I had good service today ...

I rang the doctors this afternoon for an appointment and was given one 55 minutes away. Having sat in the waiting room until the allotted time I was called in only 2 minutes late. ........

Going to have a flu jab at our local HC is on Saturday morning and it is like a cattle market, three weeks ago my wife and I went to collect her prescription in Boots and the young Asian girl asked would we like a flu jab appointment a day later we had our jabs at Boots, much more pleasant,

........... but it was only a flu jab by the nurse. It's a different story though if I needed an appointment for a doctor - there's at least a 3 week wait to get an appointment. hmy:

 

[Parksy]

Our GPs surgery must be one of the better ones if previous comments are anything to go by.
Most minor ailments are dealt with by one of the nurse practitioners who can give injections and rustle up prescriptions for the more common complaints.
The GPs are freed up to diagnose the more serious illnesses and it is usually possible to get an appointment within a day or two.
The practice nurses do regular scheduled health checks on elderly patients like me, the vulnerable and infants.
It all seems to work quite well in spite of being in a busy urban area and I have a lot to be grateful to the NHS for.

 

[pitpony]

Our GPs surgery must be one of the better ones if previous comments are anything to go by.
Most minor ailments are dealt with by one of the nurse practitioners who can give injections and rustle up prescriptions for the more common complaints.
The GPs are freed up to diagnose the more serious illnesses and it is usually possible to get an appointment within a day or two.
The practice nurses do regular scheduled health checks on elderly patients like me, the vulnerable and infants.
It all seems to work quite well in spite of being in a busy urban area and I have a lot to be grateful to the NHS for.

Parky,
We have one of the largest practices in the country with over twentyfive doctors and everything else that goes with a practice that size, but it annoys me when you get over a thousand missed appointments every month, and personally I think one of the reasons is making appointments on line over the weekend when little Jimmy has a sniff and they can't be bothered to cancel on Monday morning when Mum says 'OK have a day off school', but I get more annoyed when pensioners are put in the spot light after we retire and they all should be put down , I worked from day one from the age of fifteen, I retired early at sixtythree and a half (how lucky was I ), I'm sick of having to pay tax for the feckless the lazy the bone idle that can't be bothered to get out of bed, this government needs to get a grip quick, do you ever notice something when you are away in the caravan and you walk past shops and pub's etc advertising jobs we have plenty in our town, sorry can't do that I won't get my benefits, well I just hope when pigs fly and the minimum wage is £9.00 that they don't put benefits up when they will have to get of their backsides,

 

[travellerone]

In Wales the service by the NHS is terrible. Wait over 24 weeks to see a Cardiologist. Having worked and lived in the USA I can say that a similar wait would be a few days at most. I do think we should all pay when we miss appointments and AE should turn away those with runny noses. But hey must stop don't want my pulse rising.

 

[pitpony]

In Wales the service by the NHS is terrible. Wait over 24 weeks to see a Cardiologist. Having worked and lived in the USA I can say that a similar wait would be a few days at most. I do think we should all pay when we miss appointments and AE should turn away those with runny noses. But hey must stop don't want my pulse rising.

Ditto,
My friend the country is a joke be it Wales or any other part of the UK.

 

[chrisbee1]

Parky,
We have one of the largest practices in the country with over twentyfive doctors and everything else that goes with a practice that size, but it annoys me when you get over a thousand missed appointments every month, and personally I think one of the reasons is making appointments on line over the weekend when little Jimmy has a sniff and they can't be bothered to cancel on Monday morning when Mum says 'OK have a day off school', but I get more annoyed when pensioners are put in the spot light after we retire and they all should be put down , I worked from day one from the age of fifteen, I retired early at sixtythree and a half (how lucky was I ), I'm sick of having to pay tax for the feckless the lazy the bone idle that can't be bothered to get out of bed, this government needs to get a grip quick, do you ever notice something when you are away in the caravan and you walk past shops and pub's etc advertising jobs we have plenty in our town, sorry can't do that I won't get my benefits, well I just hope when pigs fly and the minimum wage is £9.00 that they don't put benefits up when they will have to get of their backsides, [/quote]

I seldom visit my GP but when I do there is inevitably a wait as he is running late. Not a major problem for me but there is also a notice detailing the (large) number of missed appointments the previous week. I don't understand why they should worry about people who don't turn up if the practice can't keep pace with the appointments of those who do. It's not as if the GP is sat wasting time waiting for their next 'customer', there's a queue of them

 

[Dustydog]

I must be lucky. :cheer:
Our doctors, six of them , running two surgeries 3 miles apart.
The very few times we have needed an appointment we have always been offered same day or at the latest next day. Never been rushed and never waited more than 10 min.
The local hospital the new Great Western has actually seen SWMBO before her appointment time. Never had to wait and had excellent service from professionals. :cheer:

 

[ProfJohnL]

Thats good to hear,

 

[Mel]

I worked from day one from the age of fifteen, I retired early at sixtythree and a half (how lucky was I ), I'm sick of having to pay tax for the feckless the lazy the bone idle that can't be bothered to get out of bed, this government needs to get a grip quick, do you ever notice something when you are away in the caravan and you walk past shops and pub's etc advertising jobs we have plenty in our town, sorry can't do that I won't get my benefits, well I just hope when pigs fly and the minimum wage is £9.00 that they don't put benefits up when they will have to get of their backsides,

my daughter previously worked full time for the NHS in a Not well paid job. Her husband works full time in a minimum wage job. They both work hard. My daughter is just returning to work from mat leave. If she goes back part time she can claim working tax credits and be better off than if she goes back full time as she will not be eligible for working tax credit. She doesn't want to be on benefits but has to pay the mortgage.
Mel

 

[Dustydog]

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/apr/06/welfare-britain-facts-myths
The above report puts the whole benefits thing into perspective.
Pitpony.
I think you have nothing to worry about.
I know a few people in the same situation as Mel's daughter.
The paltry additional benefits they get to top up their wages not only helps them keep their heads above water but keeps them working in jobs that most probably wouldn't want to do plus of course both directly and indirectly they
are contributing to our society.

 

[Parksy]

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/apr/06/welfare-britain-facts-myths

The above report puts the whole benefits thing into perspective.
Pitpony.
I think you have nothing to worry about.
I know a few people in the same situation as Mel's daughter.
The paltry additional benefits they get to top up their wages not only helps them keep their heads above water but keeps them working in jobs that most probably wouldn't want to do plus of course both directly and indirectly they
are contributing to our society.

I don't want to get too political here and what I have written is heavily self censored, but the recent narrative from the government, (helped in no small measure by a compliant media running scared of the veiled threats posed by the results of Leveson inquiry and questions surrounding tv licence fees), has been that we are a nation of work-shy scroungers.
Workers who have been made redundant, people with disabilities, young people unable to find a job and workers on low wages who need benefits to top up their wages in order to live, all seemed to be blamed and marginalised for the predicament that they find themselves in.
Tub thumping fat cat politicians, many who have never done an honest days work in their lives, constantly get on their hind legs to denounce the 'idle scroungers' and to promise ever deeper and more savage measures against the unemployed, the disabled and the vulnerable.
The actual financial savings made by these benefit cuts are so miniscule as to be non existent when administrative costs are taken into account.
To any person who looks behind the lurid headlines to think about what is actually happening, this means that the hate campaign under the guise of 'austerity', in which the vulnerable are labelled as 'scroungers' is purely ideological, no actual money is saved.
I can't believe that as a first world supposedly educated nation we fall for this rubbish.
I'm off to a darkened room for a lie down :S

 

[pitpony]

I'm more than happy with the NHS and the Benefit and tax credit system we have in place for the people that are in a real need of it but I don't like it being abused by some, and all this does not come free if it does, 'Can I have a refund on my NI contributions please', my point is in this country we have a percentage of our population that are very happy to sit back and enjoy life by doing sod all,

 

[chrisbee1]

I'm more than happy with the NHS and the Benefit and tax credit system we have in place for the people that are in a real need of it but I don't like it being abused by some, and all this does not come free if it does, 'Can I have a refund on my NI contributions please', my point is in this country we have a percentage of our population that are very happy to sit back and enjoy life by doing sod all,

It's called retirement.

 

[pitpony]

I'm more than happy with the NHS and the Benefit and tax credit system we have in place for the people that are in a real need of it but I don't like it being abused by some, and all this does not come free if it does, 'Can I have a refund on my NI contributions please', my point is in this country we have a percentage of our population that are very happy to sit back and enjoy life by doing sod all,

It's called retirement.

Before you insinuate anymore untruths which I think are aimed at me, (happy to sit back and do sod all), get your facts straight, at this moment in time I work for our local volunteer bureau going round doing garden work and any other odd jobs for pensioners and people who are on benefits and ten years younger than me, because they do need the system to fall back on, before that I was volunteer driver running people here and there who could not walk past their own front door, you want to try it one day giving something back to society when you are retired and sitting back doing sod all,