Twiga was summoned for a routine test at the local smart PFI-funded medical centre today. The unsurprising result was that a short consultation with the doctor is required. No problem one might think. The doctor's office is just along the corridor and he is said to do the admin on Wednesday afternoons. Isn't that the province of the recent additional overhead titled the "Business Manager"? What does he do? God knows,- or may not. Sorry no appointments available before mid April says the receptionist and no bookings are being taken beyond that because the person who sets the programme up is away until next week .OK, well how about talking to him on the phone, the new sort of initial appointment anybody calling up gets? "We've got a slot in ten days time".
That's the level of service,-seamless not,- now experienced day in and day out by the clients of what leading politicians of all parties call "Our wonderful NHS". Little Nick said the other day it was one of the things he loved about the UK. Ed and Dave are similarly dewy eyed whenever the three letters, N,H,and S come up. Fair enough ,it has served them well, and some parts are indeed excellent for everyone but its organisation and administration are particularly dire. All too often it simply doesn't understand that it is a service business. It is also highly unlikely that any of these three gents has recently had to enter its portals as a normal mortal and had to sit on hard plastic chairs in A&E awaiting the target time of four hours.
Not so long ago it was all very different. The local practice was housed in much smaller quarters, did a lot more for minor injuries (GP's surgeries generally don't do stitching now so send anything requiring it to A&E adding unnecessarily to the waiting times there.In South Africa many ordinary chemists have someone to do it). The doctors lived in or near the community, were on call 24/7 and patients seen on the day,- or night. That was part of the professionalism and ethos of being a doctor. They were reasonably but not excessively rewarded for their time and expertise . Years of sleepless nights came with the job, along with enormous respect among the population at large.
Then along came G.Brown driving his answer to everything and in reality nothing, the money sprayer .In came new contracts removing 24 hour responsibility (and with it the true essence of professionalism,) and giving a lot more money in exchange for a suffocating burocracy and external control and targets over almost every field of medical activity. The old notion of public service went out of the window and and although the doctors now feel much richer they and those they should be serving are actually a lot poorer.
