Doctor, Doctor!

So...I am back 'Down Under' from 3 months 'Up Over', back from cold, blustery, incessantly grey days to blue sky and heat.

I have returned with a cold, which for a brief time on the plane home, I suspected was COVID, but two negative tests since disprove that, I hope.

I needed to go and sort out my prescriptions today as I cannot find the ones I thought I already had and cannot remember if I took them with me to the UK. Anyway, I needed to get them renewed as I had run out of one of my medications.

While in the UK I had to get some medication there to tide me over and was told the easiest way to renew prescriptions was using the NHS app. Setting the damn thing up was not so easy and involved sending a scan of my passport photo and recording a video of myself counting to 4 and then waiting a week to hear if my identity had been accepted. I got my medication in the end but the pharmacist wanted me to have a blood test a week after starting on it, to check that it was working properly, as it differed slightly from my Australian medications. After a week I went on to the app to book an appointment but the only thing I was offered on the app was a smear test or STD check which, happily were surplus to my requirements. I ended up walking into the surgery and booking an appointment in person.

A few days later I had to take my son to A&E as there was blood coming out of his ear. There are terrible tales of waiting for hours in Emergency and when we got there there was a girl who said she had been waiting for 18 hours! (I suspect she was well known in that department and was a regular visitor seeking attention.) As it was we were seen and out again within 30 minutes. It turns out my son had a perforated eardrum and he was given antibiotics and told to make an appointment with his GP in a weeks time when he had finished the course of antibiotics.

I took my son straight to the local surgery to book an appointment but he was told that he couldn't do it over the counter and he would be sent a link to book an appointment. They didn't send the link.

I was in the next day for my blood test and afterwards spoke with the receptionist and told her what had occurred the previous day and that my son had had trouble arranging an appointment. She apologised and said they would send the link for him to book an appointment, which this time they did. However he was not to do it until he had finished his course of antibiotics.

When that time came and my son went to book an appointment to get his ear checked, the only appointments the app offered were, a smear test and an STD check. Such is the state of the UK health system!

Back to today and the need to renew my prescriptions. I went into the surgery and spoke to the receptionist. She didn't even ask my name before she was checking my records (I don't know what that says about me) which I thought was impressive since I have not been there for three months. I told her I couldn't find the prescriptions I thought I already had and I wondered whether I needed to make an appointment to see the doctor to get a repeat prescription.

' Oh, just go and wait in her room,' she said, 'she will see you between her appointments.'

There were six people sat waiting in the waiting room.

'Are you sure?' I asked, feeling uncomfortable. She nodded.

I slunk past the waiting infirm into her office and waited.

Now, I have been with this surgery since we moved up to Frogknot in 2016 and then there were three doctors in the practice now there is only the one left and she has to fit in everyone on the books.

As in the UK the health system here is also under pressure and, especially out here away from the cities, practices are finding it difficult to recruit doctors to rural areas and into medicare bulk billing practices like mine (where there are no visitation fees).

Still, a few minutes later I was slinking back past the waiting wounded, glad to see that no one had died since I unwittingly jumped the queue. I quietly thanked the receptionist profusely and walked out with my new repeat prescription!

I doubt very much that kind of service would have happened 'Up Over!' these days.