Blogs | The NHS |
| Tuesday, 14 August 2007 | ||||||
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Being someone brought up in a world of big business, I've tended to look on a successful company as one that make a lot of money. Some of my 'heroes' are people who have made a lot of money themselves, as this is what I see as a successful businessman. Why am I telling you this? Well after moving house you have to register at a new doctors and dental practice in our area for treatment. Registering with a doctor is generally not a problem, however it's been known for a while that dentists are often hard to come by... My first problem I had was that the NHS website that tells you your closest dentist is not actually up to date. On approaching the closest dentist I was told that I would have to put my name on a waiting list and I may get an appointment in a few weeks. Not sure how this works as they were sort of full, but not... Anyway 10 minutes up the road I managed to find another surgery and it was problem solved - but really you would think that this website could be kept up to date. On registering with the new doctor I had to have a medical with the practice nurse. To say this medical was pretty pointless is an understatement, a few questions (are you dying?) - not not really. Checking your weight and blood pressure. The only comical moment of the day was when the nurse weighed me and misread the scales as 54kg instead of 94kg. She even typed it into the computer before I said, are you sure that's right... It turned out the computer would work out your ideal weight, and boy would I have been skinny had the program used that value! After the medical I had to go see a doctor to get a prescription for my asthma. I don't have bad asthma and only use the inhaler as and when needed. I think I'll not be too wrong when I say that most men hate going to the doctor - and there is a problem with getting men to go see a GP when needed. But here's why... On entering the surgery the doctor didn't even say hello, simply motioning to a chair. He waited for me to talk and I tried to explain why I was here. After 30 seconds he started writing a prescription on the computer and within the next 15 seconds I had been ushered out. I work as a web developer at the moment and talking to clients is very important in my job. Much like a doctor if you don't ask the right questions of a client then you don't get the correct system (or correct diagnosis). Now whenever I have gone to see a doctor it always seems that they have no people skills at all! Also when talking to someone why do doctors only ever speak in two ways, extremely condicending (like I'm an idiot), or with massive technical terms (like I'm a fully qualified surgeon). Every day I speak to people with many different backgrounds in computing and so have to vary how I describe things depending on their experience, and I normally have to gauge this myself. So why is it so difficult for a GP to talk to you at your level and at least pretend to be friendly? Maybe I just give off the wrong vibes when I enter the room... On the other hand my dentist was exactly the opposite with great people skills. On entering the room he shook my hand (never had that before), and introduced himself. He was polite and explained anything he had to say in a way that I didn't fell stupid or confused. Maybe I've just been unlucky, if you're a GP and reading this then try to explain my finding! And another thing, I managed to get the dental appointment at 3 days notice - how is this possible when another surgery only 15 minutes away is totally packed full - can't work this one out! Anyway, enough of the rants. I don't understand services that aren't run for profit - hence the stuff about big business and so I'll never understand how people try to run the NHS!
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