You may not make it to a bed in a hospital corridor if our beloved National Health Service continues to spiral out of control!! I read stories daily about people dying unnecessarily and after what I witnessed on Friday I can see why! If you're not aware, a lot of doctors surgeries in the UK have rolled out a book on the day system, this means anyone needing an appointment to see a GP has to call on the day. According to my surgery, the system was put in place because so many people don't turn up for advanced appointments and don't let their surgery know.
I was diagnosed with skin cancer back in December 2017, I have a few other problems with my stomach and bowel so I haven't been feeling that well lately, I wanted to see the doctor so at 07:59 every morning I started calling the surgery, this went on for 2 weeks, looking at my phone logs, they reveal that I made between 23 and 31 calls each day to try and get an appointment - every day I either got an engaged tone or told that all 150 appointments had been filled for that day - Ridiculous!!
I only had one option left and that was to wait outside the surgery. On Friday morning I got myself up and walked the 2 miles to the surgery, it was bitterly cold, I got to the surgery at 07:42, it opens at 08:00. There were already 7 people in the queue, and by the time the surgery opened there were 19 people in the queue. I would say approx 15 of those people were in their late 60's to early 70's in age. I know how cold I felt so god only knows how those people felt! What I don't understand is why the surgery couldn't have opened the doors for us to wait inside, it's the middle of winter and we're not queuing up because we are feeling healthy are we?
I have always been a big supporter of the NHS and if I'm really honest I don't fully understand what's going on. I know that funding has been severely cut over the last 10 years, I know that there is a national shortage of GP's, I know that doctors and nurses are pulling double shifts to cover staff shortages and I know that patients are dying in corridors. I have to say I'm not surprised, I read that the NHS were billed £1,579 for a £2 pot of moisturiser by Walgreens Boots Alliance, or a steroid cream which costs 95p but billed at £1,322.52, or eye drops costing 66p billed at £45.47, or coconut oil which costs £1.04 billed at £657.60, or the latex disposable gloves that cost £1 being purchased for around £100 per pair, the list goes on...
As a country the people in the UK are accustomed to pulling together when times are hard, the government remind us when times are tough to only spend on necessities, well it's time they practised what they preach and get someone in to head up the purchasing department of the NHS, they need to tighten the reigns NOW otherwise our fabulous NHS will be a distant memory.