Budget spent in the wrong areas
I HAD to go see my GP this week. It is a rare occasion, and a first since he moved into a new shared facility.
Expansive, expensive, over-elaborated, with huge communal areas. All rather excessive for the new-look glorified Yarborough estate, I thought.
A friend's five-year-old, part of the same practice, calls it the airport. Airports are all about making the travel experience a pleasure, encouraging us to spend a little bit more of our holiday fund as we wind down from the stresses and strains of everyday life.
In my book, the surgery is all about "last resort".
You need to go, you don't want to stay any longer than you have to, and you want to be sorted straight away, so you can return before said stresses and strains mount up any further.
I was impressed with the plentiful free car parking, the IT administration system, and my doctor and his colleagues never disappoint.
But when I found out the tests I required cannot be done for another six weeks – and still have to be at the hospital – I felt that budgets had been prioritised a little oddly.
I hope the Government and the public bodies it funds do not think that new shiny buildings make up for limited performance – be it schools, homes or surgeries – at no fault of our friends on the front line.
D, Cleethorpes.
The Telegraph says
There is no doubt that buildings do need to be in good condition and some older premises are unfit for purpose – but this letter writer is correct, first and foremost it is the treatment that matters!
4 Comments
by Kelly, cleethorpes
Wednesday, August 18 2010, 11:44PM
“I missed this at the time but there has got to be more questioning of these GP/doctors because when these people are working 22 hours a week for 140k per year who is paying for all this. My GP bought a 45k merc with his bonus last year and bragged about it to patients and I cant get an appointment with him because they have no staff to answer the phones to book one. Whats going on with the NHS is anybody else having this crap service, I would be pleased to hear your comments.Perhaps the paper should do a story about this it would be rather interesting what comes out a bit of investigative journalism is called for i think but has the paper got anybody with the stomach for it.”
by Ray Sutton, Grimsby
Monday, March 08 2010, 7:32PM
“My doctors' practice, Fieldhouse, moved to Freshney Medical Centre. I've been a couple of times and the flexibility of doctors to see (and when), the availability of instant blood tests, the personal service related to a consultant appointment (so it felt ) and the automated systems, all added to the experience - yes the building is a little impersonal, but the service as personal as ever and a good investment to pool expertise as far as I am concerned. Better than ever.”
by A. Grimlander, Elder, GRIMLAND the medically over-reached...
Monday, March 08 2010, 12:54PM
“Yes. All well and good, as 'they' say. But the writer of the above seems to sense the shortcomings.
There's more to it all than meets the eye. A regiment is some 2,000 men. It was said that the Colonel would recognize every man, even if he knew not his name; even frpom the back of his head (if he wasn't leading from the front!). In general practice, a single doctor with some 2,000 patients would sensibly be able to recognize every patient, even in the street; could even correlate the individual with recent visits. In the surgery the patient's docket would reveal his/her name and complaints. A patient could be greeted with a real recognition of the person.
In these new group practices, the patient is lucky to see the same doctor twice in succession. It's not until the data is called up on the screen that the practitioner knows ANYTHING about the PERSON. Recognition from the back of the head is out of this modern world!
Responsibility for THE PERSON depends on recognition of the person, not an acknowledgement of what's on a computer screen!
"Now is, indeed, a good time to be old"! Who said that!?”
by John, At home
Sunday, March 07 2010, 10:28PM
“Well I like it !! The last surgery was well ahead of the others but this new building gives the staff, as well as the patients, a good environment where most needs can be met.”