Is it any wonder people don’t bother going to see a doctor? Many of us simply don’t have the time. I usually leave for work at 7.30am and get
home at 8ish pm. Since the surgery opens at 8 and closes at 5 I don’t get time
to go unless I take the day off. So I awoke Tuesday morning in absolute agony
down my ear and throat and thought, ‘damn it I have got an ear infection’. I
rang work and said I would be in late. I then had to wait till 8am to ring up
on the extremely lucky chance they will have an emergency appointment. Luckily,
on this occasion they did.
Usually you try and get an appointment and they are fully
booked. So you try and book one for the day after but their fully booked. You
ask ‘When is your next appointment then?’ and they um and arr and finally
respond “Next week.” So now you have to book being sick a week in advance, you
have to pre-empt your illness. “Right” let’s face it, you expected nothing less
than disappointment when you started to make this phone call it comes as no
surprise to you. “Well can I book for next week then?” haha, no, no you can’t!
Because their ‘appointment books’ don’t go that far, but guarantied when you
ring up on Monday their fully booked. How, how did you get booked? Where are
all these sick people? Who is booking so many appointments?
Anyway, they give me
an appointment in an hour’s time. I’m ready for work anyway, so just make my
way there and arrive twenty minutes early in the vein hope that being there
early may speed up the process. It didn’t.
I sat there, in the waiting room, surrounded by sick people,
for an hour. An entire hour, sat there on mismatched stained seats flicking
through old ripped up magazines from the nineties. But at least I’m not alone,
right? No I’m surrounded by smelly, weird people. So these are the ones booking
all the appointments. They all look contagious coughing, spluttering and
sneezing, without even the common decency to cover their mouths spraying their
dirty diseases everywhere. You see one or two of them stumble to the desk to
complain but none of them have the capacity to speak English, either because
they haven’t bothered to learn it or because they’re too drunk to understand. I’m
not joking either, there was one woman who smelt like a farmyard, and looked
like she had been dragged through a bush backwards, sitting there spinning
wool. While a lanky bearded skinny, piss smelling man sat opposite her
mumbling. A few teens came in and limped up to the counter, I’m surprised the
boys can walk with their pants round their ankles and the girls can even move
while that pregnant, to be honest. “I needs appointment innit blud?” Please?
Thank you? No chance from such, clearly well educated individuals.
Also, why is there no hand sanitizer? The NHS bangs on about
not spreading diseases and yet there is no hand sanitizer in most of the
doctors surgeries. Is this not one of the places sick people who have
contagious diseases go? Did I get that wrong? Maybe I did, it does look like
the inside of a community help center!
I digress, I do apologise. I finally get called in to the Doctor who says she hasn't seen me in a long time and how am I? Oh I’m fine, just came for a chat...I’m sick stupid why else would I be here? And of course you haven’t seen me, I can’t be bothered to fight all the misfits in the waiting room, surely it’s a good thing she hasn't seen me anyway? I explain my throat and ear hurt she checks it, there’s nothing wrong with my ear so she tries to send me home. “No” I yell “there is something wrong this pain is not ‘nothing’” she looks thoughtful and checks my throat, and of course it’s a little swollen. “Oh” she exclaims and then feels the outside of my neck “aha” she mumbles before listening to my breathing through a stethoscope. “You have a respiratory infection; your glands have swollen to protect yourself that’s where the pain is coming from. You have probably had it for a while, from over exerting yourself in this cold weather. But your glands are doing a good job so I’m not going to give you medication.” Thank god, it’s like £8 for prescription medicine now days. “Have you had a temperature?” she continued.
“I don’t know, I don’t own a thermometer” I said.
“You should get one and keep an eye on it. If you get a
temperature come back and see me. Its good you came so you know and keep an eye
on it” she said. No what’s good is that a second ago I didn't take your quick
ear check and dismissal, that’s what’s good. “If your temperature stays for
more than three days you should go to hospital” she said, as she sent me on my
way, wheezing like a fat man thinking ‘hospital? Yeah right!’
Here, this rant, developed in to one on hospitals so I
decided to end it and my next blog will continue in the same vein.
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