The NHS (Not Helpful Service)

A traumatic Friday gave way to a more relaxed weekend. Heir no.1 appeared at 4.30am complaining that he couldn’t breathe – he sounded dreadful, really rattling and wheezing, struggling for breath. A call to the out of hours doctor wasn’t very helpful – “make an appointment with your GP in the morning”. Thanks, really useful advice. Once he had calmed down and consumed some Calpol he seemed steadier. So we waited until morning and rang our doctor to make an appointment. The receptionist was really helpful: “The doctor’s not arrived yet, we’ve got no emergency appointments available, can you not get him some cough medicine from the chemist? I’ll see if the doctor will call you back when she arrives” I managed to remain calm throughout this exchange, thanked her politely and resolved to go straight to casualty. We had to wait half an hour to see a doctor, but this was undoubtedly quicker than the wait we would have had at our GP’s. I sometimes wonder about the trade off of a free health system versus customer service. We got the antibiotics he needed and set off for my mother’s house in the Lake District as arranged. I love going back to the area now, it’s really beautiful and the pace of life is so different to the city. As a teenager I resented the lack of opportunity and constraints. So our son was quite subdued, but that worked out well, given the awful weather we experienced. We all got some well deserved rest and relaxation, even if it wasn’t quite the weekend we had hope for.