I would be utterly ecstatic if my GP showed a fraction of the customer service of Uber.
Speaking today at the launch of campaign Rebuild General Practice, Mr Hunt called for Britons to always be seen by the same family doctor.
They would mostly like to be seen by any doctor, Hunt. Not by one who is still avoiding patients:
Pre-pandemic, around eight in 10 appointments were carried out in-person. But the figure currently still stands at around 60 per cent, despite family doctors being told to get back to routine services.
If people who work for you refuse to carry out your orders, you sack them. Get some balls, Hunt.
The fault lies in the contract, which doesn't impose service standards, never has. Remember, they are not NHS employees, they are self-employed contractors.
ReplyDeleteHere's my solution, which addresses all the doctors' key motivations:-
Pay them £25 for a GP home-visit, £15 for a GP surgery consultation, £5 for a GP phone consultation - half of those values if carried out by a nurse or any other personnel.
Basically, they care nothing about you, but all about their workload and revenue - payment by unit of work would soon turn the tide against their grasping inactivity. Sorted.
Getting to see a doctor is difficult enough, but have you tried getting onto a dentists books, pretty much impossible.
ReplyDeleteThe only way is to follow the French or Italian system.
ReplyDeleteThe patient doesn't "register" with a doctor. S/he simply chooses who to consult, pays the doctor (of his/her choice) and is reimbursed (wholly or substantially partially and quickly) by the state "health insurance" authority. This way, the doctor knows to whom he has to be nice and deliver good service: it's the PATIENT not the NHS.
If the doctor opts to see nobody - or is rude or just useless - he gets zero income. This way he might even open his surgery over the week-end and make home visits or God forbid - work in the evenings.
'GPs' and 'customer service' have gone their two separate ways, one turning into mass murderers and the other a forgotten heritage.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to be a postcode lottery. My local surgery is very good. We used to see the same doctor every time but now we just get whichever one is available and I'm fine with that. They can bring your medical history up on a screen and have all relevant information to hand. From elsewhere there is this, from a newly diagnosed diabetic on how they were informed.
ReplyDelete"The Diabetes Nurse called me back and said, "I see by a blood test in 2018 that your were pre-diabetic then." What??? No-one had ever called me back from the GP to warn me. I remember calling them to find out the results and was told curtly by the receptionist that if I hadn't heard anything back, then the all blood tests were normal! So for 4 years I've been spiralling down into Diabetes. Just great."
This is just sloppy admin work, which has the potential for being far more serious than not learning that you are pre-diabetic after having tests for precisely that.
National Plod has more criminals, making it additionally evil and corrupt. As I recall, Mrs May was the last politician with balls (as you so eloquently describe, JuliaM) to rectify a nugatory 'Service'. Our National Health 'Service' has long been heading into Plods' abyss of uselessness. Along the way, it has also become something to be feared by its masters. Yet another freakish tail, wagging a domestic dog.
ReplyDeleteA spot of ballsy government by the UK could see elements of both 'Services' bundled off to the Ukraine where the worst of both uniformed bastards would be buried in beat duties on Kyiv's streets.
Who can spot the single issue obsessive who inserts that obsession despite it being completely irrelevant to the subject at hand?
ReplyDelete"The fault lies in the contract, which doesn't impose service standards, never has."
ReplyDeleteAn easy - and popular! - fix. So why hasn't this supposedly 'conservative' government done so?
"...but have you tried getting onto a dentists books, pretty much impossible."
And yet opticians are doing great business! Different model?
"The only way is to follow the French or Italian system."
And if this works, then next...schools!
"Yet another freakish tail, wagging a domestic dog."
I'm forced to agree.