So when are GPs going to make it easier to make an appointment?

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I heard a chap from the Patients Association talking about how GPs provide an "office service" these days - no home visits or out-of-hours - and this lies behind some of the rise in complaints about GP services. But more worrying -and pretty scandalous - is that the difficulty in getting an appointment (especially for working people) at most GPs is a potential health risk:

Health experts are encouraging people not to put off seeing their GPs after research showed that almost a quarter of Britons would not see a doctor for a complaint because of the hassle of getting an appointment.

Now these "health experts" have grasped the wrong end of the stick. it is the doctors who are providing (or, it seems, not providing) the service to us not the other way round. And they seem to have slipped into a world where people have no choice but to take time off work so as to see the doctor. One of my favourite sick jokes was discovering that the "evening surgery" in Wilsden was at 3pm. Either doctors are very early to bed of this is something of a redefinition of "evening". 

So perhaps those GPs would like to focus on giving us all some service rather than moaning about the government.

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One wonders why?

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...people in Bradford are using a walk-in service rather than their own GP?

Dr Damian Riley, medical director at NHS Airedale, Bradford and Leeds, said: “This change was needed to make sure the walk-in service is used to its best advantage and continues to provide real value for money.

“More patients than expected, especially those who already have a GP elsewhere in the district, have been using the service, even though their own GP has been available.

Perhaps getting an appointment with their own GP is a living nightmare? Maybe people want a "turn up when you're ill" service from their GP?

So who is the service for then, if not Bradford people? Ah, yes...

The change allows appointments at the walk-in service to be prioritised for patients who are not registered with a GP, and in particular communities such as asylum seekers, homeless people, travellers and refugees. A service will also be offered for people who are temporary residents in the district and not registered at a Bradford and Airedale practice.

So it's back to the same old lousy GP service then folks!

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GPs are acting in their business interest on this, not the interests of patients

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The GP bit of the British Medical Association - with the Law Society, Britain's most effective trade union - is in a froth about competition. The GPs don't like it. This is because it might mean the practice owners will have to work a little harder for all that cash or else someone else might come and steal away all those lucrative patients!

Speaking after July’s meeting of the BMA’s general practitioners committee, chairman Laurence Buckman said there was “discomfort” from GPs about the plan. He said it amounted to “enforced competition”.

He said: “The implication is ‘go and look to someone outside the NHS to provide services that are currently inside the NHS.’”

In short competition is good news for patients and bad news for doctors, NHS managers and other vested interests currently cashing in royally from our system of healthcare.

That is why the GPs oppose competition.

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Who was it said the NHS was wonderful?

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My son - who is off to New Zealand in a few days - wanted to register temporarily with the local GP so he could obtain a repeat prescription. Pretty straightforward I would have thought?

However, on ringing the local GP some jobsworth informs him that to register he has to turn up in person to sign on. Bit of a pain but nevertheless my son dutifully wanders to the surgery and completes all the unnecessary, intrusive and largely pointless form filling needed to register.

With this procedure complete he asks for an appointment to see a GP. Sorry- can't do that!

Tomorrow, my son has to ring up the surgery at 8.00am (the line will be engaged - it always is at that time) which is the only time when appointments are dished out.

Utterly, maddeningly, stupidly, uselessly crap and incompetent.

And they call it a national health SERVICE! Who do they think they're kidding?

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Things my local NHS should do but won't...

1. Make a forward appointment to see a GP

2. Renew a prescription on-line or by e-mail

3. Have GP surgeries that open at times convenient to the patient

4. Allow a blood test to be taken in Manchester and the results sent to the doctor in Cullingworth

5. Stay open at lunchtime – there’s enough staff in there to cover

6. Recycle crutches

7. ….treat us like customers not nameless peons.

I don't ask for much - it's a National Health SERVICE, and I'm not getting much of that service.