Well it's inevitable that I'll pick-up the occasional cold -- especially when my route to and from work is among the bucolic commuters of old London town.
However, I had a bit of a fright this morning when I woke with the tell-tale sore throat, body aches and gooey sinus. All standard stuff -- only that I was informed that a colleague who sits next to me at work has been 'quarantined' from the office as of midday yesterday. The reason -- the cousin she'd spent all last weekend with has been diagnosed with the H1N1 virus, more commonly, the dreaded Swine Flu.
This news naturally made my mundane sniffles rather more alarming -- especially as we have a four-month old boy in the house whose immune system, like the rest of him, is somewhat under-developed.
And as I still haven't yet registered with a local GP I called Tollgate Lodge on Stamford Hill, the one P and the boy use. Amazingly, I was told that I must go in-person to the surgery today, fill-in a registration form and then return tomorrow in order to be checked-out --and even then there would be no guarantee that I'd be seen. That's two+ visits to a public surgery waiting room populated by ill people and with potentially a very very highly contagious ailment!
As this made no sense at all, I called another GP's office, Barton House on Albion Road to double-check, only to be told -- more sensibly -- that I should stay at home, monitor my situation, and then they would arrange for a home visit if things deteriorated.
Thankfully, all I have is a mild summer cold and am fine and the yukiness is abating in resopnse to Lemsips and Strepsils. But I am astounded by the crass ineptitude of Tollgate's 'front-of-house' staff at my family's surgery. (Actually, they're the reason that I haven't yet registered as their system is not in the least user-friendly to the working stiff.. ) And if I weren't convinced that P&G's personal doctor isn't utterly top-notch I'd be very concerned for their on-going healthcare.
I for one, though, will be registering myself with the kind, caring and customer-oriented folks at Barton House tout de suite.
Unfortunately, the NHS is as brilliant as it's broken, or as broken as it's brilliant. The best put Patients ahead of Processes, while the worst are slaves to their own out-dated, inefficient and potentially dangerous Processes.
