I am not someone who worships the National Health Service. It has let me down
several times, it let my ancient aunt down many times and it is currently
letting a close friend down. A vital consultation and treatment deferred for six months so far.
“Envy of the World” is a very sick joke although I accept that my own complaints
have more often related to the appalling state of its management. When I complained
about it several years ago I next saw my consultant with a degree of
trepidation. I need not have worried, he was very pleased that I had put the management failings
on the record and wished more people would do it.
Maladministration seems to extend to every level. Last week I received a
telephone invitation for a flu jab. I had planned to refuse but the receptionist
sweet talked me into it. “It won’t be at your normal surgery” I was warned. “Where?”
says I. “We’ll send you a letter with all the details.”
The letter came and it named the surgery but not its address. In 30 seconds
Google gave me the answer but the target audience for flu jabs will often be
septuagenarians like me and I am led to believe that many of us are not into
Google and Smart phones.
The next day an identical letter was delivered.
This morning I drove to the surgery to see what the parking was like because it
is four miles away and two bus journeys and a walk. As it turned out unrestricted
on street parking was freely available.
I still suspect the flu jab will be a waste of time. A search of this blog for the word flu provides 42 hits and despite having a jab for
the majority of the past 14 years I have had five to eight weeks of flu or something very like.
August 2012
April 2015
April 2016
January 2018
December 2019
January 2020
That’s five bouts of flu following the last eight vaccinations. Not a cold,
serious indispositions lasting for nearly two months.
If you are tempted to follow the links please note that they are from the section of the website withdrawn
from view pending link checking. It might be best not to follow the links from within those pages.
Note: The list within this blog should appear in two or three columns dependent on screen width but not all browsers support multi-column mode.