By coincidence both a friend and I had been given a hospital appointment for
today, both of us having waited more than a year for it. Mine was by telephone,
he attended in person. Both went well enough but there was something I needed to
show my Consultant for which the telephone is not ideally suited. The comedian -
sorry Consultant - said I should get on to my GP straight away.
I rang the number on my last appointment card and reached an announcement to tell me he had changed his phone number.
I rang the new number and reached an announcement to the effect he is no longer very interested in patient care and
referred me to a website. I switched on the computer and sat my bubble
friend next to it so that she could marvel at the modern way of medicine while
telling me that when she was a kid unwell with quinsy the GP sat with her all night long in case she needed assistance.
The web experience started off OK but my ‘condition’ was not on the menu of
things that might kill you or perhaps not. After several dead ends I took a path
that might be in the right general direction until it asked me if I was
registered at a surgery in Welling. Mine is in Belvedere so I answered No and the
website took me back to the Home page from which I had a devil of a job to find
how to retrace my steps and answer all the questions again. This time I told a
lie on the surgery address page after which things progressed well enough.
The very last question asked was who I was so anyone is at liberty to fiddle
about with the site to see if I am a complete duffer with computers or not.
My friend who probably typical of a lady of her age said she could not possibly
have coped with my GP’s website and said she will continue to visit her surgery when necessary and shout through
an opened window which is the preferred consultation procedure there.
Open for business! A bit of a stretch.
Bexley Group Practice was rated “Needs improvement” in 2015.