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News and Comment January 2023

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3 January - Wishful thinking

A New Year message asked why Bonkers had not commented on the ‘Pull out and Keep’ section of Bexley Council’s Winter 2022 Magazine which received a generally favourable report here. The honest answer is that I don’t know; I must have skipped over it because it looked a bit boring but I find myself agreeing with my correspondent that it is a load of old, err, wishful thinking.

Tess and BoJoAt a time when I was refused any appointment for a potentially serious condition, Bexley’s Magazine supplement claimed that appointments are available early in the morning, during the evening and on Saturday.

The sting is in the tail, simply contact your GP practice. I accept that Bexley Group Practice may be in a class of its own when it comes to inaccessibility but contacting a GP is the Achilles Heel of the NHS and second only to the incompetence of successive Health Secretaries as the reason for the collapse of all health services.

Then the supplement goes on to say that to register with a GP you do not need to supply proof of address, immigration status, ID or NHS number.


Mayor JohnsonThis is I believe what the law says but it is not true in practice. I can say that having just gone through the process myself in an attempt to escape the clutches of Bexley Group Practice. I had to provide my NHS number, state my nationality and birthplace and upload a current bank statement and driving licence as proof of address and identity. For good measure I had to scrawl something approximating to my signature using my computer mouse. Not once but twice.

It was a 20 minute process and worked well enough except that it didn’t like spaces in post codes but as the new GP’s receptionist warned me, it is not for the faint hearted.

Nothing works properly in the NHS. Not very long ago I was sent a copy of a letter addressed to my GP by a consultant at Queen Elizabeth Hospital. The named GP retired many years ago but it tells him that the consultant phoned me to update me on a treatment plan. He most definitely did not and that was more than two months ago.

Just like Bexley Council the NHS is a confirmed failure and condemns people to die unnecessarily. 500 a week from bed shortages alone was reported only yesterday.

 

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