Trip to the Doctors

Now that the winter is upon us and the mornings are bitter cold, more people start to become ill. Everywhere time it seems that I step out of my door I see passers by coughing and sneezing. The only way to avoid the flu during winter is by having an anthrax mask as a must have winter accessory. Getting a cold isn’t all bad, snuggling up in bed with a hot water bottle and watching day time TV sounds ok, even better if when my boyfriend decides to take it as his personal duty to wait on me hand and foot, so catching the common cold once in a while, doesn’t always seem to be a bad thing. This isn’t always the case when it comes down to getting a chest infection or becoming ill with a sickness bug as the local doctors surgery always seems to be fully booked. My Aunt lives in the Midlands, my Mum lives in East Anglia and my Dad in Essex and they all have the same problem as I’ve experienced with the doctor’s surgery.

I don’t normally go to the doctors as regular as some people, when I have a cold I stock up on all the medicines possible and fight it off myself. However when I do visit the local GP the same problem has occurred, I’ll ring up on a Monday and ask to see a doctor normally expecting an appointment on the same day or perhaps the next day, the secretary will sigh and scroll threw her appointment book while she puts me on hold to listen to a dull monotonous tune, until she returns and asks if it’s an emergency and reluctantly saying no, only to find out the waiting list to see the doctor is fully booked until Friday.

I plod on with my daily life feeling angry that the doctors are fully booked until the end of the week. I consume all the medicine possible and find myself drinking more then the average dose of a cuppa soup in the hope it will stop the annoying blocked nose and tickly cough. By mid week I’m starting to feel slightly better and by the time Friday arrives I’m fully recovered.

Friday morning seems to come round all too quickly and I drag myself out of bed to discover that the thumping pain above my eyes have disappeared, the rough husky voice has been replaced with my normal tone and as for the tickle chesty cough that too seems to be reduced to a small croak. I start to panic; I can’t see the doctor like this he will surely think I was making it all up! On the other hand I can’t cancel the appointment as I would feel awful after having to wait all week , so there is only one think to do , and that’s to pretend that I’m really sick. I feel so guilty when I’m sitting in the surgery surrounded by people coughing and holding their tummies while looking in pain, I’m now fully recovered there’s no need for me to be here, but I still stay. My name is called out and I edge towards his door , once inside his room I tell him my symptoms and end up adding a few extras due to me feeling guilty for wasting his time , he prescribes me some form of brightly coloured medicine then I’m on my way.

If the doctor’s surgery was more efficient I wouldn’t need to lie, but I have no choice and many of my friends and family have said similar things. I don’t understand why there is always a large waiting list; surely with all the graduate doctors in this country we should be able to have an effective and efficient NHS system.

From now on I think that the best idea to get an appointment on time is pre book about three months down the line and then hope that it falls on the day that your ill, unfortunately like many people I now have lost complete faith in the national health system, hopefully I’ll never get ill again!