The NHS at 'Work'

Referring to my earlier posts where I describe how the State tried to kill me, I have now had some follow up stuff, including a planned appointment with the cardiologist, a Good Bloke.

First I arrive at the appointed time and am kept waiting for over one hour. Luckily I'd put enough of the hard earned in the automatic cash confiscation machine so that I wasn't over parked.

Then we get to the appointment. Doc has a trainee cardiac nurse in with him. "Is this OK with you Mr Lola?" "Of course Doc"

We make the usual pleasantries, and the 'phone rings. He answers and is dragged into long consultation with a colleague, mouthing apologies to me. 5 minutes goes by.

Whilst he is engaged in that there's a knock on the door and a Junior colleague comes in with a a huge file and a question. He hangs around.

Doc asks me if I mind if he gets shot of junior colleague before we carry on? "Nope", I say, "you go right ahead".

As he's doing that there is another knock on the door and a nurse/administrator pokes her head round the door, then comes in and asks if it is OK to put another call through. 'It's a private matter'.

By now the Doc is looking a bit pressured, so the 'phone decides to ring again. he ignores it and turns to me and says 'look, I think it's best if we deal with you first'.

All the audience hangs around whilst he asks me a couple of questions and writes out a scrip. We shake hands and off I go.

Now, be clear, I am not at all precious about myself. Shit happens. But this is bonkers. This is the NHS doing what it does best. Complete fucking chaos and complete disregard for patients and their wants and needs. I had no chance to ask the questions I wanted to and I am not all as informed as I want to be.

So what to do. Well, in order to get some time and privacy and pick his brains, I am going to have to pay for a private consultation again aren't I?

My immediate response is to refuse to pay my income tax. And when I do send them a cheque I am going to deduct these costs and see what happens.

The real tragedy is that the NHS fails because it denies the freedom to the staff to do the job properly. It's not money. It's structures. These people, the clinicians, whom I have found to be generally good, are unable to do their job well because of the endemic chaos of an entirely producer captured monopoly.