In Praise of the NHS

In Praise of our beleaguered NHS

It must be winter, daily stories of an NHS in financial meltdown, hospitals in crisis, missed targets and lengthening waiting times. I thought perhaps your readers would welcome a good news story about the NHS.

On Saturday morning I decided I needed medical advice about a minor condition that had started Friday evening and worsened over night. The message on the answer machine at Audlem Medical Centre (closed at weekends) advised anyone needing medical attention to telephone the NHS 111 service. I did, spoke to a very helpful lady who gathered the relevant details and then told me that someone would ring me "within the hour". In fact I got a call back within a few minutes and was offered a GP appointment at the Out of Hours GP surgery at Leighton Hospital later the same morning (I only just had time to get to the hospital in time!).

The GP I saw did some tests, made a diagnosis, prescribed medication and told me to follow it up with my own doctor later this week. I collected the medication, was back home by lunch time and got the required dose in full on the Saturday.

I find that a very impressive service and is, I suspect, much closer to the experience of the majority of NHS users than the doom and gloom stories we are so used to hearing or reading.

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