Waiting Times, Wasted Money

I’m a practice nurse at a very busy medical centre, where we look after over 23,000 patients,” says Maxine Farrell. “I work with a great team of dedicated GPs, nurses and support staff who work really hard to meet the demands of each working day but of course we are aware of the frustrations of our patients when it comes to issues such as making and waiting for appointments.

“In my opinion there are several underlying key factors in this particular area of the NHS. Firstly, the sense of entitlement that some people appear to have. They want everything ‘free’ from the NHS and they aren’t prepared to pay for certain items. One classic example is a box of paracetamol, which costs less than 12p from the supermarket. It actually costs the NHS over £10 to supply it but people would rather do that than spend that 12p themselves. Many people complain about waiting lists – they want to receive their treatment straight away – or about not being able to get an appointment. Yet over 300 appointments are wasted in our practice every month by people who don’t bother to turn up or cancel them.

“There simply aren’t enough staff to cope with the workload, which of course further impacts waiting times. Also, I would also like to see more informed media coverage. The recent ‘pay rise’ for nurses was celebrated but the reality is that most NHS nurses are actually worse off than the 1% pay rise they were previously getting. Also, there was limited coverage of the nurse strike a year or so ago and the doctors’ strike didn’t get the support it deserved either. Better media support would help our NHS and hopefully that would ensure a little more understanding from the general public too.”