Big business and the NHS
To The Guardian
Last week, my wife developed symptoms. I rang for a test the same day. I was told to go online and book a courier to deliver the test materials the next day. The courier duly arrived and departed. I then had to go back online to book another courier for pick-up. I performed the test and the courier picked it up. The system promised a result in two to three days, but we received the result six days after first contact. Such a system is absolutely useless for public health purposes, as numerous contacts could have infected others in the intervening six days. It is the result of the Government having ignored local public health services, opting instead for a complicated and centralised system, contracted out to a series of private operatives such as Serco, G4S, Randox and Amazon.
Had this not been the policy, we could indeed have had a world-beating system based on our local NHS public health structure. In that system, I would have been able to phone on the Thursday, a local NHS worker could have come out the same day, done the test, taken it to our local hospital lab one mile away, and we could have had the result phoned through and advice given within 12 to 24 hours. One shudders to think of the public money wasted on the current system.
Dr Nigel Speight, Durham
To The Daily Telegraph
I got an appointment from my GP for a blood test at my local hospital. I arrived early and found a queue of seven distanced people in the car park. A nurse acted as gatekeeper and operated a one-in one-out policy. At least one other person had the same appointment time as me, and I waited 30 minutes before being ushered in. I am youngish, fit and able; had I been elderly or disabled, there was nowhere to sit or find cover from rain. The brilliant phlebotomist was embarrassed and apologetic.
I rang my GP to suggest patients should be warned, and was told to complain to the hospital. This I did, to be informed that phlebotomy had been contracted out to a health trust and was out of the hospital’s hands. I tried to speak to the trust, but nobody knew where to direct me. Why can’t Tesco or Waitrose run the NHS?
Katrina Welton, Sevenoaks, Kent