FACING UP TO IT

As of this October, your local GP surgery MUST offer appointments in the evenings and weekends. This is under a new NHS contract being introduced by the government to drive down waiting times.

But if this simply means more phone call appointments and still hardly any face-to-face interaction, then it’s just more smoke and mirrors.

Our GP is harder to get into than the most exclusive members-only club. Locked doors, intercom interrogation, hazard-taped area that’s so far away from the receptionist behind their Perspex screen you have to shout what you’re there for – which can be embarrassing to say the least.

I don’t care if my GP phones me at 3pm or 8pm. I want them to see me in person. Sit and talk to me. Maybe examine the lump/whatever rather than me sending them a fuzzy phone image. I want the NHS GP surgery service I had before COVID.