The NHS...
7 months here, and I finally got my first taste of the NHS. I must admit, I am still a wee bit fascinated.I woke up the other day with an earache. It wasn't horrible, but I have never had an earache before and it kind of freaked me out. Previously I had signed up for a doctor, at the encouragement of my boss (I think her words were 'you are not allowed back in the office until you get yourself registered with a doctor!'). Essentially, if you are not registered with a doctor, you can't go to one; you're only eligible to go to A&E (what the Brits call the ER). That doctor has to be within a small radius of your home, like 2-3 miles. So as you can imagine, luckily there are doctors offices everywhere, but they vary from place to place, and there is absolutely no information on them when you're selecting one to help in your decision making process.
I was advised to choose an office that had several doctors, so that if one wasn't available you could see another. So anyway, I decide I should go get this ear thing checked out, as I was in a lot of pain. You can only make appointments like this the day of, and you have to catch them on the phone as early as you can. I started trying to call right at 8:30 when the office opened, and received a recorded message that says 'I'm sorry, our phone lines are busy. Please try again later' - click. You're not placed in a queue, you have to keep calling back. Now keep in mind in Britain you have to pay for each call you make, local or otherwise, so I'm guessing BT must make a fortune in all of these doctors office calls! I got through after about 20 times, and was surprisingly told I could come in in an hour. No 'our next appointment is in October' - just 'sure come on in.' Talking to people around the office it seems that that is not necessarily normal, but still, I was pleased to get in so easily. Although when I arrived at the office at 10 I overheard them turing away patients on the phone and telling them to call back tomorrow at 8:30. So that's kind of annoying, you can't make an appointment for the next day, you have to start the whole calling process all over again...
The office is about as far away from the offices of the Cedars Sinai medical center than you can get. Essentially it's just a 2-story house in a row of old Victorian houses along a street near me. The waiting room is not dissimilar to the nurse's office at South Knoll Elementary. Wooden benches, old chairs with the stuffing coming out of them in places, worn posters everywhere encouraging you to eat your fruit and vegetables. I half-expected to see a poster of a kitten dangling from a tree saying 'Hang in there!' It truly was like going back in time. But the staff were friendly and I got in with ease.
When your appointment time arrives, you are called back--not by a nurse to sit and wait for another half hour--but by the doctor herself (who seemed about my age!). The examination room is more like an office than anything else. The entire room is not white, and while clean, did not have that state-of-the-art/sterile feel I had become used to. For my exam I sat at her desk in a chair instead of on a paper-lined table. She seemed to ask all of the right questions, did the relative tests, and sent me on my way. I wasn't in there more than 7 minutes or so, but didn't feel like I had missed anything. The strangest thing was walking out and not having to hand in any paperwork to be filed, write a check out for a co-pay, or update my insurance information. You just wave goodbye and walk out. Simple. 'Cheap as chips' as they say.
I will admit that I didn't have a complicated medical problem, and who knows how that would be handled, but overall I was impressed. It was efficient and easy (not to mention free...for everyone). My only hangup was the awkwardness I felt in the waiting room - it just seemed so old. But really, does that make any difference in the quality of care you're getting? I doubt it. It's just funny what we become accustomed to over the years. Watch this space...
posted by Eleanor @ 9:29 am
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