APPOINTMENTS WITH FEAR

I really don’t know why I wanted to write this today, as it all seems a little pointless and overly political, but in the absence of anything else, this is what you’re going to get...

As a nation, this week, we were accused of suffering from (and dying from) something called “Stiff Upper Lip” syndrome. Basically, our cancer survival rates lag behind those of other countries because we’re all so “Terribly British” that we’d rather not “bother” our doctors with our “petty problems” and would rather not “waste their time” by going to them with something that we think is “basically nothing...”

However, the fact that there are also regular complaints that the waiting rooms are full up to the brim with people who have actually got nothing wrong with them other than “a bit of a cold” or “something they’re a bit worried about” would seem to contradict this, so unless we are a nation made up with 50% of us being hypochondriacs and the rest of us being at death’s door but refusing to accept it, it doesn’t look as if there’s going to be any change to this any time soon.

I heard an interesting chat about this problem involving a couple of spokespeople on the Radio on the day the story broke. One of them was of the opinion that we just don’t like to talk about such nasty things as “bottoms and blood and poo” (I feel awkward just mentioning it now, to be honest...), and we don’t believe the statistics on long-term survivability anyway, believing that once we’ve been diagnosed with such a thing, then that’s pretty much “time’s up” for us and we might as well just crawl off and die somewhere and not be any further bother to anyone.

i.e. We all seem to believe that we’ve got to die of something, so it might as well be that…

Of course, the other spokesperson’s comments were the ones which confused me more, as she seemed completely bewildered as to why anyone would feel that they didn’t want to bother their doctor, which just left me with the slightly awkward sensation that she had never tried to actually get an appointment with her GP before.

Okay, I’ll accept that the powers that be might be of the opinion that things are changing for the better, but if your past experience of such things might be as long as half a decade ago, and that experience was “less than wonderful” for you, that’s what you’re going to remember as your finger hesitates over the “dial” button...

“Not wanting to be a bother” or “struggling to get appointments” or “not wanting to waste the doctor’s time” are all things that I’ve heard from other people and thought myself many times over the years, yet during that discussion about this on the radio, that “expert” seemed truly bewildered that people might think any of these and so I did genuinely wonder whether that person has ever tried to get an appointment via a receptionist who seems to think it is their sworn duty that they are bound by an oath of honour to keep patients away from the doctors under their care at all costs.

“Oh it was like that years ago… It’s nothing like that nowadays.…”

Oh no…?

Try getting an appointment at the pre-or-post-work “commuter surgery” and see how far you get… Try getting one when “there are none available…” Try getting past a busy triage nurse in an A&E department on a Saturday afternoon who seems to think that you ought to have popped a couple of Paracetamol and gone to bed to sleep it off…

And as to getting anyone to come out on a home visit: “Are you sure you’re ill enough…?”

I know that the NHS is under a great deal of strain and that they’re doing a terribly difficult job, but when you’re first thought as you reach for the phone is that it’s going to turn out to be far too much trouble for yourself and everyone else, this “Stiff Upper Lip” syndrome isn’t going to go away any time soon…