From personal experience I know that NHS 24 does not always work. That’s partly why I was horrified to hear of the Polish doctor who travels for 14hrs every other weekend to get to Aberdeen to put in a five hour shift. Followed by two shifts the next day, then the 14hr trip back to Poland. And the new system of out of hours care was supposed to replace the situation where tired GPs were called out to patients.
But my faith in the police has recently been enhanced. We got a phone call from a rather distressed sounding, probably elderly lady, who complained of being ill and needing help. We got the number off our call log and telephoned the local police explaining what had happened. In a few minutes they phoned back to tell us that they had traced the number (down in England somewhere) and that an ambulance was being dispatched.
When i was a kid our Dr was a one man practice knew all his patiants names brought sisters, brothers into the world was there when grannies and grandads breathed their last,always had a smile a joke and a word of comfort no matter what the problem was.
This as well as having small consultancy at the eye hospital, goodness knows when he slept it was a very sad day when he retired.
I’m lucky I’m very rarly ill (looking for wood to touch) but comparing old DR Moffat to some of the young Doctors I’ve seen at our local health centre i know who I would rather have treat me (thats if you can get an appointment)this doctor sounds like one of the old school..
It sounds as if you had good patient care, Graham. Sadly, it is probably much more iffy now. I am minded to start lobbying, but suspect that GPs would not go back on their de-luxe package of benefits.