Not to be outdone by yours truly, Mrs. No Name, on one of many outdoor pursuits, managed to damage her finger when attempting to control a basketball in what she was at pains to point out was a very complicated manoeuvre to complete successfully – which of course, she didn’t, which turned out to be rather the point 🤕🤕.
Anyway, by the next day it had swollen sufficiently to warrant a trip to A&E (pointless to go through the GP, she’d still be waiting for a response). Although it took three hours, they confirmed via an x-ray that it wasn’t broken and she returned home relieved and satisfied with the service. So, we have both visited in the last few weeks and both were successfully treated by a competent (that’s a compliment BTW, for the sake of any doubt) and relatively streamlined service. I’m sure if she’d traversed another route we’d still be waiting for a slot after either waiting for three hours on the phone and/or navigating the painfully inadequate Anima Online Triage service.
That of course leads nicely into this week’s debacle when, after taking her latest recently prescribed medication for three weeks and enduring not untypical but nonetheless seriously debilitating side effects, Mrs. No Name tried to contact her GP Practice to discuss the aforementioned medication. She tried to use Anima, which in this case couldn’t cope with the description of the problem so, as it is a prescription issue, she used the free text field on the online medication screen to register her concerns. After some toing and froing the GP who originally issued the medication rang back Friday evening, five days after the initial query, and agreed a reduction in the strength of the tablets. I won’t bore you with the interim delays and obfuscations that prefaced the eventual communication (too depressing, too tiring and, hey, we might get sued) but how in the 21st Century can the structural processes of certain sectors of the NHS be so unfit for purpose.
I know well enough that the individual patient isn’t the centre of the universe. I know resources are stretched. I know patient numbers are growing exponentially. I know the government bureaucracy overload is always increasing. So, why do organisations compound the problem by introducing ill advised, non human interfaces, often with fledgling and ill thought out AI components that reduce human interaction to a minimum and relegate the patient (you know, the individual at the heart of this supposedly person centred service) to a mere adjunct but nonetheless major inconvenience. I no longer profess to understand the full picture and realise that this is not the place for any kind of detailed or considered holistic polemic but it is still the home of the “meandering musings of the aged and grumpy” after all. I will say one more thing – stop making the simple stuff difficult by hiding behind ill thought out, processed, algorithmic driven drivel that obdurately places a block between the medical professional and the patient. Unless of course, that is the desired outcome; in which case, fill yer boots!
OK – minor rant over and as you were 😡😡.