Camdcen New Journal - Letters: Quality hospital care

Publications by New Journal Enterprises

Home

Archive

Competition

Camden New Journal - LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published:28 June 2007

Doctor will see you... later

• IT is now difficult to make an appointment to see a doctor at my local practice.
I’ve been a patient there for more than 40 years and had no trouble until they brought in the present arrangement seven years ago.
This is meant to ensure everyone is seen within 48 hours of making an appointment. Unless they are working full time, no one can book any further ahead.
At the outset, you could book an appointment for the day you phoned up or for the next day. But gradually over time, as more of the “next day” appointments were taken, there was nothing available at all for the day you phoned, but only for the next day.
Now, in the scramble for those places, all of them are in turn taken within a few minutes of the lines opening, and any stragglers have to join the “overflow” – the tail end of the morning’s appointments, and wait for perhaps up to an hour or more before seeing a doctor.
This chaotic arrangement could easily be replaced by an appointments period extended over five days, allowing every patient to see a doctor when they need to – perhaps even the doctor of their choice in a busy practice, which is almost impossible at present.
But for the practice the trouble with this is that, because it is now paid more to see patients within 48 hours, more than half its income could be reduced.
Left, therefore, with the alternative of packing ’em in anyhow, it should not be surprising to see queues of patients waiting outside practices at midday while their practice managers (like mine) continue to insist that (nearly) all is well – a view apparently shared by Camden Primary Care Trust after my complaint to them.
JAMES COLLINS
Belsize Grove, NW3

Send your letters to: The Letters Editor, Camden New Journal, 40 Camden Road, London, NW1 9DR or email to letters@camdennewjournal.co.uk. The deadline for letters is midday Tuesday. The editor regrets that anonymous letters cannot be published, although names and addresses can be withheld. Please include a full name, postal address and telephone number. Letters may be edited for reasons of space.

Comment on this article.
(You must supply your full name and email address for your comment to be published)

Name:

Email:

Comment: