4th April 2021

 Sometimes I get exasperated with the NHS. I know, I know.  The concept of a universal health system is wonderful, something other countries like the US look on with envy. I clapped along with everyone else to thank the Covid staff who’ve worked tirelessly over the past year.  And, how we dealt with the Covid crisis exposed the differences in how this small country is able to move so much faster than the over-bureaucratic, ponderous EU. Indeed, whilst our vaccination programme is going really well, France is now entering its 3rd lockdown and Germany’s introducing yet more restrictions. But, in other ways, the NHS is still in the dark ages. Last week, as a pre-diabetic, I had a blood and MSU test but to date have been unable to get the results. When I call up, I’m told that my dr is ‘satisfied’, therefore my result’s been filed! In France, the lab automatically pings the result to both the  patient’s  and doctor’s cell phone , the same day. Correct. It helps local doctors enormously. Even our garage gives me a written report on our car! So, yes, even though our NHS is a wonderful concept, for general day to day medical treatment, it needs to modernise its services, enter the digital world and stop being condescending to patients.