24th July 2022

The best laid plans…I should have been writing this from Scotland - a treat for our Emerald wedding anniversary - but we both got Covid instead. As if I haven’t suffered enough this year. Bell’s Palsy, diabetes and now the evil bat disease - but still I haven’t managed to talk to my GP! Our local NHS hospitals are just as great as before, but it seems that GP surgeries are now largely privately-run businesses. However, unlike in the US - where patients are the paying customer and therefore sought after - the poor UK patient gets the worst end of the stick. No-one’s interested in me because I’m not paying, so three times this year I’ve had to bypass the GP altogether.  I liken it to when a bus driver depends on getting to the terminus depot on time to such an extent that he speeds past the queues waiting at bus stops. In other words, the original rationale for his job has changed markedly to suit a very different clientele. I had hoped my GP would prescribe Praxlovid, the best Covid drug, but was eventually told by an urgency clinic I found at last, that I wasn’t “vulnerable enough”. (No problem for the US President I see). I simply don’t understand why the general public here haven’t taken to the streets yet in protest. At least today’s ST is at last headlining it.