Off shortly for a couple of blood tests, this time at the GP’s (doctor’s) surgery. I understand that they need to monitor me from time to time, but we seem to be getting into some sort of spiral. At one time I might have to be checked every 3 years or so and those were usually at my own instigation as time and the nature of my job suggested to me that my aging works ought to be looked at now and again in case something needed attention.
Now I seem to be required to turn up more and more often and find situations like the one last year when, having told the surgery that I would be abroad for 4 weeks, they booked me an appointment whilst I was away and castigated me for not having attended when I didn’t even know about it, and stopped the supply of medication that they had told me I needed to take.
I sense the hand of central government in all of this. Am I now a statistic that needs to be checked off and appear on a return just to keep the practice’s performance figures in line or something similar?
Who knows for sure, but I suspect that it could be and, while the surgery are dealing with me, disgustingly healthy as I am, answering my phone calls, phoning me, seeing me, filling in my forms and all of the other things that they have to do, there is some poor soul who could have better benefited from their time than me. And I am ashamed of that.
* For my non UK readers, the NHS is our National Health Service
The Voice of the Bloke at the Back 