Britain today (health).

Yesterday was the sixth anniversary of our living in our Huttoft house in rural Lincolnshire. During that six years I was registered at the Alford NHS surgery about four miles away. During the first couple of years or so the service was reasonable, with a few doctors on the books, some good, one excellent and others acceptable. The key thing was that one could get an appointment quickly and always get to see a qualified doctor rather than a nurse practitioner (which is gradually becoming the norm hereabouts).

By last year (2017) it became almost impossible to get a doctor appointment with none showing as available online or via the telephone. That means essentially that all available appointments for the rapidly decreasing number of surgery doctors was causing patients very lengthy delays in getting any kind of treatment for ailments. So, in my case, I went almost two months without being able to see a doctor. The surgery became what I call "not fit for purpose".

This situation could not continue and my wife and I agreed to set about trying to change doctors/surgery. I am not going to mention where we have moved to as I do not want a situation where a hundred readers of my blog follow me and then create that same situation that was experienced in Alford.

Suffice to say that Alford compared to "x" is like chalk and cheese. The new surgery we attend is what I would describe as exemplary and a snapshot of what one would always hope the NHS at surgery level could or should be like. It is wonderful! Despite this I am still awaiting an MRI scan and still with no interim advice on what to do with my shoulder in terms of exercise (or not). Because of the pain when I try to use my shoulder normally I simply act as though I do not have a left arm. This means (I think) that I am getting into the realms of muscle wastage which obviously is not good.

Even though we are now 'sorted' re a doctors' surgery, the facts are that I have effectively had no treatment as such for three months or more. Try living your life like that - little or no sleep - try keeping a marriage together whereby one's wife also gets affected seriously to the point where separate sleeping arrangements become an option.

Personally I think that Britain today is approaching the status of a third world country in terms of services. Nobody states it, whether HMG or us (much) but we are out of money - unless, that is, it is for increasing the salaries of say MPs in which case - no problem - the money will be found.