The Times' columnist Dr Copperfield today provides an insight into why the Government's trumpeted drive to extend GP surgery weekday opening hours and by-pass surgery reception staff is misconceived.
The Essex GP explains how the pressure to cut waiting times has led to the bizarre side-effect that it's hard to book a GP appointment more than two days in advance, as this would look as if the patient was being kept waiting too long. He sings the praise of surgery receptionists, who get round the system and add the human touch vital to any service, such as making sure a nervous 16 year old whose period is late isn't sent to see the doctor who's a lay preacher.
My mother would approve: she was a receptionist at Llanedeyrn health centre in Cardiff for many years.
Dr Copperfield brands NHS Direct TV as a kind of Rutland Weekend Television run by nurses. For anyone under 40, RWT was Eric Idle's first creation after the demise of Monty Python's Flying Circus.
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