In April, we spotted this on Rudgwick Rants – just one of the Waverley Facebook sites we visit from time to time.
We didn’t write a post at the time because we get so many comments and complaints about primary care, hospital and ambulance services in Surrey. In common with the rest of the country.
Neither do we believe in bashing the NHS – because we clapped with the rest of the population during COVID and recognise that most health professionals are on their knees.
We have received numerous private e-mail messages at contact@waverleyweb.com concerning the frustration of patients who cannot get an appointment with their GPs in Waverley.
Some areas of the borough are well-served, while others are not. Here’s an example of that frustration.
And here’s the reason why residents are so poorly served in Rudwick!
The GP has been working from home. But WFH for Dr Justine Hall is 265 miles away in Cornwall – and she has been doing that since 2015!
Mother of three children, Dr Hall, does her work from the pretty town of Falmouth in Cornwall and picks up a plump salary while breathing in the sea air. In the meantime, several thousand Rudgwick patients believed she worked from the village surgery. Because the surgery website state that Dr Hall “worked locally.”
In the meantime, from the personal experience of one of our bloggers who did manage to get a face-to-face appointment with his GP. A bloke who hates going anywhere near doctors because he is allergic to them was told after a five-minute consultation –
“your time is up.”
Dr Hall, your Rudgwick patients may believe the same should apply to you. It may be time to spend even more time with your family. Your three children, your two Romanian rescue dogs, called Flo and Brian, and your three rescue cats, that you say ” keep you very busy.”
The surgery says NHS England support “remote working in our area.” Really – did it really mean this remote?
Surely the question here is whether or not a job can or should be done remotely. It’s legitimate to ask that question. However, given that someone has decided that this job can be done remotely then the degree of remoteness is pretty irrelevant. The personal detail given in this post amounts in my view to misogynistic bullying (the individual has not chosen to be a public figure).
Sadly a GP is a very public figure financed by the public purse and has a responsibility to act professionally, which it would appear from the number of comments we have received from frustrated and angry Rudgwick patients is not the case here.
Surely, Most of us would like to think we can seek and be granted a face-to-face appointment with our GP. Or are you suggesting Rudgwick patients should travel to Falmouth?
How can all Doctor’s consultations be done remotely? GPs once undertook home visits probably with more patients than is current practice. Some patients are not Information Technology experienced and may not even have IT facilities or even be able to afford them. Nye Bevan’s NHS “paid for by everyone so free at the point of need” is on its knees and in desperate need of competent management. Much of its remaining success is because of the professionalism of its staff.
I entirely agree with Brian Edmonds comment. It’s about time that those who believe “that they were born to rule” learned to respect those who were born to serve and to stop grinding them into the ground.