Friday 8 December 2023
Remote
A few days ago found Mrs H waiting for a call from our GP surgery about a repeat prescription review. She had been told the call would be on a particular day but not the approximate time.
Not giving a time slot was convenient for the surgery but not for us because we didn’t want to miss the call by going anywhere noisy or with poor phone reception. It was a foul day though, rain forecast until about 8pm so not a huge problem staying in.
It raises an interesting possibility. Does the GP surgery equate their convenience with efficiency? If their day goes smoothly maybe to them that feels like efficiency. It doesn’t feel so efficient if a patient’s time is taken into account, but does if it isn’t.
In the end, the call came from someone based in London who knew nothing about the reasons behind Mrs H’s prescription. From our point of view and given the foul weather it worked well enough. Maybe it’s a remote medical box-ticking service our GP surgery uses.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
8 comments:
“It raises an interesting possibility. Does the GP surgery equate their convenience with efficiency.”
One of the post-2019 questions we’d all like to know the answer to.
When I were a lad.....I had to see a specialist at the local hospital. The appointment was for 09h00. When Mum and I arrived the waiting room was full to standing. Gradually the nurse call out a name and the numbers in the room reduced by one or two. At about 11h00 Mum asked the nurse if the specialist that we were booked with was there as we had been waiting for two hours. "Oh, yes", she replied, "He has everyone come at 09h00. It is much more efficient as he does not waste any of his time".
I hope that things have changed in the last eighty years.
James - unfortunately experience seems to give the answer every time.
DAD - I don't think things have changed much. I've heard of a couple of examples only recently.
I'm afraid that the bureaucrats are outsourcing their work. Calculation of your ow self assessment taxes, sorting out rubbish into umpteen recycling bins, renewing anything by the internet, internet banking, self checkouts (big hate) in supermarkets, helping the 'help desks' to efficiently sort your problems.
Considering we do so much for ourselves it's a wonder there are any bureaucrats left. (Teensy weensy sarcasm.)
Yes, as D.J. says. And they tell us that it is an improvement in the system. Of course, we don't see any benefit. So they tell us we are benefitting something else that is in our long-term interests, like the environment, or the health of other service-users. It rather gave the game away when we were urged to "protect the NHS" during covid.
DJ - outsourcing ought to lead to decreased bureaucrat staffing levels, but aerodynamically stable pigs are more likely. Looking at it cynically, it is more likely to lead to such things as outsourcing audit roles.
Sam - yes, I was quite surprised at the "protect the NHS" slogan. Telling us it can't cope even though there were already pandemic plans in place.
" It is much more efficient as he does not waste any of his time"."
Got it in one. The convenience of the supplier is everything, the convenience of the customer doesn't count.
otoh we should never forget: "If you're not paying, you're not the customer".
Peter - "If you're not paying, you're not the customer".
Yes that's it and we should never forget it.
Post a Comment