In sickness and in health

I have been ill. I managed to get into the office for four days but today was not going to be about work. I was tired. I had a headache and a racking cough while every bone in my body was complaining.

I thought a good strategy would be to telephone my doctor for an appointment and perhaps persuade him to give me a prescription for some
helpful drugs.

I called the surgery. It was closed. The message said that
it did not open until 8.30am. I tried again at 8.35am. This time
I was ‘entertained’ by Vivaldi’s
The Four Seasons for at least ten minutes then told I was third in the queue.

At last, a ‘real’ (automated) voice appeared, asking me whether I wanted a health
check-up, an appointment or whether I wished to register as
a patient. I confirmed I wanted
an appointment and was put back into another loop with an electronic voice telling me I was
a valued patient and I would be seen to “shortly”.

After another ten minutes, a receptionist appeared out of the electronic ether and offered me an appointment for 2pm, which
I gratefully accepted. The whole process had taken nearly
45 minutes.

Arriving for my appointment early at 1.50pm, I was greeted by a sign on the surgery door saying that it was shut for a ‘practice meeting’ between 12.30pm
and 2pm.

The door was locked. Soon, there was a queue of ill people waiting in the sun getting more and more concerned.

At 2.10pm, the door opened.
I made my way to the reception and was told to “check myself
in”. No personal touches here. Instead, I went to a computer screen, gave my date of birth, confirmed I was a male and was told to sit down to await
further developments.

At 2.20pm, a screen in reception asked me to make my way to consulting room four: at long last I was to see the doctor.

The meeting was brief, possibly eight minutes. I had my temperature taken, my blood pressure checked, and my heart and lungs listened to. Drugs prescribed, I headed off to
the pharmacy.

I couldn’t help comparing
all this with one of my clients calling me for an appointment.

My lines are open 9am to 5.30pm. Out-of-hours clients can leave messages which are picked up by fee earners. To make an appointment, a client can call our receptionist and (thankfully) we have no music
or electronic messages.

We do our best to accommodate clients in
terms of appointments.
Some clients are working
and prefer an appointment
after hours, before work or
at the weekend. Generally,
we can offer a same-day or next-day appointment.
Actually booking the appointment usually only
takes a minute.

If the partners are having a meeting, that will not close down reception.

Meetings with clients can
be lengthy; the average would be one hour. Rarely would I
see someone for less than
30 minutes, though.

And, of course, my clients
have the added benefit of a wonderful welcome from a loveable Labrador. SJ
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