Bert told me he had a nagging pain in his back so I phoned the surgery
to make him an appointment.
How long have you had it?
Two or three months.
Why didn’t you say anything before?
I knew you’d only be nagging me to go to the doctor.
Anyway, I phoned the
surgery and that is when I found out that they had changed the
appointment booking system.
We don’t book appointments any more.
Oh?
If you leave a number the doctor will phone you back.
I was a little
miffed about this. But the doctor did phone Bert within about thirty
minutes and offered to see him straight away. Off he went and was
away much longer than I expected. When he eventually returned he said
the doctor had sent him into Ballymena for an X-ray. All this within
a few hours. I thought it was a great improvement on the previous
service which would have entailed a week to wait for a GP appointment then a drive to Antrim
and a two hour wait for the X-ray.
If the new
appointment system is intended to screen out the scores of people who
go to the doctor for damn all then I approve.
My old mum was a bit
of a hypochondriac and I remember my father saying that every time he
drove her to the local surgery,
It’s always the same old faces.
I wonder if he
considered his wife to be one of those old faces but, if he did he
never said so.
I’d hate to be as
overly concerned with my health as Matty was and I am happy to say
that I am definitely not a hypochondriac. Except… except in the wee
small hours when every twinge, every ache is the harbinger of some
dread disease. And it's getting worse as I get older.
And what of Bert?
His results came back. Nothing sinister she said, just an old rib fracture and the effects of chronic smoking. Nothing
sinister? That would scare me. It's time he quit that nasty habit. And
I’ll cut down on the gin and buns. They give me a sore tum.
