Ghosting |ˈɡəʊstɪŋ | noun Def: the practice of ending a personal relationship with someone by suddenly and without explanation withdrawing from all communication.
I’m in the chemist asking for advice.
"You’ll need to phone your GP," she said.
"GP?" I thought. "I’d get through to Jesus Christ himself quicker."
In keeping with what is now considered standard, I spent three days trying to get through to my GP. Each day the call tally was over 200 attempts. On the third day I eventually reached the Holy Grail. I had to go through my symptoms with the receptionist, who triaged me, asked me to send through pictures and assured me a doctor would call me back.
A doctor didn’t call me back.
Nobody called me back.
Over the next two days I tried and failed to get through to my doctors. My symptoms getting worse, I gave up on the GP and went private. It cost a fortune.
The following week I was in the chemist for some painkillers. Recognising me, the chemist said: "You know there’s a script here for you? Your doctors rang it through to us last week,"
"What for?" says I.
"Oh, I’m not sure, you’ll need to phone your GP."
How would I have known there was a prescription waiting for me? What had the doctor actually diagnosed me with? These questions have now been added to the universal unanswered questions list alongside how long is a piece of string and how many roads must a man walk down before you can call him a man.
I’ve some more questions...
What has happened since Covid to turn our once working GP service into the national disgrace that it is now?
Who is to blame?
What can be done to fix it?
I don’t know anyone who is content with the service they receive from their GPs. It must be awful for the poor reception staff on the front line bearing the brunt of patients’ frustration.
We’re being ghosted by our GPs. We’re self-diagnosing, undiagnosing and misdiagnosing, and the fallout of this is yet to be seen. It’s forcing those of us who can afford it to go private.
What about those of us who can’t?
