My GP practice has been the property of the practice owners since I arrived here in 1992, 30 years ago. Though the partners have changed over the years, and the original building has been doubled in size with a recent addition being completed in the early days of Covid, their biggest issue has been obtaining staff, especially doctors. Since Blair’s contracts, most GPs work only limited part-time hours, and many retire early to avoid tax on pension conflicts. They now have several pharmacists who do not dispense, but do routing prescription issuing and repeat dispensing re-authorising. Dispensing is still the role of the privately owned chemist/pharmacists, of which there are two in the village sized ‘town’, almost opposite each other in the one ‘main’ street, in real terms little more than a cart track wide, one way street. Generally neither my wife nor I have too many issues, the electronic requests for prescriptions are treated exceptionally quickly, though manual requests or ‘specials’ can take longer.
I sympathise with those having arthritis problems, my wife has lupus and arthritis, and I have increasing trouble with arthritis, it makes typing troublesome, especially since I have restarted to have numbness in my left arm and hand. Rheumatologists are rumoured to exist, my wife has only waiting 18 months to get her 6 weeks time follow-on appointment. My referral to them was met by no room at the inn, or was it at the hospital?
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