sandyman

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This is clearly far from a unique issue. Somebody posted this on Facebook and it is so similar to posts here I asked him if he was with Tessa Jowell - he said "no, Lewisham". "This morning on the microsecond of 8am I tried to get through to my GP on the phone...it went straight through to Hold. Tried again. Same thing. Tried a third time...Same thing. OK, I thought, I will hold. 32 minutes later, I gave up. The voice said "Did you know you can now book appointments online?" NO YOU CAN'T...I have the Patient Access App & for the past 2 years it has said "This practice is unable to book appointments online." Anyhooooo...on way back from shops I popped into the actual surgery to see if I could book an appointment in advance...that was my second mistake...Receptionist said "No. You will have to ring up on a Monday morning to see if we have any for that week" "Oh, and what time should I ring?" "It's best to ring at 8am" "But i just spent 32 minutes this morning on hold and couldn't even get through" "Yeah, sorry about that, we are short-staffed at the moment...but did you kn ow you can now book appointments in advance online?" "No, you can't" "Well, there are sometimes some appointments available online" "Nope, no there aren't...looked every day for 2 years and not a scintilla of an appointment..." "Well, you could always ring up at 8am" "You do know the whole system is completely falling to pieces?" Receptionist gives rueful look. In case I lost it and set fire to the whole fecking GP Practice there and then, I left. I will try again tomorrow morning at 8am. And see if Dr Godot will see me...We are well and truly f****d, peoples."

Presumably more than selling overpriced dusters.

Can't imagine the police can do much about suspected casing of houses - sadly they don't seem able to do much even when thefts have been caught on camera. But no harm reporting - they supposedly use this data to direct future resources.

About 25 years ago if you felt poorly you just went and you'd be seen. You might have to wait but no appointment needed, you'd be seen while you were there. As they say, different times,

Thanks ive dm'd you!

Does anyone have an old school dictaphone that still works? One that plays microcassettes - remember them? Plenty on ebay for around £10 but i need one quickly.

I've often used Melbourne tyres but I'm so old that before then I used to get my tyres from the place that's now Bora grocers on the corner near Franklins.

Don't seldoc/111 refer you to kings A&E? I had an infected finger a couple of years ago and was pretty sure all i needed was a course of antibiotics, but 111 still referred me to King's where I had to wait hours to get them. Has the system changed?

Without wishing to make light of this topic, all of this talk about kids on bikes outside stations queuing up for rich pickings makes me think of this clip.

I think the frustration is also due to what was touched on in a post above - when a valuable phone is stolen we can see on a map exactly where it is and the police still do nothing about it. Never mind apprehending the culprit they don't even help you retrieve it.

I can only speak anecdotally but there certainly don't seem to be as many police around, either in cars or on foot. Around 25 years ago I was pulled over twice in the same month (I was innocent) and was even stopped by a bobby on the beat for cycling on the pavement. Can't remember the last time i saw a bobby on the beat.