Friday, August 03, 2007

East London 5 Star NHS Service


Today I had a first appointment with a NHS physio for a recurring knee problem. I arrived on time, went straight up to the reception (there was no queue) they confirmed my details and asked me to take a seat. Within 5 minutes the physio came into the reception and we went into his surgery where he questioned me and examined my knee. He discussed the possible cause and treatment, put a bandage on and recommended another appointment next week. The reception (again no queue) made an appointment for me for the following Thursday! The premises were newly refurbished, clean, bright and tidy.

I’ve had a problem with pains in my left knee for a year or two, and being a cowardly custard over this sort of thing, I have put up various excuses about not doing anything about it until my better half put her foot down (pardon the pun) and told me to stop whinging and do something about it.

My point is that I could not have had better treatment today for my medical problem. The publicly provided NHS is not perfect, there were a few hick ups on the way to today's appointment, however, I challenge anyone visiting Harley Street today for a similar problem and paying huge amounts of money, to have had a better service than I received.

In fact the only down side is that the physio was obviously full of "cold". He apologised, but said that symptoms had come on quickly and he hadn’t wanted to cancel appointments without any notice. Nuf said?

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