Awake and up all night

Best of luck to you both with the results of the scan.

Fuuuuu such a lot of chat. Good luck to everyone who has appointments and next steps in their treatment journey.

Err ... nearly a month for a GP appointment when some advice right now is needed? 

Never mind an old stylee festival I feel an old stylee protest and direct action coming on! Grrrrrr!

Yes! online access excludes some of the very people who most need quick access to services, services that they shouldn't feel they have to justify contacting.

Stressy has autism among other needs and Scooterless has no digital skills and declining ability to acquire any. Both only have phone as potential online access. Both for different reasons find telephone communication difficult. One is the length of interaction and information processing. The other has pronounced hearing loss.

They both live 3 mins mobility scooter ride and 2 min walk from their respective GPs.

I have finally got our hospital to have on record that phonecalls are a no no for Scooterless.

Stressy's GP is brilliant with him. Special protocol means he can skip the early morning q for ever on phone for an appointment. He asks for a message to GP for earliest appointment. They ring back with the allotted slot.

New staff run the gauntlet if they are unaware

Cheers

Hope it goes well at the hospital tomorrow Uki. Will be thinking of you xxx

Glad to hear that your appointment went well Julie. Best of luck with the stem cell transplant.

Thanks Daisy xxx

Thanks Daisy. Can't say I'm looking forward to it, but we face whatever with strength and love.

Ooh GP receptionists! I do understand the vital role they play and the many skills and rafts of information they have to stay on top of. I also appreciate that if the GP is very peopley then they have to work even harder at being the gate keeper or some patients would move in.

Then we have Yvonne!!!!! I hear 'du du DAHHH!' on mention so please do too.

Yvonne! du du DAHHH! (you've got it!)

Until very recently when his son joined him, my GP was just him. The surgery was originally a large, old terraced house. The GP is in the front room and the waiting area houses a very small reception area, there being no privacy around anyone's conversation here.

Apart from Yvonne! du du DAHHH! there were two other admin staff but you would barely notice them. If anybody spoke, it was Yvonne! du du DAHHH!

 Yvonne! du du DAHHH! (ok ok) Was legendary. Everybody had a problem with ... her because she had problem with everybody. She was brutal and brusque every time she spoke ... if anyone dared to turn up or ring up.

A that time I was a Trade Union Branch Secretary and staff in my office found it hilarious that I would tackle Government Ministers, hostile crowds, very dicey negations, but the cloud of trepidatious gloom would descend if I had to contact Yvonne! du du DAHHH! 

She really didn't like patients, especially ones that made contact or had to be there. She was extremely derogative and derisive.

Stepping into the nearby cafe/newsagents one evening, the beaming owner excitedly said 'Have you heard? Have you heard?' 'What?' says me. 'Your Yvonne!' du du DAHHH! For a nano second I thought someone had finally punched her but he continued... ' I don't know how it happened, but she has gone! GONE!'

This man wasn't even a patient and was thrilled  Couple of days later, I walked into the surgery and ... it was like someone had taken the roof off and filled the place with sunshine. The other two staff had huge smiles and warmly greeted you! By name! Place was transformed.

Never did get to find out how. I once received a many paged booklet to ascertain my views on my GP practice. Thrilled I zoomed through for the bit to dis Yvonne! du du DAHHH! ... and there wasn't one!

Cheers 

Evening Shimmer  

Great story hon! I bet we've all had an Yvonne in our practices at some point - we had twin Yvonnes at ours, years ago, and the air in the waiting room was always heavy with discontent when those two dragons were on duty. They did provide in-house entertainment with the amount of patients willing to argue with them though.

Example -  Y - 'Why are you here?' P -  'i want to see the doctor and don't want to broadcast my symptoms to everyone present!'

Convos like that meant Y's and patients had previously locked horns but there were many of all varieties. I guess that's why phone appointments are encouraged to avoid public fighting in the surgeries.

Talking of Stressy and pal and phone numbers at the Doc's, it took me over a year to get it through to our GPs that it was pointless ringing OH as there was zero chance he could reply. I had to insist they deleted his number from their records and only use mine, forever. Jeez, there was never any logical reason for all the complications.

I'm actually hoping you're now firmly in the land of nod, Shims. Big hugs pet xxx

Umm still awake yeah, my mother couldn't hear telephone conversations but lots of people would insist they needed to talk to her. So I would explain I could ask their question and she could give them her answer but she wouldn't hear anything they said in response... never stopped them wittering on with their importance.

Ridiculous as it's not security. I could have simply said yes when asked if I were she, and they would have been non the wiser!

So much red tape around I am thinking of crocheting with it.

Cheers

Lol! My dad was stone deaf so hadn't been able to use a phone for eons and we had to do similar. We used to write everything down on a board for him and then he'd reply. We got by.

I'll tell you what really grips me these days. It's when others shout at OH - he's lost his voice, not his hearing ffs but his mother's the worst offender. I'll not go into that else I'll get annoyed.

Well I fell asleep yet again earlier whilst watching a drama on the telly. I came round about 11pm convinced it was Saturday night, then realised I hadn't done TLC so went upstairs to find OH still awake. The job had to be done so downstairs he came and onto the neb etc etc. He's back in bed but I'm wide awake now. If anyone tells me this is the new normal, again, I'll wring their neck!

Rant over so I'll watch a film or summat and see if that'll do the trick. One question - did you enjoy craft group? Our Sonia does similar with an art group so that's something for her to look forward to after recovery.

Get yourself off if you're tired hon, and ignore my waffle for another time xxx