Trust me...I'm a doctor

I remember being ill as a child. My Nan would bring Lucozade and Mum would keep me in bed and ring for Dr. Heinz Court.This sensible old German gent was well known in our village and well respected. He regularly made house calls. His charm and wisdom meant that his prescriptions were followed to the letter. He was considered as rather eccentric but the fact that he was well educated and an experienced doctor gave people reassurance and confidence in their recovery.

Fast forward 50 years.

A sick child might be seen in a walk in centre as the GP is fully booked and, not using a simple triage system, fails to see the child. The GP also has a waiting room full of folks with even more horrible ailments for the child to be exposed to.  The GP will then be the target of blame via a complaints system or trial by social media.

Demographic changes and heightened expectations, coupled with poor resourcing, a failure to invest in training for many years and a series of government initiatives forcing knee jerk behaviours amongst practitioners have lead to today's sorry situation.

Trust me, I'm a University lecturer...