Quintin Jardine's blog

I’m not quite a lifelong user of the NHS. I was three when it was set up but I have been a patient of the same practice in Gullane for 54 years. For the first 50 of those, if I needed to see a doctor I went to the surgery, morning or afternoon, clocked in and waited, for a couple of hours if necessary.

This morning I called, and asked for a routine, non-urgent appointment.

I can be seen on July 14, the receptionist advised me. Four weeks.

But that’s not all; if I have more than one complaint, I will need to book a second appointment. The alternative is to call again tomorrow at 8am sharp, in the hope that I will be answered before the limited number of short notice spots are filled up. I suggest that instead they assign a lottery ticket to each caller and then have a draw when all the spots have been requested. It would probably be a fairer system.

I have no idea how many patients are on the practice list but it must be in the thousands. I do know that seven GPs, one man and sux women, are listed among its complement of twenty-two staff: They work for a total of eighteen days per week. They need more, now.