The other thing I was so frustrated over the other day was to visit a doctor. You know over here, you can’t just walk in to a clinic and ask to see a doctor(unless u go to a private clinic, which obviously charges some exorbitant prices..but more on that later)
The way the system here works is..you need to register with a GP in your residential area(you cannot suka suka register, it must be within 3 miles of your address)..and then, you make an appointment to see the GP u registered with..this appointment date can be on the day itself(which u should really go buy toto) or a week later whereby you might have already recovered from whatever u were suffering from(if u’re lucky) or fainted from the pain(if u’re not)
I always have problems with my ear..somehow it always start with it being itchy/blocked(too much earwax maybe)..& then I will itchy hand go disturb it until it gets inflamed. It happened to me again recently and the problem came on & off for a couple of weeks until I was so irritated by it, I decided to go see a doctor.
I went to a health centre about 10 mins walk from my place..after negotiating thru a series of receptions(there were 4 clinics in the centre and an average of 3 docs in each clinic..i was to pick one and then get myself registered) I went up to the receptionist and told her I want to register myself with Dr XX..
‘I need a photocopy of your passport’
‘I have my passport with me now’
‘No, I need a photocopy of your passport’
‘Can’t u do it for me here?’
‘No, u need to do all the paperwork yourself’
‘Ok, so if I bring you a photocopy of my passport later, can I see the doctor today?’
‘No, the earliest will be next week’
‘…………………………’
Of cos, I gave up the thought of registering with the doc..but I was so damn fed up(the just-as-frustrating bank account thingy just took place 30mins before) tat day..i actually spent 5 pounds and 1 hour to travel out to central London & went to a walk-in clinic at Victoria train station(I saw it during one of my journeys thru there). I did manage to see a doctor within 10 mins but she said she couldn’t do much about my ear cos it was badly inflamed and I need to administer ear drops to it for at least 3 days before she can syringe my ear for me.
Guess how much this 5 mins consultation cost me? A whopping 40 pounds. And the best part was, I needed to get the ear drops myself (doctors here only provide prescriptions, patients need to get their own medicine from the pharmacy)
So please dun blame me for being so ‘kao bei kao bu’ for the past few days.. ‘yi4 xiang1 you2 zi3 de4 xin1 ku3 you2 shui3 zhi1’
And lastly, you would have thought that NHS would have better things to do than to make registration with a GP so tedious for a foreigner..
Extracted from a local newspaper :
Cooing over babies banned
Hospitals visitors have been banned from cooing at newborn babies – to protect the infants’ human rights..visitors in hospitals are greeted by posters featuring a doll in a cot with the slogan ‘What makes you think I want to be looked at?’
..‘We know most people cannot resist cooing over new babies but we need to respect the child’..
..Hospital staff say they have acted to protect the human rights of ‘little people’ who did not deserve to be ‘prodded like tins in a supermarket’..
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P.S. I got the flu today..but decided to stick to the age-old method of ‘drink more water, get more rest’ than to attempt to see a doc again..
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