Paean

I'm lucky enough not to have had too many dealings with the NHS recently but twice in the last three weeks I've been referred by my GP for an x-ray and I'm so impressed by how different the process is from what it used to be. My GP tells the hospital online what I need. I don't have to wait to get a letter giving me an appointment in ten weeks time and then another letter postponing it; I can just turn up at the hospital whenever it suits me and join the queue. When my name is called, the radiographer has my referral on screen and knows what needs to be x-rayed and why. Today I got 13 minutes to read my book in the waiting room; last time it was 9 minutes. So easy. And I now live 25 minutes' walk from the hospital so it was an easy walk there and back in the sun.

Long may our NHS flourish.