NHS gripe

In principal, I really like the concept of the NHS. Healthcare is vital to society, and no one should be denied their health because of financial reasons or status. My flatmate C is a doctor. I have general respect for the UK system. I'm friends with a bunch of doctors. I'm saying these things because I am not one of those people to rant about NHS care. I've grown up in another system which I am more accustomed to, but I don't think the NHS is that bad, and there are some things I think work better.

However.

One of the things I do not like is the idea that your GP has an imposed limit on the amount of time they have to see you. In fact, your GP likely has all of ten minutes to handle whatever it is you came in for. Which, all things considered, is really not very much time.

Now, coming from the system I come from, where you have to pay to see your doctor, what tends to happen is that you 'save' your ailments. I mean, why rush to the doctor for one small thing? That would be ridiculously expensive. When something comes along you can't ignore, you tend to just bring along all your other questions and tackle it in one fell swoop.

I have now been told off by two GP's for doing this. Today I went to my GP and said, "I know you're not really going to be happy but I have three things I need".

His response? "I'm sorry, I can only tackle two out of the three."

*grumble*

Of course, the two things he tackled were nothing. Like, "Oh, that's interesting, nothing we can do to help you, it'll probably clear up eventually on it's own." The one thing I probably need a referral for? Need to make another appointment.

*grumblegrumblegrumble*