Why, hello there.
I know I am a bad person and it has been a terribly long time since I last got in touch with you all. I'm sorry. Life gets in the way, and truth be told I've been wondering if there's any point in me bestowing my knowledge to you all, I mean, the journey is there for the taking, go forth and discover!
But I've been comparing health systems around the world in my head lately and thought I might do a little post on general GP visits whilst in London. I'll mention before I begin I'm a relatively healthy commonwealth citizen, and as such my experience may be entirely different to someone 'more' foreign (i.e not entitled to healthcare as easily as I was) or of course, a British national.
First thing, and how I would more or less sum up the entire post:
The NHS is cheap.
Any form of prescribed contraception is entirely free (and, yep, those rates of teen pregnancy in the UK still occur), more impressively (depending on how you view it) everything is subsidised to the point of costing only £7, whether it's for antibacterial wash or a more 'hardcore' medicine (such as a retroviral drug for example). In Australia the prices of medication can get very expensive, very quickly, and initially I was gobsmacked, in a good way.
But the cracks do begin to show. When I first caught a cold that didn't budge I was told the easiest way to get treatment would be to go to a little general clinic at Whitechapel hospital. You take a number and sit in a waiting room full of all the walks of life you could comprehend. They take your details and ask why you don't have a GP. Then (in my case at least) they tell you they won't do anything about your cold and you should just go home and sleep it off.
Well. Thanks.
So I figured that wasn't my cup of tea. And set off to find a GP.
There are two main points of difference with getting a GP in the UK that I found new/interesting.
1. You need to live in the catchment area (i.e bring a proof of address/passport etc)
2. The GP needs to be accepting clients.
Both totally reasonable, but in Australia I go to a doctor who would certainly not be in my 'catchment area', and when I can't get there I'm always confident I can walk in to any clinic around me and they'll see me.
Also as soon as I arrived for an appointment I had a very fast urine test for kidney disease. Which was very unusual to me, but I suppose it must be common in that area.
The GP's seem knowledgable, friendly, but also fairly impersonal. Which is not only understandable, but fine. They will palm certain things off to nurses (injections, pap smears, etc) but in such a densely population, what else would you expect? Ultimately, you'll be looked after.
I also want to briefly mention dental, I wasn't entitled to squat on the public system, so everything I did was on private and was damn expensive, but very good. I actually had to get a crown on one of my teeth, and I love it.
Aside from giving some travelllers out there some vague instruction on how to get a GP appointment, but I would also be curious to hear what the locals think? There must be an incredible amount of public funds going in to keep prescription and similar costs low, do you get what you pay for?
Until next, when I hope to post something a little more light hearted!
