GP appointments need a rethink to avoid the ‘8am scramble’ - Sarah Todd

The £240m of funding Mr Barclay has announced for GP practices isn’t to be sniffed at but he must remember that any pushing patients online won’t be a miracle cure.

People’s private business - their health - can’t be treated like mainstream commercial concerns. Sometimes rather than throwing money at them, problems just need thinking about in a different way. Money talks, of course, but it’s invariably not the only answer.

The phone line to a doctor should always be open for genuine emergencies, but has anybody ever thought about restricting the early morning calls to those who need to get advice or an appointment before they set off for work?

Retired patients and those at home with young children could perhaps be given guidelines of later times in the day to get in touch. A mass leafleting campaign could have a real impact.

Knowing the way the world is going, this brainwave of recommended times to get in touch would probably be dismissed outright as offensive to those sectors of the population it doesn’t include in certain slots.

As an aside while yours truly is on sorting out the health service, no shows for appointments (when a genuine excuse can’t be given) should be charged a fiver. Last year the Government backtracked on a plan to charge £10 after union objections about the administrative burden of collecting the fines and fears of giving patients increased anxiety. What rubbish. People would expect to have to pay if they missed a hairdresser’s appointment and there’s no way the same courtesy shouldn’t be shown to medical staff.

Traditional lunchtimes, say between 12noon and 1.30pm, perhaps need more staff answering telephones to deal with callers who can only make contact when they take a break from work. Then again late afternoon, when they leave the daily grind. Since the pandemic our nation seems to be under the illusion that everybody works on flexi-time from home. Evenings and weekends need bringing into the mix. Trying to compartmentalise everybody’s health into a neat 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday time frame does nobody any favours.

Money for more staff to take the strain over a more staggered working week makes sense. Possibly it’s again since the pandemic, but across many service industries rotas involving weekend and evening working seem to have been consigned to the history books.

Thinking about appointments, our sheep have got their annual shearing session booked in and it is perhaps worth highlighting the central role wool took at the Coronation of our new King. The weekend’s parade was made up of more than 15 miles, end to end, of uniforms made from woollen cloth.

To recognise the support King Charles has shown the industry - he convened the Campaign for Wool in 2010 - Savile Row and surrounding streets were clad in over a mile of wool bunting made from the red, white and blue military fabric offcuts.

Biodegradable, sustainable and renewable, the woollen bunting was made by an army of apprentice tailors and will be re-used for future events.

It is an interesting fact that it often costs more to shear a sheep than its fleece is worth; but off it must come for welfare reasons or they are too hot and can be struck down by potentially fatal fly strike.

It’s a national disgrace when wool is something that only the wealthy can afford to wear or carpet their homes with. Support must be given to make it more accessible and develop future markets, be that in everyday fashion usage or other industries such as house building and gardening.

Finally, this awkward customer braved the bank’s automated phone system and insisted on opening a new account in person rather than online. The face-to-face adviser confided some of her fellow workers, especially the younger ones, tow a lighter harrow since the pandemic; pushing people online so they don’t have to deal with the paperwork. This smashing real human being at the bank served as a reminder that we must keep raising our heads above the computer or mobile phone screen.