"Bad experience"

My wife rang up with aches, a sore throat and a rash that developed over night covering her body and face.

We managed to get an appointment with a minor illness nurse after a long questioning by the receptionist. When we got to the appointment the person told us they could not discuss the rash because it was not on the symptoms listed by the receptionist and that we would need to book a double appointment next time. He seemed very disinterested in her and not sure about the diagnosis.

He seemed more interested in getting us out of the door to get the next in clearly a long list of patients in.

So has my wife got a contagious disease like chicken pox?

We do not really know. The system of triage firstly by the receptionist has failed my wife because the right words did not come up on the minor illness persons computer despite her telling the receptionist all of these things.

In the good old days one would have seen a doctor and explained all of this and had a much better chance of being treated. A very poor experience. Contrast that with a few hours earlier when I took my mother for a scan at Bedford hospital. We were seen early, the scan was done quickly including getting someone to help adjust the scanner, but best of all we were treated very well by all staff members. I think Flitwick could learn many lessons from Bedford Hospital including "customer/patient" care which has now sadly been lost in Flitwick because of an ever changing mix of process efficiency measures.