"HOW THINGS HAVE CHANGED AND NOT ALWAYS FOR THE..."

My wife and I have been members of the Downing Street practice (DSP) for many years and for many years had excellent service from Doctors, Nurses and Reception staff.

In the last few years the service provided by the practice has deteriorated badly.

My father was a medical GP and when I look back on the hours he worked and his dedication to giving the very best service to all his patients for a remuneration far less than what GPs earn to-day I am saddened by how the service provided by the medical profession in general has deteriorated.

When we first joined the DSP it provided an excellent service, the waiting room was always full, there were several doctors on duty and you could get an emergency appointment on the day with ease.

To-day the waiting room is almost always empty and the number of doctors actually working seems to be too few and you have to wait for weeks to book an appointment and very often not see your own GP.

GPs are so well remunerated these days that many of them work part time, or work as locums where I suspect they are even better remunerated per session, which may well account for the degraded service now provided by the DSP.

It is very sad to see how a once very respected profession has deteriorated in the service it is able to provide.

It would appear that the service provided is no longer one where the patient comes first but one where the GP Practice provides a skeleton service and does not in general consider the patient to be of prime importance.

To-day I was booked for an appointment to see the locum doctor. At the appointed time I was told that the doctor was running 20 minutes late, no explanation given and asked if that was OK.

I explained it was not, as I had another appointment in 20 minutes and was not going to be late for that appointment.

To be fair I have been given an appointment in three days time rather than the normal three weeks time but I left DSP irritated but not totally surprised.

Come on who ever is responsible at DPS, remember you are there representing a very honourable and once respected profession and remember that your priorities are to your patient base first of all.