Matching service provision to demand.

First, a warning. This blog is therapy! There may be capitals! It is a venting of frustration, a means of minimising the shouting at the television and Twitter feed that has been happening rather too much recently! It also feels a lot like stating the bleedin’ obvious! If only Onswitch ruled the world… So, at the end of August, the Friday before the Bank Holiday, Onswitch Junior complains of a sore ear, and it’s bad enough to warrant seeking medical advice. We ring our GP, but the surgery is closed. No, we didn’t understand why either. So then we ring NHS Direct, because their website told us “You should call the NHS 111 service if you need medical help fast, but it’s not a 999 emergency.” They ask me how long he has been depressed and off his food. He hasn’t been, he has a sore ear (as I think I may have mentioned). After working through the scripted symptom questionnaire, we are advised to call 999!! IT’S A SORE EAR! Of course we don’t call 999, instead we rifle through our (slightly out of date) veterinary supplies and find some trusted drops. Which work! Although we do make an appointment with the GP surgery when they finally open again the following Tuesday, just to be sure. There are so many questions here – why was the surgery closed on a normal working day? Why can’t we routinely access non-emergency care over the weekends? Why on earth don’t we have 24/7 healthcare as standard in Britain in 2018? Of course the answer is inevitably so much more complicated than JFDI – there are politicians, government departments, regional budget holders, Quangos, patient groups and unions all pulling in different directions. But really? More veterinary practices are now starting to offer routine consult appointments on Saturdays, evenings, and more and more enlightened ones on Sundays. Because it makes financial sense – if you are paying significant amounts of ‘overtime’ on staff rotas, then there will undoubtedly be a financial case to add these hours in to the ‘normal’ rota and justify an additional salary, even with anti-social hours payments. It feels like such a quantum shift to offer medical care around the clock, but it shouldn’t – we can’t get ill to order. And there are so many occasions where our patients don’t need emergency care, but are uncomfortable enough to warrant some intervention over a weekend. Is it really that hard to do? Because until it becomes standard practice, any vet who does offer this routine 24/7 cover will be feted as some kind of miracle worker and attract countless new clients. And if nothing else, that has got to be good for business!