Ralph’s Place

London to Nottingham - Return

Car - Approx £30 in petrol *
Train - £33.45, £38.95 or £80.20 depending on when you travel **

What would you do?

* Does not include cost of Car, Insurance and Servicing
** Price includes 16-25 Railcard discount. Does not include cost of travel to/from stations. For cheaper tickets must travel at specific times.

Back again, and this time taking on the NHS… it’s too easy

As someone who rents accommodation and moves around quite a bit, I know how much of a hassle it can be to go and see a GP. If you’ve not registered locally yet you need to first make an appointment to do that - fine, but why do I have to wait 2 weeks to get an appointment I can make? Only then can you make the appointment, a further week into the future.

Ok, so it might not be this bad for everyone, but it’s still too much of a headache! So here’s my “suggestions” as to how the GP services can be fixed:

• Forget registering! I’ve registered at 3 different surgeries in the last 3 years, and each time it’s been exactly the same. Name, Address, Wee, BP all gets recorded on a system, then you make an appointment to actually see the doctor. Registration should be a ONE TIME thing! The pros of a central database of patient information far outweigh the cons, so get it done, it’s really not that hard!
• Once registered centrally, I should have “my doctor” but be able to make appointments at any surgery if I need to. Since “my doctor” can only be near where I live, I can only make appointments to see them out of work hours except in more urgent cases. Surely it makes sense for me to make an appointment to see someone nearer where I work? Then I could just pop out for an hour over lunch, or skip lunch and take an hour in the afternoon… easier for all!
• Online booking! One system, with a simple interface. You put in a postcode, time, and some identifying information (NHS number and name etc), you’re presented with a list of available slots on given days at various nearby surgeries, you pick one and just like that, it’s booked. This also means you can review available times against your calendar without wasting 10 minutes of someone’s time on the phone! If you want to see “your doctor” (I should point out at this point that I can remember only once occasion since I was 12 years old that I actually saw “my doctor”) then the system would have an option to only search their schedule - because the system knows who you are, and therefore knows you “your doctor” is. Easy.
• Missed appointments are costing the NHS thousands of pounds every day, and depriving other patients of time with a doctor. So, cut them down and claw money back by charging the patient for the doctor’s wasted time. Why should the NHS foot the bill for missed appointments? Also, why not help avoid them by having the booking system send the patient a text message reminder on the day of their appointment? Genius!
• And one last thing, slightly unrelated but it bugs me… educate patients! Antibiotics are not a “cure-all” solution. In fact, the majority of flu-like symptoms are caused by a virus, which is unaffected by antibiotics. Introducing more and more antibiotics into the system just reduces their effectiveness as our bodies and bacteria adapt and get used to them. In America, penecillin is now mostly ineffective because of this. I think most patients would be receptive to a bit more explanation when doctors chose a course of treatment, why it’s been chosen, and why other options have been dismissed… of course maybe that’s just me

It was only a matter of time before I decided to moan about this. Having done nigh on 900 miles in the last 3 weeks I’ve seen enough terrible motorway driving to last me a lifetime!

So my latest “suggestion” is to require that anyone who wants to drive on the motorway pass a separate test in order to do so. As it stands at the moment, you become a fully qualified driver when you pass your standard driving test, having done no motorway driving at all! In fact it’s not unthinkable that you will have done less than an hour on a major dual carridgeway and yet the whole motorway network is now open to you.

If you had to pass another test (or at least take some additional training), that would hopefully filter out at least some of the following habits:

- Sitting in the middle/fast lane despite the lane(s) to your left being completely clear for at least a mile!
- Undertaking a line of traffic because the fast lane just isn’t going fast enough (try looking ahead a bit, spot the lorry that’s actually causing the hold up… don’t dangerously undertake and then cut back in front of someone - who by the way, has left a safe distance between them and the car in front FOR A REASON! Jackass)
- Driving 3 feet behind the car in front because they (or could it be all the f**king traffic) isn’t going fast enough. (Back off, or feel the pain of an insurance claim when someone finally gets fed up and taps their brakes just to see if you’re awake.)
- Not indicating when changing lanes… in either direction! (Are we supposed to guess when you’ll feel the need to pull out in front of us?)
- Assuming indicating that you’re changing lanes is enough to actually perform the manouver regardless of what space is actually available to you! (yes, I really was leaving more than 5 yards between me and the car in front just for you… it had nothing to do with safe reaction distances or anything like that… that’d be stupid)

Road rage is a real thing. So is bike rage. As someone who cycles to work reasonably regularly, I know all too well what it’s like to ride on the busy roads of London. How scary it is to have a car or bus pass you too closely or intimidating for them to be sat right behind you at traffic lights revving their engine.

Having said from the start that I wouldn’t be one of those cyclist that broke the law and jumped red lights, I quickly changed my mind. When it’s a question of the 4×4 that’s 6″ behind you ready to speed away, or getting a bit ahead at the expense of a red light, the choice is easy.

One idea that could have helped is this introduction of cycle only areas at traffic lights. The idea here being that a few meters by the lights are reserved for cyclists, while cars have to stop a bit further back. This gives a cyclist the space and time they need to pull away and get settled before the Porche Cayene behind them is nipping at their heels.

The reason I say this “could have helped”, is because 90% of drivers just ignore them and pull right forward into the cycle area anyway. Naturally, the 10% that actually stop back where they’re supposed to, tend to drive the least intimidating cars and generally give cyclists proper consideration on the roads anyway. So, in my second action as “world fixer”, I would introduce a cross breed of red light and bus lane cameras to catch drivers who stop in the cycle area at traffic lights. The penalty would be the same as for jumping a red light, 3 points and a £60 fine.

One day maybe something like this will appear… in the meantime, I’ll have to stick to gesturing at drivers in disbelief, before moving forward yet further to get the headstart I need.

Introducing the first of what may be a few ‘Series’ of short posts on the same theme. Fixing The World is dedicated to the little things that I would do to make the England, or the world a nicer place for us to live in. Of course, many or all of these may be completely unfeasible and utterly impractical, but what do I care, it’s just for fun

So to get us kicked off… as I watched 3 commuters finish off the last of their cigarettes and drop them on the floor outside the tube station doors, I couldn’t help but think that a good earner for the council would be to post some PCSOs outside all tube stations during the rush hour, who would just hand out £50 on the spot fines for littering. It might even help keep the area cleaner!