I wrote a 350 word post earlier. It was about the GP surgery not having my blood test paperwork sorted despite me organising it three days ago. Then it went on to discuss the pharmacy and the lie they told me about texting me when my prescription was ready this afternoon. I feel you’ve heard the same complaints before so after ridding myself of the burden, I consigned it to WP limbo and decided to move on. I moved as far as the cooker, then as far as my seat in front of the TV. There I stayed for a while. I am now back writing a new post, and hoping that it’s going to be more interesting than the previous list of complaints.
It is ten months since I started taking poetry writing more seriously and in that time I have made 39 submissions. It’s going to be a bit of a slog raising that to a hundred a year, because I already feel that I spend a lot of time writing. I’m in the middle of a good patch at the moment – plenty of successful attempts with an even spread of rejection to keep my feet on the ground.
When I get a cluster of rejections I always start to think I’ll never be accepted again, and when I have a good run of acceptances I worry that it can’t last forever. It is also the case that after a run of acceptances the next rejection hits harder. The mind of a writer is a strange thing.
I need two sets of submissions in the next couple of weeks – one to a magazine where I have had some minor success and one where I have had no success at all since a change of editor. I had a look through my list of pending/unfinished/work in progress and decided that there is very little there of any merit. I need a surge of enthusiasm and a flash of inspiration to set me going again.
I am very sorry to hear about the admin failures at your practice. We need as much supprt for the NHS as we can get while the present goverment is trying to sell as much of it as possible to their friends and foreign investors. Like the much maligned BBC ( I am a frequent malignant), we will miss it badly when it is gone.
Keep the 99% going and the 1% will come.
I have very mixed feelings on the NHS – it has been very good (and free) when I have needed it, but it could be improved.
However, in matters such as automated prescription services I don’t see how it can go so badly wrong so much of the time – I’ve rarely had an accurate prescription in the last 12 months since, at their request, I went on the electronic system.
The prescription service is probably not being run by the NHS but by some outsourced service provider like Serco or G4S.
You never know these days. However, the blood test request, the potentially serious mistake they made with my test results, the two cancelled operations, the two lost paper prescriptions, leaving me glued to the bedding by my own blood and telling me to ask the night shift when they came in (two hours later), and one or two other things from the last few years – they are all firmly NHS. It’s a great service, but by no means perfect.
You have not had your troubles to seek, as they say. By no means perfect seems like an understatement in your case.
Maybe I should actually have said that it is far from perfect but that if we put it into the hands of TESCO they’d charge me a handling fee, substitute my procedure for an appendectomy and forget to provide bags (which, bearing in mind the fact I was catheterised for 11 weeks, would be a bit of a disaster). On the upside, I’d get Clubcard points…
I see that Tesco have not measured up to your expectations.
🙂 Does it show?
You have already accomplished far more than most people, and have nothing to be dejected about. You will come through with your submissions. Wishing you continued success!
Lavinia is so right! You are a published writer, many, many times over. You have something to give that people want. I am constantly grateful for the people who write the things I love to read and the things that change my life; the musicians who perform the songs I love and the songs that make me cry. Art is transformative. If you have it in you to try, then try you must.
Thank you for the motivation. 🙂
Thank you Lavinia. 🙂
Go find another rainbow
Yes, that would improve my mood. That and two pots of gold.
I am sorry your GP surgery is so inefficient; not all surgeries are that bad. I hope you get the inspiration you need to write more of your excellent poems.
Ours is generally very good but the last year has not been good for them. Thank you – I am working on inspiration at the moment. 🙂
🙂
Keep going; nothing succeeds like persistence (or a parrot). I feel for you with regard to your GP experience. What is it with our amazing NHS (and where would we be without it?) that it can be so wonderful in a crisis, but often so miserably incompetent with its admin? And don’t get me started on the attitude of some receptionists. In contrast, having had too much recent experience, the clinical care is astonishing; we are very lucky.
When I was in their grip three o four years ago the medical care was brilliant and the admin was, at times, farcical. The South African service was much more efficient when I had to use it whilst working out there (accident at work) but shortly after I left one of my colleagues retired, economised on health insurance and ended up selling his house to pay for an operation. I prefer ours, even if it is maddening. 🙂
Hope that flash of inspiration comes to you!
It will – I’m giving it a lot of assistance! 🙂