NHS

I received an invitation in the post! It was from the doctor for a “lady-type” examination. But I still felt special; it’s always nice to be invited to something.

I went for my appointment today. I gave my name to the receptionist and took my seat. While I was waiting patiently a gentleman walked into the practice.

“Good afternoon. My name is Mark Jacobson. I have an appointment today at 4:30 and I’d like to cancel it”, he said to the rotund lady behind the desk. I thought this was a weird thing to do; surely it would have been far easier to phone with such information?

“You have an appointment?” the rotund lady asked.

“Yes.”

“And it’s been cancelled?!!” she said, clearly shocked by the news.

“No, but I would like to cancel it.”

She nodded; ensuring him she understood and began to tap away on her keyboard.

“Name?” she asked.

“Mark Jacobson.”

“The appointment was at 4:30?”

“That is correct,” he said.

“Right. And would you like to cancel it?”

I was quite tired after this conversation.

After a few more minutes of waiting a red headed nurse opened one of the doors. “Dynielle Adams?” she asked the waiting area. I was the only one in the room. I wondered why she had felt the need to question a room full of empty chairs. Maybe she had thought the other patients had grown bored waiting and had decided to play a game of hide-and-seek and I was the one that was ‘on’ and she had in fact just interrupted me as I was in the middle of counting to 100.

“That’s me,” I said, entertaining her.

 She seemed very timid, as if she were scared to say the wrong thing or a rude word and I’d get offended. I felt as if I needed to reassure this woman that it was ok and that I did want to be there.

I’m an inquisitive person and tend to ask people with any amount of knowledge a lot of questions. Like why we needed to have this “lady-type” exam only once every 3 years? Back home it was done once a year. If it was any longer than this panic would set in. What life threatening occurrences were developing in there!?! It’s been 368 days since my last check up!! 

So when I read in my invitation that it was done once every 3 years the hypochondriac in me began to shout out. What?! Only once every THREE years? That’s plenty of time for life threatening occurrences to develop in there!

The exam was more or less uneventful and we made polite chit chat throughout. At the end I thanked her very much, told her to have a beautiful day and put my hand on the door handle to exit. It was at this point that the nurse decided to start up a conversation about the weather. I understand that this is a particularly exciting topic for Brits; but why did she leave it till the last moment, with my hand on the door handle? I didn’t know if I should remove my hand and turn around to face her. She carried on talking. I carried on smiling, my hand lingering on the door. It was awkward. I decided to take the plunge and open the door, proclaiming to her my intention to leave. But I couldn’t. It was locked.

She stopped mid sentence, something about how warm it’s been. “Sorry. I locked the door,” she said.

I ended up apologising (not sure why), fumbling with the lock and finally opening the door. She seemed sad to see me go.

The first time I visited the doctor in England I couldn’t quite believe that I didn’t have to pay. Not one cent. I felt so nervous after the appointment that I went to reception just to make sure and asked them if I could just leave. They looked a little confused that I was asking this and said it was fine I could go. I felt like I had just robbed the place. I kept looking behind me as I walked down the street; half expecting an angry doctor to come after me asking for his money.