Help, I need a GoodDoctor
How mad is this? I just moved and need to register with a doctor, and NONE of my neighbours are proving to be any use at giving me a recommendation (telling me about the child-care doesn’t really have any relevance to my life!).Last year I bought a new webcam for my mum’s birthday. She’s wasn’t going to get a 3G phone anytime soon, and an odd quick webcam MSN chat really made her day (am I a good son or what!). So I spent a couple of hours on a Sunday afternoon looking a various reviews. I read some PCPro reviews, I think I read a ZDnet review… Then of course there are the lists of user reviews on Amazon and the likes. Marvellous: once I was suitable informed, I was able to make a good decision – and get the perfect present.
Now back to choose a new doctor. Do you know how I chose my current doctor? I found a list of doctors and chose the nearest one. The thing is, in my catchment area, there are two GP surgeries that are really close by. How am I to know which is better? Come to that, each surgery has different doctors; how can I know which to go to?
Isn’t it mad, that I can make a better-informed decision about a stupid webcam, than I can about my doctor. I mean, come on, which is more important, a webcam gadget, or my health? Yet, the information is all about the trivial one!
And this my friends, is where www.gooddoctor.co.uk will make a difference. It’s just been launched, and is trying to convince every web surfer to write a review of their doctors/surgeons/chiropractor etc…. Once the reviews are in – people like you and me will finally be able to make informed decisions about the most important things in our lives….. and about bloody time too! I just hope enough reviews get written before I need anything important done to me!
This seems like such a good idea – especially since the government backed down over a similar scheme recently! No excuses – go there now (it needs you to work)!
Surely everyone’s been to a doctor or dentist in the past year or so?
Link: www.gooddoctor.co.uk
14 Comments:
Hi P,
I hope your move went well. Except, of course, the need to set-up with a new doctor. It is interesting that there is so much information, opinion available in overflowing abundance, and yet the important facts are still elusive.
Shame the government did not have the will to step-up to the challenge.
Best, Edwin
its not quite as simple as it sounds - good surgeries tend to fill up their lists quickly, and if its a NHS GP, they are not obliged to take you on.
if you are unable to find a GP locally that will take you on, have a look on www.nhs.uk, find your local PCT and ring them - they will allocate you to a GP
glad you back, not sure if you remember me, i'm the one who pissed you off by accident when you helped me move, years ago. life seems to have turned out good for you
Hugh? IS that you?! FAb - hello! P x
blimey 9 minutes to remember my name :)
yup, tis me.
i came across your website again, after not being here for years, and have discovered the wonders of RSS
LOL, well actually Mr "Huge" as my fingers used to like typing when my brain thought Hugh, as it so happens, I took 1 second to remember you, and 8 minutes 59 seconds to notice the email notifaction!
Are you well? have you moved?
I think the beauty of the gooddoctor.co.uk site (if people actually write reviews), is that it gives you a little info about the actual practitioner... So I can see if the surgeon who's going to take out my tonsils is going to explain stuff to me... TO me that's important, to someone else, the patience is more imporant, or something else might be...
There are lots of "find a doctor" site - this one doesn't have doctors in at all - but in the same way as "any old builder from the yellow pages" might not get you great results, I'm not sure that "every single" doctor is amazing... You get bad lawyers, bad teachers - I'd like to have a good doctor... Especially if it's a consultant rather than a regular GP....
You know this profession well... Would there be some doctors you respect more than others?
well i always ask ambulance crews about GP's - they will give you a good idea of how bad they may be - reverse selection if you will.
i'm more interested in who the anesthetist is in an operation, even more than who the surgeon is - their job is to keep you alive, and contrary to public belief they call the shots in a surgical procedure, this is the one person that i'd be looking for a consultant to be.
judging GP's is a bit subjective - them having a nice surgery and giving the patient what they want, doesn't always = good GP, just means their business acumen and interpersonal skills are good - go for old GP's and young dentists
old GP's have seen it all, and young dentists have all the latest techniques.
a member of the royal college of GP"s is a good marker - MRCGP is the initials to look for
my old GP was the rudest most impatient man i have ever met, but i trusted his judgement implicitly - he was very thorough and noticed everything, he also had time if you really needed it.
me - bought a flat, and back where i came from. still doing the same job, but now i work on a transfer team, so spend all day out and about, still single and i fear that's how it will be - getting old and set in my ways...lol
you're far too young to be set in your ways.... LOL
I agree with the GPs, I think www.gooddoctor.co.uk will be far more userful for consultants etc than just GPs....
aha, sadly your memory is selective - 42 this year.
anyway, nice to see your back with the diary or blogging as it has become - i'm now off on 2 weeks leave
look after yourself
two weeks off - nice going anywhere? I remember you bought a camera or something instead of going away...
Testing one, two, three....
Wanted to make sure that this posts to your comments section. My one I sent yesterday did not for some reason.
Thanks
Carl
i'm away touring the west coasst of scotland, currently in Durness
www.durness.org
camping (in a tent) around the place, next stop is Dounreay nuclear plant, john o'groats, then home via a few places in england
hope you've now found a decent doctor
Hi P:
I was wondering if you are not going to be posting on a regular basis any longer? Just curious...
Carl
Hmmm, what an odd thing to link to after six months' silence... What have you been up to in the meantime? Well, I hope all goes well with this project and its creators, anyway.
well i hope you don't find a doctor that has too many gas cylinders for their outdoor heater or drives a Merc/Jeep :)
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