Medical matters

Around this time of year I have my annual medical.

I will spare my readers the detail except to say that nothing untoward has so far been revealed.

I will, however, share my thoughts on the medical profession.

My late father was an excellent doctor. He was a brilliant diagnostician and a well-judged recommender of consultant, which is really all you want in your first port of call.

I found my GP clinic doctors too rushed and they peered into their computer rather than made eye contact so I had a private doctor for many years who satisfied the criteria and in addition trained at the same medical school as my father, the Middlesex.

Medical schools do stamp their culture on aspirant students. It is said of St Thomas doctors:

“You cannot tell them anything, but you can tell them anywhere …”

They had a “posh boy” image but my father always liked them for their common sense.

My recto colon man from “Tommies” fits that type: unfailingly cheerful and reassuringly sensible.

On my local private doctor retiring, he assigned his practice.

The new doctor wanted £150 up front for a simple prescription renewal. I refused to pay and, looking for a new doctor, was recommended a practice near Harrods.

My new doctor is a delightful and thorough Irishman.

The great asset of doctors like him and my father is they have seen so many patients that they are familiar with most ailments. Thus, my annual medical, has a two-fold purpose: to review existing conditions and spot anything untoward.

In every sense the pandemic has been a game changer.

Many of my father’s patients have said to me they miss his calmness and – as the former head of vaccination at the then Hospital for Tropical Diseases – his knowledge of epidemics.

The justified praise for the NHS response has been at the expense in every sense of private medicine.

My excellent dentist complained how difficult it was to obtain PPE. It’s very difficult in the city I live to obtain a blood test unless it’s by the NHS.

I fully accept that I’m privileged to have private health care. But this is not a sin and in my own way I’m protecting the NHS as someone less well off than me can have  greater access.