Typing while I cannot see....
May. 10th, 2007 06:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
muurankerMy eyes are still blurry from this afternoon's drops. My eyes are passed fine again, which is great news.
The clinic visit was amazing: before, the corridor doubled up as an assessment centre, now it is all in a specialist block with assessment in private cubicles.
My appointment was at two. I arrived at five two. I checked in, went to the loo, and settled down in the waiting area to deal with Blackberry backlog (turned off, of course). But straight away was called to assessment, and told to go and sit on one of half a dozen chairs outside consulting room 8. I had hardly sat down before a brisk matron-of-the-old-school hussled up, and hussled me back to the consulting room as 'the girls" had forgotten to put in the dilating drops. One of the advantages of the new building is that staff can be tongue-lashed out of the public gaze, although it does drop the entertainment value of the visit, as a fellow human being, I think this is a great improvement.
Drops in, I was hardly back in front of room 8 (this must have been around 2.15. Matron-type comes up again at the brisk trot, and aplologies to those outside room 9: the consultant is late. He has been called into an operation, and will be at least another half hour. She runs down a list of names, checking that she has spoken to them all, apologising to the elderly Chinese lady for mispronouncing her name. She then asks 'are any of you diabeitc? Discovers one, and explains that there could be qute a long delay. She ascertains that the lady is a type 2 diabetic, treated by diet only. She offers sandwiches, a hot or cold drink, biscuits, and 'a blood glucose test - any time you want - just ask me or ask one of the girls, if you can't find me'. She apologises to the rest, 'I'm' afraid I can't offer you all sandwiches - but you are very welcome to have biscuits'. And husttles of.
Leaving one very confused elderly type 2 diabetic, who turns to her husband and asks 'what was that about a blood test? I have that done at the GPs'. I am almost as baffled as they are: in the old clinic, a 2pm appointment meant you could be fairly sure you would be seen before 4pm, and anything later meant you were fairly sure you would be seen. The only concern re patients and cups of tea, etc. was that the patients would wander off to the canteen and get themselves refreshments, and thus miss their slots for assessment and drops.
Minutes later, I was inside the consulting room, enjoying the game-of-will that is having a light so bright it hurts shone into your eyes but-You-Must-Not-Blink. I tend to fail by going cross-eyed, rather than fail by blinking. It is very hard, I find, to continue to stare at a Rgistrar's left ear when out of your left eye normally you see very little, and that is now very fuzzy from the dilution drops.
Was out by 2.40, and caught the 2.43 bus home.
The difference between the old clinic and the new one is amazing. I do hope they've done a study to show where the improvements have come from. I am assuming that they have no more staff, but rather they are working more efficiently (more time swiftly assessing, less time wandering up and down mis-pronouncing elderly patient's names, and never quite sure whether Mr S... doesn't respond because he is deaf or because he's diabetic (and off getting a biscuit) ) or because his name is mis-pronounced.
The clinic visit was amazing: before, the corridor doubled up as an assessment centre, now it is all in a specialist block with assessment in private cubicles.
My appointment was at two. I arrived at five two. I checked in, went to the loo, and settled down in the waiting area to deal with Blackberry backlog (turned off, of course). But straight away was called to assessment, and told to go and sit on one of half a dozen chairs outside consulting room 8. I had hardly sat down before a brisk matron-of-the-old-school hussled up, and hussled me back to the consulting room as 'the girls" had forgotten to put in the dilating drops. One of the advantages of the new building is that staff can be tongue-lashed out of the public gaze, although it does drop the entertainment value of the visit, as a fellow human being, I think this is a great improvement.
Drops in, I was hardly back in front of room 8 (this must have been around 2.15. Matron-type comes up again at the brisk trot, and aplologies to those outside room 9: the consultant is late. He has been called into an operation, and will be at least another half hour. She runs down a list of names, checking that she has spoken to them all, apologising to the elderly Chinese lady for mispronouncing her name. She then asks 'are any of you diabeitc? Discovers one, and explains that there could be qute a long delay. She ascertains that the lady is a type 2 diabetic, treated by diet only. She offers sandwiches, a hot or cold drink, biscuits, and 'a blood glucose test - any time you want - just ask me or ask one of the girls, if you can't find me'. She apologises to the rest, 'I'm' afraid I can't offer you all sandwiches - but you are very welcome to have biscuits'. And husttles of.
Leaving one very confused elderly type 2 diabetic, who turns to her husband and asks 'what was that about a blood test? I have that done at the GPs'. I am almost as baffled as they are: in the old clinic, a 2pm appointment meant you could be fairly sure you would be seen before 4pm, and anything later meant you were fairly sure you would be seen. The only concern re patients and cups of tea, etc. was that the patients would wander off to the canteen and get themselves refreshments, and thus miss their slots for assessment and drops.
Minutes later, I was inside the consulting room, enjoying the game-of-will that is having a light so bright it hurts shone into your eyes but-You-Must-Not-Blink. I tend to fail by going cross-eyed, rather than fail by blinking. It is very hard, I find, to continue to stare at a Rgistrar's left ear when out of your left eye normally you see very little, and that is now very fuzzy from the dilution drops.
Was out by 2.40, and caught the 2.43 bus home.
The difference between the old clinic and the new one is amazing. I do hope they've done a study to show where the improvements have come from. I am assuming that they have no more staff, but rather they are working more efficiently (more time swiftly assessing, less time wandering up and down mis-pronouncing elderly patient's names, and never quite sure whether Mr S... doesn't respond because he is deaf or because he's diabetic (and off getting a biscuit) ) or because his name is mis-pronounced.
