Change in GP and surgery hours

We have always had to share a peripatetic GP with other Moshavim and Kibbutzim in the area, with the GP coming to our clinic Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday, for 1½ hours each time.

Our lovely Nina came Sunday and Thursday 12 noon - 1.30pm, and Tuesday 4.30-6pm but when she retired we had locum after locum until we got a rather nice permanent male doctor.

He lasted all of three weeks.

So then one of the locums decided she would take on the duties on a permanent basis, but kept messing up the hours, eventually deciding that Sunday could be 8-9.30 only, but even then kept changing when she would and would not turn up, and frequently we had no doctor at all, which meant going into town to the main clinic - not possible for me and for a lot of other people here, but hey, the Health Fund keep taking our monthly fees so why should they care?

This morning when I went to collect my monthly chronic meds I discovered that we now have a different "permanent" GP - another male doctor [which will not please a lot of people although I do not care as long as we have a good GP] but the days and times have been changed to 4-6.30pm on a Monday and 8-10am on a Thursday. No mid-day surgery, and we have lost one hour a week of having a GP here.

No house calls and no out-of hours doctor available for normal Health Fund monthly fees, although if you subscribe for additional services you can phone a central office and ask for a doctor, but even then you would probably have to wait anything up to six hours for a doctor to be available in an emergency - if then.

Oh, and no free 'scrips for OAPs either, and prescription charges have nearly doubled in the last few months.

Apologies for the rant, but