Out he came, with gladstone bag, containing all sorts of instruments and his prescribing pad. He always admired the scenery where i came from and my mom always gave him half a dozen free range eggs for his trouble. Funny when i look back, none of my or my siblings illnesses were ever near life threatening but he came, no questions asked. Changed days in Britain in the noughties.
I remember our old doc, Dr. Betty, being called out mainly for me as I was a sickly child especially in the winter months. He was a jolly old man and would listen to my chest with his stethoscope and comment on how rattly my chest was by saying I had either lions or bears in there lol.
When I had the German Measles I recovered only to become covered in a rash several weeks later to which his response was "These look more like German measles than the last lot!"
On one occasion I remember him calling to our house for someone other than me I remember mother leaving 6d on the kitchen table for him, not a word was spoken between them and I always wondered how he knew that tanner was for him lol.
Changed days in Britain for sure now. Our docs are shut until Tuesday & if we were to need a doc in an emergency we'd get put through to one in Hull rather than in our area, who only knows the patient from the computer screen and depending on the call would probably send an ambulance to the house without even calling here.
Our surgery doesn't do night calls anymore and hasn't done for a couple of years now in fact we have to give 48hrs notice for repeat prescriptions and woebetide if you don't.
All in all we are still lucky to have our NHS in this country despite the mess it is in and I do not envy anyone who has the worry of not having insurance in other countries for their basic health care.
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