Latest Moan From You and Me 2023

I don't have a smart meter and don't want one. I know too many people who have had problems with them - don't really want one even if they didn't have problems .

I send up my readings each month and have the correctly priced bill within two days.

We don't have 'smart' things in the house as we think that two are sufficient - Mrs Shiney first and then me . Those two seem to be able to manage the house quite well for everything we need.

We don't want engineers in, if we can help it, and never have our meters read.

 

I like my smart meters, no more grovelling in a dark cupboard same as Michael says above. Plus no longer having to let grumpy smelly strangers into the house to read the dumb meters.

 

My meters are in our coat cupboard straight in front of us, so it's just a matter of opening the door to see them.

No meter readers come here. I think we have come to an agreement (unwritten) that they don't come because they only want to offer a time within a four to eight hour window and I have insisted that they can only have a 30 minute window. I also have an agreement (this is in writing) that I will not be given a smart meter.

They told me that I was being unreasonable and I said that they were . If my doctor, dentist and chiropractor can see me within a range of five minutes then a meter reader should be able to at least do 30 minutes. Take it or leave it! We ended up agreeing that I send my own readings in.

Signed,
President Grumpy old Men's Club

 

Someone has asked me how I have got away with not having the meter read. It followed a legal discussion on right of entry. I agreed that they are entitled to come in to read the meter - but only at a time that is convenient. I argued that their time window wasn't reasonable and to help them narrow that window to something that was suitable for me they could make their visit the first one of the day. Their meter reading department couldn't agree to that but their legal department did agree that it was a reasonable demand.

 

Don't think they see me within 5 minutes of the appointment time. The doctor can be anything up to an hour late, I don't think it's their fault, more likely previous patients being late or taking longer than the alloted 10 minutes. The doctor only allows one ailment to be discussed per appointment, if it's two issues we have to book a double appointment.

 

Mrs Shiney had an appointment the other day and they called her in almost 2 minutes late!

After our local surgery had a lot of problems, which was followed by some public meetings and a report to the quality care commission, the surgery has now got itself sorted out pretty well. They have a totally new telephone system which rarely has you holding on for more than ten minutes - used to regularly be up to an hour. They also have a notice saying they can discuss more than one ailment. Appointments are ten minutes but used to be six .

One of the problems, apart from old telephone system and poor organisation, was that they had taken on much too many patients. They now have two more doctors, two more back office staff and a new practice manager. They also now have a manager in their dispensary who makes sure that it runs smoothly. She was one of the eight dispensers but now has a management role.

Although in a village it takes patients from a number of other villages (no surgeries in them) so they need a large dispensary.

 

It's different using the private healthcare system here too. I had no choice last year with my hernia op, the NHS might have been 18 months and in all likelihood longer so I had to go private. It's a completely different experience compared to the NHS. I saw a private consultant within a week and appointments were all on time and took as long as necessary to explain the options. I was operated on within a month. It's just how the NHS used to be many years ago, the irony is the private consultants all work for the NHS and do this private work on the side. I would have had the same people doing my operation maybe 18 months later for free.