Good Grief that sounds frightful!

Disclaimer.

Should any reader from the UK step in and argue that following isn't true, I'm stating the case for my own area only and assuming other towns are roughly the same, but accepting it may not be true in all cases.

Thankfully it's a lot better over here. Gone are the days when, for example, you had an X-ray and your GP had to wait 7-10 days for a result from the hospital. That hospital is now linked to my GP's surgery and he can look at the actual X-ray on his own computer screen so no waiting as it were and the same applies in reverse IE the hospital has access to the GP's records.

Another thing to note is that hospital referrals are not needed for such things as ECGs and x-rays and other minor treatments as they were way back when because many GP surgeries are now much expanded and are called health centres which handle all the minor things a hospital visit required in the past.

Getting an appointment is also much easier, my own practice uses a system where if, the phone line is busy, you log in to their system and type what the problem is and within the day a nice receptionist calls you up and says, for example,"2:30 on Friday good for you?"