Doctors and nurses...

Once again, we're discovering how different things like GPs and the medical system are over here. I've already posted about the need for an NI number here. We received an NI number each - Rhiannon on Friday, and mine on Saturday (Yes, mail gets delivered on Saturday!) so in my absence of any work, and Rhiannon having a free day, we thought we'd go down to the local surgery, as we need some scripts re-issued for the UK chemists...

First up, you need to register. This means surgeries, when accepting new patients, will only accept patients who live within a 1 mile radius. However, with 13 surgeries surrounding our near-by tube station, we're pretty good to go. That's 13 accepting new registrations by the way.

So we started off by ringing one, and saying we needed to register, and got pissed with them pretty quick, so decided to walk up to another one near by. (We've walked alot, recently....)

Anyway. You need proof of ID, including your passport and visa, proof of address, IE a lease, and to fill out a form. THis then registers you on the system, as belonging to that surgery (basically) and then you can make appointments. We were lucky in that someone canceled at the very last minute, so we got in at 3:10pm. Turns out you aren't supposed to put your NI number on the form, as an NHS ID number will be issued to you once you are registered.

No need to sign anything at the end, just walk straight out. It's all bulk-billed, automatically. So you never, ever pay to see the doctor, at least in a local surgery, like a GP. This is a damn sight different to the whole "pay the bill, then go get a rebate" system in Australia.

They also told us, that because we had newly registered, we automatically get a 'free' (heh heh) checkup with the nurse, which I assume goes on our Permanent Record.

The nice GP also informed us that ALL contraception in the UK is free. This was later confirmed by the chemist. The other meds we needed scripts for, were at drastically reduced price - almost 1/6th - of the same product in Australia.