Post 459. A TRIP TO THE DENTIST

 AS AN NHS PATIENT.

FOR LUCKY ME LAST WEEK.
Chipped tooth trouble. Some nagging pain. Phoned our dental surgery, Fradgley and Willetts of Ventnor, I.W. (upstairs in the above picture), and was given an appointment to see Mr. Tim Fradgley a couple of days later.
Sitting in the dental chair at the appointed time I reflected upon the good fortune of those in this family signed on as patients with a dentist still prepared to provide us with such a service. Tim's father, Keith, was dentist and friend to Mo and I for many years until he retired. Tim was not beholden to transfer us to his NHS list then, but he did. Our grandson, Ellis, thanks to his late mother's good sense, is also on Tim's list. We are three lucky people.
Few dental practices, including ours, are currently taking on NHS patients. The Service is dissolving. Excessive reorganization imposed by political lackeys has so increased the burden of paperwork that, together with niggardly and often tardy reimbursement, the provision of NHS treatment has become a liability even to the most charitable of dental surgeon. Forget the greater good. There's no curbing the march of private enterprise.

So I was decidedly upbeat when, nagging pain tooth treated and broken top front tooth excellently camouflaged I returned, smiling, to Mo and she said:
"Oh my love! He has put everything right again! You look absolutely great!"

I felt it, too. There should have been a group of trainee dentists at that session. I think I was the patient in a dentistry master class.

I've grinned at myself in the mirror more in the last few days than I did in the entire lengthy time since my last visit to the Ventnor surgery. Thanks again, Tim.

AND, WHILE I'M  ABOUT IT.

Thanks to my lovely Mo, too. She drove me to and fro in the same uncomplaining way she nowadays drives me wherever and whenever I have to go. My driving licence is still valid, but there are far too many old fools cluttering up island roads and I can no longer be arsed watching out for what one of them might do next. So I've dropped it all in Mo's lap, at least until Ellis passes his driving test - and I'm sure he will.
I may then sometimes scrounge a lift from the youngest member of the household.

WE-E-E-ELL: WE'LL SEE...