TY - JOUR T1 - A patient's diary: episode 21 — Mrs Flagg reveals all (nearly) JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 660 LP - 660 DO - 10.3399/bjgp08X342101 VL - 58 IS - 554 AU - John Salinsky Y1 - 2008/09/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/58/554/660.abstract N2 - My niece Emily gave me this diary for my birthday and told me I should write down the events of my daily life for the benefit of future generations. ‘Yours must be a very interesting job, Auntie Ivy, she said, ‘helping those glamorous doctors to save people's lives and sharing all their intimate moments. It must be just like The Practice on television.’ Well, I couldn't help smiling to myself a little at that; young Emily has rather a romantic view of doctors and nurses, which is only natural in a girl of her age, bless her. I was just the same. But of course the reality of life at the surgery is not entirely a bed of roses by any means. Sick people can be very difficult to handle, especially when they have set their heart on something like an emergency appointment or a prescription for a drug of No Proven Value. And there are some I can think of, mentioning no names, who are not so ill as they make out, although it's not for me to judge of course. All I will say is, if I have an appointment left I'll give it to them, and if I haven't then they can always ring again tomorrow as soon as the phones open. And if they are not satisfied it's up to my doctors to decide.Then of course, doctors themselves can be a bit of a handful at times. The general public likes to put them on a pedestal but behind the scenes … ER -