Lord Beaumont of Whitley is a peer for the Green Party. As you’d imagine, he’s using his presence in the House of Lords to do lots of important work. In particular, he’s introduced a bill to the House of Lords that is perhaps the epitome of central control. Ladies and gents, the Piped Music etc. (Hospitals) Bill.

Provide for the Secretary of State to draw up a plan to prohibit piped music and the showing of television programmes in the public areas of hospitals; and to require the wearing of headphones by persons listening to music in the public areas of hospitals.

Now, I’m not denying it could be a vote-winner, but surely the Secretary of State for Health of the United Kingdom might have better things to do, and hospitals are capable of making these sorts of arrangements themselves…?

The story continues…

Phone call #5: I call the Stirling number giving to me during my fourth call and am told they can’t answer my question but give me a Falkirk number to call – it’s the number of place who referred me to Stirling. They insist the Falkirk number is the right one.

Phone call #6: I try the old number again. No answer.

Phone call #7: I try again and am quickly given an 0844 number to call.

Phone call #8: Success, of sorts. The answering message tells me that I’m through to the Dental Action Line (Google tells me I would have found the number in this document). I leave a message.

Phone call #9: They promptly call me back to tell me that there are no dentists locally taking on NHS patients. However, they add me to the waiting list and give me a number to call over the weekend (or I can call the Action Line again on Monday) to get an appointment with a dentist to look at my possible infection. Possible result…

On Tuesday, I awoke to discover one side of my face had swollen up. My first thought was that I might have a dental abscess but felt no pain in my mouth and went to work as usual.

Called NHS24 in the afternoon and their nurse recommended ibuprofen to take down the swelling but suggested that it could be mumps (the inflammation is in the right area). Checked with my parents and confirmed that I had mumps when I was younger which made it less likely. Had a bit of a temperature and was generally under the weather by the afternoon.

Off work yesterday but back today before a doctor’s appointment this afternoon. The doctor checked my ears and mouth and wasn’t certain what was responsible for the swelling but she thought wisdom tooth problems were the most likely cause and prescribed me an antibiotic to control the likely infection. I don’t have a dentist – haven’t been since I had a (free) student dentist in 2002 – and, with the advent of free checkups in Scotland have been thinking about going.

The doctor told me I could call a service which would tell me which practices in the town were accepting new NHS patients to save me needing to ring round all of them. Great, I said – that’s what had been putting me off. She wasn’t too optimistic about my chances though.

So, here we go: blog project.

How easy is it to get a dentist in Scotland?

As directed, I got the phone number for “Practitioner Services” from the medical centre reception.

Phone call #1: Practitioner Services tell me they’re not the right people to find me a dentist and give me another number to call.

Phone call #2: I’m through to Fife’s dental help line – wrong area. They dig out a couple of numbers (one daytime, one evening) to call for my area.

Phone call #3: “This extension is not vaild.” I’m directed to press 0 to get through to a general switchboard; I do so and get no answer.

I google the local NHS health board phone number and call it.

Phone call #4: I ask about dentists and am told that office will be closed now. I ask for the number to call tomorrow.

So, I have a number to call (my fifth) tomorrow. To be continued…