| Hello, Mrs Sutton. Come in. |
| How are you settling in next door? |
| Have all your things from Canada arrived yet? |
| I thought I saw a removals van outside your house yesterday afternoon. |
| Yes. They came yesterday. |
| We spent all day yesterday arranging them. |
| It's beginning to feel a bit more like home now. |
| Oh that's good. |
| Look, come in and sit down. |
| Are you alright? |
| You look a bit worried. |
| Well, I am a bit. |
| I'm sorry to bother you so early, Mrs Smith, but |
| I wonder if you could help me. |
| Could you tell me how I can get hold of a doctor? |
| Our daughter, Anna, isn't very well this morning and... |
| I may have to call somebody out. |
| She keeps being sick and I am beginning to get a bit worried. |
| I just don't know how the health system works here in England. |
| All I know is that it's very different from ours back in Canada. |
| Well, I don't know really where to start. |
| Let me think. |
| Well, the first thing you have to do is find a family doctor - |
| sometimes we call them general practitioners as well - |
| and register with him or her. |
| If you live here, you've got to be on a doctor's list. |
| If you're not, things can be a bit difficult. |
| Nobody will come out to you if you're not registered. |
| Anyway, they work in things called practices. |
| Sort of small groups of family doctors all working together in the same building. |
| Now what you've got to do this morning is register with one of them. |
| There are two practices near here, |
| so we're quite well off for doctors in this part of Manchester. |
| There's the Dean End Health Centre about ten minutes' walk away |
| and there's another practice in South Hay. |
| That's about five minutes away going towards the town centre. |
| We're registered at the Dean End one, |
| but they're both okay. |
| There are about six doctors in our practice and four in the other. |
| So ours is quite big in comparison. |
| And the building and everything's a bit more modern. |
| South Hay is a bit old-fashioned but the doctors are okay. |
| Their only problem is that they don't have a proper appointment system. |
| Sometimes you have to wait for ages there to see someone. |
| Anyway, you go to the receptionist in whichever health centre |
| and ask her to register you with a doctor there. |
| You have to fill in a form, but it doesn't take long. |
| Ours is called Dr Jones |
| and we've been going to him for years - |
| ever since we moved here fifteen years ago. |
| I wouldn't say he's brilliant but I suppose he's alright really. |
| We're used to him now. |
| They say he's very good with elderly people, |
| but he does tend to get a bit impatient with children. |
| Listen, the one who's supposed to be really good with small children is Dr Shaw. |
| I've heard lots of people say that. |
| She's young and she's got small children of her own. |
| So you could try registering with her. |
| And if her list's full, |
| I heard somebody say the other day that there's a really nice young doctor at South Hay, |
| a Dr Williams. |
| He holds special clinics for people with back trouble. |
| But that's not really your problem, is it? |
| If you want a doctor to visit you at home, |
| you have to ask for a home visit. |
| You're supposed to do that before 10.30 in the morning, |
| but obviously, if it's an emergency, you can phone at any time, night or day. |
| It might not be your doctor that comes, though. |
| It's quite often one of the other doctors in the practice. |
| It doesn't really seem to make much difference. |
| Otherwise you make an appointment to see your doctor at the health centre. |
| You usually get seen the same day. |
| Not always of course, but usually, as I say. |
| They hold surgeries between 9 and 11.30 every weekday, |
| and from 4 to 6.30 Monday to Thursday. |
| Saturdays are only for emergencies. |
| When the doctor sees you, he gives you a prescription. |
| He writes what medication you need on it and you take it to a chemist's shop. |
| There's one opposite the centre. |
| If it's for a child under 16, you don't have to pay. |
| So if it's for Anna, there's no problem. |
| The same thing goes if you're unemployed or retired, or if you're pregnant. |
| Just as well because it's not cheap. |
| You pay the same price for each item the doctor has prescribed. |
| At the moment it's something like £5 per item. |
| So you pay for the medication but the consultation with the doctor doesn't cost you anything. |
| It's completely free as long as you're a resident here. |
| You're going to be here for three years, aren't you? |
| So there shouldn't be any question of you paying anything to see the doctor. |
| So that's one less problem to worry about. |
| Look, Mrs Sutton. If you want, |
| I'll sit with your daughter for half an hour if you want to go down to the health centre to register. |
| It's no trouble really, don't worry. |
| Are you sure you wouldn't mind? |
| That would really help me a lot. |
| I'll ask them if they can send someone round later to see Anna. |
| I think I'll try the Dean End Centre. |
| Good idea. |
| Don't worry about Anna. |
| Right. I'll be back as soon as I can. |