What bank holidays mean to the rest of the nation:

Time off

Lie-ins

Gardening

Walks

Sunshine (hopefully)

Beach trips

Picnics

Take-outs

Relaxing

Reading

DIY

Going to the park

Enjoying a bike ride

Camping

A short break away

What the public think the bank holiday means for anyone working in a GP practice:

NONE OF THE ABOVE

NO TIME OFF

NOTHING

I know this because of the mindless things that I come back to on the Tuesday following a bank holiday:

1. Where’s my prescription? I handed it in at 4.30pm on Thursday and I STILL haven’t had it…
2. Where’s my subject access request? I put it in at 3pm on Thursday; I STILL haven’t had it…
3. Where are the Covid updates on your website? NOTHING has been updated since Thursday!
4. Why doesn’t anyone answer the phone? I rang all day on Monday and couldn’t get through.
5. I sent you an e-Consult on Saturday and I still haven’t had a response…

There’s much more too, of course.

Having been closed for a whole two days, the phones don’t stop ringing ALL day! Everyone has run out of every single medication they’ve ever been prescribed and need it NOW. Everyone has an EMERGENCY and needs an appointment today. Every single person who hasn’t had their Covid vaccination wants to know EXACTLY when they’re going to get it, right this second. The whole population, seemingly, has a urine infection. The entire population has decided to request an online consultation from the practice. Sick notes have run out for everyone too, and of course to top it off, the receptionist is off sick with post-bank-holiday-itis and despite it being a rule of one, two GPs are off – of course they are!

The other great thing I LOVE about bank holidays is the select few members of staff who book their holidays well in advance, booking two days’ leave around the bank holidays, which actually leads them to be off for 25 days (well, something like that).

So, this leads me to wonder how bank holidays started in the first place, and I consider that perhaps they should be abolished and we could have extra holidays instead. We have Sir John Lubbock to thank for our bank holidays, which originally were for financial institutions only. He also was known for trying to teach his poodle to read, which may throw light on the fact that his thinking wasn’t entirely stable.

In the 1960s, people got so excited about bank holidays that it often turned into chaos with stories of the burning of deckchairs making the papers. This, at the moment, seems quite appealing to me; it could definitely help to release my pent-up stress levels.

I can’t wait for the next bank holiday, can you?