Blue Practice

This is the short and sweet kind of review:
My poor wee eye was all red and hot and itchy recently and I’d no idea why. I wandered into the Blue Practice, just half an hour before close, and they were able to get me an emergency appointment, and fast. I left with two magical potions which are clearing up the problem.
Health comes first and it’s so easy to worry about a problem. So, I really appreciate that the Blue Practice and Dr. Drummond could put my worries at bay and give me a solution there and then.

This internet high five goes out to Dr. Rudman.
But i’m going to preface this impending gush fest with a word of warning: I saw another GP here on an emergency appointment and had one of the worst experiences i’ve ever had at the doctors. There were tears. It was not pleasant. What GP you get on your first go is luck of the draw, as there are a handful of doctors that work out of this practice on rotation. If you get one you like: woohoo! You can look up what days they work online and make appointments with them specifically (though you’ll likely have to wait a few weeks unless it’s urgent). If you get one you don’t: don’t panic. Make note of their name and go back on a day they aren’t working.
May the odds be ever in your favour.
(heh.)
Ok, onto the jolly stuff. So I have a few ongoing health conditions (it gets jolly soon, I promise)… if my mind and my body had a sitcom, it’d be a hoot. My mind would be all «Ooo look at that shiny thing! Let’s go build a fort! Unicorns!» and my body would say, «I hate you.» Hilarious! Back in Canada, I had a dream team of doctor types (see Dr. James Dunne’s review), so I was really hesitant to start all over again when I moved to Edinburgh, especially when I found out the appointments are only ten minutes. See that sitcom above? That sitcom is longer than ten minutes.
But I lucked out. I registered with The Blue Practice (which was confusing as heck, but see Stockbridge Medical Centre review for that cheerful gripe) and Dr. Rudman was the first person I saw. I had returned from Canada the day before and let’s just say, I was basically a walking zombie, if walking zombies had emotions and were blubbering idiots on the edge of a nervous breakdown. Dr. Rudman handled it like a pro (which… ok, you’d kind of expect.). He was calm, professional and informative. We set up our next appointment and he’s been my go-​to brain/​body balancer ever since. He also took the steps to get me in touch with some specialists and slowly but surely, i’m building the dream team once more.
Ten minutes isn’t enough time to work miracles. We didn’t have a deep and meaningful conversation. No mountains were moved. But I left feeling better and more confident moving forward that I had some of the building blocks in place… you can’t really ask for more than that can you?
Plus, once you get past the registration woes (likely expat confusion) and strange appointment wait times (probably expat confusion), the practice is pretty straight forward. The gals at the counter are pleasant and they have a fancy pants automatic check in. So when you are a blubbering mess and don’t want to interact with other humans, it’s an added bonus point.
So if you find a GP you like, this place is aces.
Go forth and be healthy Unilocalers!