Articles and Speeches

The Waiting Game
22-Jul-05, Windsor Express Column.

"If you’re a busy person then you may also be prone to occasional impatience.

As someone who taps their feet and fingers I’m certainly considered restless. With a packed schedule I also constantly check my watch on the train, to ensure I have time to get to my next engagement.

It seems to me that waiting can be very stressful. It is particularly stressful if you don’t know how long the wait will last and there’s seemingly nothing you can do about it.

One of the greatest forms of stress is when people feel that they have no control over their lives.

As I speak with residents across the constituency its clear that many of you feel the same.

One lady from Sunningdale explained that she’d been waiting for 8 months for an appointment to see a consultant at Wexham Park.

Another frustrated couple from Wraysbury has been waiting for over 3 months to find out if their son has a place in a local school.

A hard-working younger man was agitated when told he would have to wait two weeks to see his GP.

And I’ve had dozens of complaints about public transport arriving late or failing to arrive at all.

When much of our daily stress comes from waiting for public services it is, surely, time that something is done. There are no easy answers to the apparently never ending queues, but that does not mean we should not begin to make inroads.

Perhaps we could begin by allowing professionals to deliver the services in the way they think best; rather than tying their hands with targets, paperwork and bureaucracy.

I’d love to stop tapping my fingers and checking my watch. Let’s work to put an end to the waiting game."

Adam Afriyie, MP for Windsor