Let’s see to it our insurance customers fare better
It was inevitable that my broken fingers would not escape further punishment at Biba’s annual conference – all that shaking of hands was bound to take its toll.
My digits were throbbing so ferociously that I visited my doctor who recommended another x-ray to see how the bones were healing (or not). He packed me off to Guy’s hospital with a referral form. Unfortunately, my doctor had not signed the form so the hospital was unable to carry out the procedure (something I discovered only after a lengthy wait). So back went the form to my doctor’s for signature.
The next day with the form duly signed I made a second visit to Guy’s where the x-ray was taken with a minimum amount of fuss and I was referred to another department. They took one look at the x-ray and referred me to a specialist at St Thomas’ hospital. I went there and waited and waited only to be told that I needed to see a different hand specialist at another site ... and so the saga continues.
So here I am playing the waiting game and no closer to resolution. This sort of inefficiency must be happening many hundreds of times each day in hospitals up and down the country. The combined cost of all this tooing and froing must be phenomenal in terms of raised blood pressure, worn shoe leather, fuel, loss of productivity, not to mention the expense of having to treat the new illnesses that people contract while waiting.
I had time to reflect as I sat waiting frustrated for my appointment among the actual walking wounded. I felt as though I needed a bandage too! Was my NHS experience normal? Why was there not a friendly, knowledgeable person around who could explain the system to me?
Inexorably, my thoughts turned to insurance. There must be plenty of customers out there still who find buying insurance a bewildering experience because they do not understand how the market works. When using a general insurance broker or intermediary, the consumer can gain access to information and advice that they can trust. They can find a listing of members of the ‘Find a broker’ section of Biba’s newly revised website.
Are we doing enough to facilitate access to brokers and insurance products? Have members accessed their firm’s details on the Biba site to ensure that they are up to date? Do we explain our services fully?
Given my experience of the NHS, I am even more concerned that we at Biba work harder to provide access to and promote the importance of insurance advice. If we don’t it may not be just our customers who end up in casualty.
