For those of you old enough to remember them, Monty Python sometimes introduced a new sketch by having a deep-voiced announcer intone, “And now for something completely different!”

So here is something completely different: a blog celebrating Israeli customer service. Complaints of course are more fun to read, but, as newspapermen used to say when newspapers were written by humans, “Sometimes men bite dogs.”

So as not to disappoint, I will close with a small complaint, though not about the service. Wait for it.

We needed an appointment for a radiologic test. We obtained a hafnaya, a referral form, from the doctor who ordered it.

We then called our kupah, health plan. They had just introduced an AI robot to screen calls.

“Hello!” said the cheerful AI voice, “Sh’mi Aya!”  (“My name is Aya—AI-A.” Get it??) “How can I help?”

“We need an appointment for an MSPCA,” I said. (Mipui (scan) of the Splenic Circumflex Armature—don’t look it up.)

“I cannot transfer your call for an MSPCA,” said Aya, sternly. “For that, contact Machon T’chol. They are on the internet.” Machon T’chol—not its real name—is owned by our health plan.

They have a dandy website. In a minute I had set up an appointment for 3 days later. In a different city, an hour-and-a-half away by bus. Nothing in Jerusalem, where we live.

The secretaries at our local clinic have been helpful at........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)