Flaming doctors surgeries

juno

I've been trying to get an appoinment for ages, and I can't get through! So I made my fiance try, and he couldn't either! I'm a student, and thus don't appreciate getting up at 8am anyway.

nearlyrich

Hope you have all written to your MP to complain, it's all due to the interpretation of the targets set by the Department of Health that Drs can't or won't give out reasonable appointments to people who just occaisionally have other things to do apart from ringing every morning.

ChrisX_2

Poppycat wrote:

.....Today I had an appointment to see the nurse for a check-up as my asthma is getting worse of recent months. The appointment was at 1 pm. I waited there until 1.25pm and couldn't wait any longer as I had a dentist appointment just across the road at 1.30pm. I noticed when I went to surgery the nurse was t the reception. At 1.05 two patients went into her room as they were called on the LED thing.

I had to leave at 1.25 because I couldn't wait any longer, I popped to reception and told them that I had a dentist appointment and they booked me in on 21st November I told them that my asthma is bad and that I need more medication, she said no problem pop back and we do a prescription. But I said that I need a check-up as that was what I was told early October and also a flue jab. Still nearest appointment is 21st Nov despite my health problems.....

.....I am dissapointment that because they running late that I knwo get penalised veen though I waited 25 mins and was only gone at most 10 minutes. They even told me that one person hadnt turned up and they were still running late.

Understand frustration - yet, YOU prioritised dental over nurse/asthma

you had a choice, phone dental and explain you'd be late and keep nurse.
leave nurse, see dentist!

why make a fuss over your choice? you complained 'cos you didn't get your own way

you had an appointment wiht the nurse - not like you were refused one or that you had to wait a month in first instance.

sounds like you arranged nurse so its convenient for dentist apptment, then got upset cos nurse ran late, then complained?

elisebutt65

I rang up a couple of weeks ago for an appointment - non-urgent- as i need to talk through some HRT options, I've got 9th November - ho hum!!

If i need to see someone as an emergency then the emergency surgeries are on Mon or Fri - get there at 8.00(no phoning) to beat the OAP's who are queing up by 8.15, to get in there for 9am and just wait around until i get my turn!!!

Luckily I haven't had an emergency in termtime, or the kids'd be waiting there with me.

LondonDiva

jenpoptab wrote:

I know what you mean. I called Dr's at 8.30am last Thu as 6 mth old had high temp. Was given 9.20am appt. I arrived at 9.15am. Was kept waiting 'til 9.55am. No apology. Didn't strip off baby, just said lots of diarrhoea going around, her's prescription for diaralyte. Hopeless. Have spent Thu evening and Sun morning on phone to NHS direct who were much better. Saw out of hours GP yeterday who was great. Shame she's not our usual GP.

Not meaning to dound confrontational, but, I take it the next time you go to the practice, you'll be ok with the GP pulling a timer out & asking you to leave when the bell goes at 5mins? The appt time is a guideline & if you imagine the time lag for all the people who run over time as well as the time needed to write up notes, there's not that much they can do.

LondonDiva

Bossyboots wrote:

My GP's surgery has just cancelled my appointment for this afternoon with no option for me to see anyone today, just to ring back in an hour and book another one for goodness only knows when. I was supposed to be getting test results and wanted to discuss some important things with her and had psyched myself up for that. She only works part time as well so that makes it even worse.

she could have gone down withthe flu, her cat/mother could have been run over. Given the workload of GPs, it's unlikely that the GPs will have spare capacity to take on a full list, unless it is an emmergency.

I understand that you were frustrated, but it's probably not done on purpose - if you had asked/pointed out, they could have tried to make an appt for the next day to try and releive your anxiety

LondonDiva

Bun wrote:

I have to say that my surgery is great, particularly where my son is concerned. I have never failed to get an appointment within a few hours of calling with him (once too short notice to get to the surgery with him!) even though the appointments are a bit behind sometimes. Last time I took him two doctors were needed to diagnose him, and clearly held up other appointments. If this is why they are behind I really don't mind, but then I must say that being (very ) part time now I generally have the time for this not to be too much of an inconvenience.
However, the way that the appointment systems are set up is almost impossible if you work full time. Here you have to make an appointment generally that day, apart from a few pre-bookables. Remember Tony Blair on Question Time not knowing that you largely couldn't pre-book so the surgeries meet the targets of seeing everyone within three days? I used to have to tell work that I was going to attempt to make an appointment and wing it from there. I am sure that doctors are aware of how patients gear themselves up to receive test results and I think these should not be delayed at all, or if they are rescheduled within 48hrs. I am sure that many doctors would rather not work this way, as in my experience, the more wound up you are, the less you take in and the longer it takes to sort out any potential problems.

Bossyboots, I hope that you get it sorted as soon as possible.

On a tangent...

We have a large practice with about 15 GPs. They have a list size of about 15 thousand people. On any day, they have 250 GP appts and 35 nurse appts and on extended days, they have 300 add appts & generally have one GP to see emmergency walk ins/on call for emmergency/telephone consultations. They release a proportion of appts for booking a week in advance & then on the day. Between 8.30 & 9 am, they have 400-600 calls, with 10 incoming lines & all hands on deck. The GPs can override the system, but this was so abused by patients (many of whom did not turn up), that a few weeks ago, they ended up with only 60 appts for callers on the day.

It just goes to show that whatever system is tried, there are a lot more people chasing appts than there are appts available. while it's frustrating, there's never going to be a solution that works for everyone, but it is important to make sure that we don't end up demonising people trying their best to deliver a service.

gravitytolls

chrisx, I don't see theproblem with making nurse and dental appointments near times for convenience sake.
If time off work is needed, then this is surely the best option. And for rural life, it's definately the best option, especially if relying or public transport, or paying fo rtaxis.

If we were that late for an appt we'd be told to rebook. If surgeries are running late by more than about 15 mins, it would be conducive to good mental health if receptionists could inform patients of teh delay. Thjis would save frayed tempers, and allow patients to cancel other things.

Pennywise

The last time I went to see the nurse, I had the first appointment of the day - 8.30 and was there early. Nursey didn't even come through the door until after 9 and then there was another 10 minutes of her talking to the others and brewing up before she called me through. No apologies or explanations. Not all delays are due to previous appointments running over - some are due to lazyness I'm afraid!

Zaphod_Beblebrocks

True, we had/have a military hospital,Haslar which,when run by the military was a bit of a shock, one nurse per outpatient clinic who did what it took 3 NHS ones to do and you were bang on time, even if sent for an x-ray you went straight in and they were waiting when you got back.A week later accompanied the wife to the local NHS hospital, what a difference,one nurse to collect notes from book in,one to call from sub waiting room to real waiting area and one to take notes from outside the room into the room for the consultant,surely they could organise it a bit better and free up staff to do other duties?