doctors surgeries

eyelinerprincess

Fire Fox - do we have the same surgery?!

I moved 8 miles away from my home town to a village. The differences between the surgeries are night and day. My old surgery had a couple of days wait for normal appointments, but could usually squeeze you in the same day. The doctors were great, and I never had any problem with any of them.

My new surgery, well, I'm coming down with *another* ear infection and I'm dragging my heels in going to see about it. The phone lines open at 8.15am. Barely any pre-bookable appointments, it's same day only It usually takes around half an hour to get an appointment. I tried to get one the day the surgery opened after New Year and either no one answered the phone or I got a recorded message saying that the surgery would open at 8.15 on Thursday (it was Thursday, and it was approaching 9am).
Any appointment I do get if/when I eventually get through is with the most useless doctor in the world. She is foreign and nine times out of ten, you have to tell her what to prescribe. I guess I keep getting her because everyone else specifies they don't want her.
Unfortunately I can't change surgeries. The only ones that are in the catchment area are run by the same people and have the same doctors rotating around the three areas.
And don't get me started on the Health Visitor...

thegirlintheattic

sillygoose wrote: »

Yes. My surgery has an online booking system but it only works for appointments long in the future, no wonder so many people don't turn up... with a months wait you probably just got better or died by then!

There should be a dynamic online booking system, it should send out a reminder text 2 hours before your appointment and if you don't reply within the next hour that you will be there for sure it should automatically cancel you.

Lets face within about first 3 patients most doctors apointments are running late so if a few people get auto cancelled the ones already stacked up waiting move up and get seen 10 minutes sooner.

Wouldn't work in my area, lots of people don't have mobiles and most mobiles don't work because the signal is crap. I have to walk up the hill to get signal at home, and where I work has patchy signal inside so'd I'd never get an appointment.

giraffe69

Surgeries that have appointment systems such as the above are treating their customers i.e. the patients with complete disrespect. The system should be tailored to suit the majority. It should not be necessary to put in place ridiculous hurdles such as checking in via mobile or on the internet.
If most surgeries can manage sensible systems that help the patients then the ones that don't are incompetently run. A few complaints might not go amiss but don't raise your voice however awful they are or you will find the incompetent practice manager recommending you to be chucked off the doctor's list.

meritaten

my health centre has two doctors and you are registered with one or the other (they just seem to share the building).
the reception desk is run by neo-nazis! who make up the rules as they go along and they change constantly.
they also hate my son - so if he phones for an urgent appointment they will say 'a week tomorrow'. he then phones me and I phone them and ask for an urgent appointment and get one for same or next day - and only then tell them its for R........ S.........!
his records say plainly he can request a prescription at any time as his meds are 'as needed' ..........they constantly refuse to take prescription requests if its less than 28 days from the last one! he has to go in person and demand to either have scrip or see doctor.....they ring doc and he says to give scrip as its 'on request'!
they also brought in a rule which drove me nuts. all evening appointments were for working people - but they had to request them in person between 8.30 and 12.00. I tried to make apt for my OH and they wouldn't do it. I did point out that working people often were 'in work' and didn't have access to phones at those hours! that got changed when someone complained to the higher ups! it also meant that school age kids had to have time off school as they couldn't get evening appointments.
it now takes 48 hours to get a repeat prescription and you cannot request one more than 48 hours before the prescription is due. this doesn't give you much time to sort out the mistakes they make. like leaving out the important medication or getting the dose wrong or giving you a medication the doctor stopped a couple of years ago.
apart from that - they seem to think they are triage.........I am fed up of them asking what I want to see doctor about! that is between me and doctor!
oh and getting an appointment really depends on the receptionists mood - you could ring up and get one same day - or it may be a fortnight - or in my case I asked for an appointment and was told 10 days - then apparently a test came back and they phoned me back the same day and asked me to attend that evening!

Fire_Fox

giraffe69 wrote: »

Surgeries that have appointment systems such as the above are treating their customers i.e. the patients with complete disrespect. The system should be tailored to suit the majority. It should not be necessary to put in place ridiculous hurdles such as checking in via mobile or on the internet.
If most surgeries can manage sensible systems that help the patients then the ones that don't are incompetently run. A few complaints might not go amiss but don't raise your voice however awful they are or you will find the incompetent practice manager recommending you to be chucked off the doctor's list.

I think part of the problem is who are the majority? The majority of appointments or the majority of registered patients? Those with children or those on long term sick are likely to have different needs to those with a full time job, especially if they have shift patterns that change weekly or work away.

I think there should be a variety of types of appointments to suit different lifestyles, my surgery used to be largely drop in so has always offered evening appointments yet these cannot be booked in advance by nine to fivers. Presumably those with small children don't want to be sat in the surgery for an hour or more at the end of the day when grizzly little ones need food, bath and bed. Yet that is what happens, because they are still being sent down by other surgeries for the out-of-hours drop ins.

I do think the NHS patient centred approach is largely lip service, much is run for the convenience of the staff and systems. And that comes from someone who has worked in the NHS in the past. It's frustrating tho because it's not beyond the whit of man to find out what individual patients want or steer them in a certain direction without being obstructive.

Torry_Quine

When I tried recently to make an appointment I was offered 7am :eek: which was just not on. Now someone working would no doubt jump at the chance to get an appointment then but when I said I needed one later in the day she seemed very surprised.

Fire_Fox

Torry_Quine wrote: »

That's terrible. I sleep poorly and having to set my alarm to be awake to phone the doctor is not good for me. I would be complaining about that.

When I tried recently to make an appointment I was offered 7am which was just not on. Now someone working would no doubt jump at the chance to get an appointment then but when I said I needed one later in the day she seemed very surprised.

Are we twins? The first time the Jobcentre had me in of a morning I couldn't even list my qualifications and they referred me to the disability advisor. How am I supposed to answer sensible questions from the receptionist or doctor about symptoms, give an accurate assessment of my state of mind or even work my phone to book the appointment?

Torry_Quine

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Are we twins? The first time the Jobcentre had me in of a morning I couldn't even list my qualifications and they referred me to the disability advisor. How am I supposed to answer sensible questions from the receptionist or doctor about symptoms, give an accurate assessment of my state of mind or even work my phone to book the appointment?

Could be. :rotfl::rotfl:

sillygoose

Dave_C wrote: »

And for those people who don't use mobile phones are rarely if ever on-line what happens?

Picking a demographic at random to match these conditions, lets say older people with failing eyesight. This just happens to be the people who are the most likely to need a doctor.

Dave

Sorry but perhaps I wasn't clear enough, I was suggesting this as an additional service, of course people that prefer should be able to call and book a conventional appointment, which is why I meant a dynamic booking system - live and shared for access with the receptionist.

katejo

Torry_Quine wrote: »

When I tried recently to make an appointment I was offered 7am :eek: which was just not on. Now someone working would no doubt jump at the chance to get an appointment then but when I said I needed one later in the day she seemed very surprised.

I'd be happy with a 7am appointment, particularly if I could have continuity and see the same doctor. When you live in a London suburb and work in Central London, a midday appointment is absolutely useless. My last appointment was a waste of time. The surgery asked me to come in fairly urgently. I did and was told that I had to wait 2 weeks for the appointment! On my return 2 weeks later, i saw a different GP who had not been briefed and did not know why I had come in.