Long wait for doctor's appointment

flicks

You people are all so lucky. It is almost impossible to get an appointment at our surgery. You need to phone an appointments line and speak to a receptionist. She will then "triage" you and if she considers it serious enough she will arrange for a doctor to call you at some point in the day and they will if necessary prescribe over the phone. Only if you are considered to be on your last legs will you be give an appointment. You need to call an 0844 number to get through to the appointment line and you can be kept waiting for twenty minutes or more. Our daughter has had a recurring water infection for months. Each time she tries to get an appointment she is told to take in a water sample and she is then given antibiotics. We're not sure if there is anybody we can progress this to as it is totally unacceptable. Personally if she could get an appointment to see a doctor in 3 weeks time we would both be delighted. Sadly it's a case of too many people and not enough doctors.

oldagetraveller

"Our daughter has had a recurring water infection for months. Each time she tries to get an appointment she is told to take in a water sample and she is then given antibiotics. We're not sure if there is anybody we can progress this to as it is totally unacceptable. Personally if she could get an appointment to see a doctor in 3 weeks time we would both be delighted. Sadly it's a case of too many people and not enough doctors."

That's terrible. They're just treating the symptoms and not the cause. I'm not in any way medical and with only a limited knowledge, but repeated infections like that can't be right. Have you thought of requesting or demanding a referral to a urologist?

barbiedoll

zaksmum, I feel your pain. It's a standing joke about my GP, that by the time you get an appointment, you're either dead or cured!

flicks....this is a totally unacceptable situation, how old is your daughter? For a start, a receptionist is not a medically qualified staff member, it's not her job to "triage" patients, she could quite easily miss something important. When you next ring, insist on speaking to a nurse or to a doctor and don't be fobbed off. (Easier said than done, I know :mad:)
If your daughter is sending in urine samples and then receiving antibiotic prescriptions, I'm guessing that her samples haven't been analysed by a lab? Urine dipstick tests will show the presence of leucocytes (or white blood cells,) which can be an indicator of an infection, they can also be present with conditions such as thrush, which is very common after antibiotic therapy. Your daughter needs an appointment with someone who can listen to her symptoms, send off her urine sample and diagnose what is wrong, this is NOT the job for a receptionist. If you really cannot get an appointment, have a look online for the surgery complaints procedure or contact the PALS department at your local hospital.

There's more information here.......

http://www.nhs.uk/choiceintheNHS/Yourchoices/GPchoice/Pages/GPcomplaints.aspx

DaveAA

flicks wrote: »

You need to call an 0844 number to get through to the appointment line and you can be kept waiting for twenty minutes or more.

0844 numbers are revenue share numbers. The GMS contract was amended in April 2010 (and re-issued a few days ago) to ban the usage of numbers beginning 087, 09 or numbers that cause the caller to pay more than calling an 01 or 02 number.

gregg1

zaksmum wrote: »

Our surgery has always been difficult to get appointments in, but has gone really bad in the last year or so. I would be amazed if I could get an appointment the same day like this!

They do have some emergency appointments on Wednesdays and Fridays only, when they used to hold the open surgeries, and you have to call at 8am to try for one, but can never get through as the line's constantly engaged. If you do manage to get through, invariably all the appointments have gone.

They have nurse appointments but you can't get one of those less than a couple of weeks ahead.

I would change to another surgery but mine is the only local one and I have been on their books since 1975.

That's a difficult one.

Does your surgery have a patient panel where you can try and get them to look at the way the system is run.

Ours used to be like yours but because people were able to complain to the patient panel, they changed the way they ran things and it is much better now.

BargainGalore

Mine is great I can sometimes go in that day if I ring in morning if I am not to fussed which doctor I see. Dont you have a NHS drop in centre at all? just go in and wait and someone will see you in less than an hour usually a lot sooner we have one in town centre mines open from 8am until 8pm it also has a chemist attached to it

doughnutmachine

tbh, i think the problem is that people go to the doctor with trivial complaints and clog up the system. if they brought a charge in for visiting the doctor everyone would get appointments a lot easier...

zaksmum

gregg1 wrote: »

That's a difficult one.

Does your surgery have a patient panel where you can try and get them to look at the way the system is run.

Ours used to be like yours but because people were able to complain to the patient panel, they changed the way they ran things and it is much better now.

No, it has a suggestions box on the wall but the GPs don't bother looking in it.

As doughnutmachine suggests, part of the problem is the trivial stuff some people present with. And sadly in my area there's a lot of druggies clogging the surgery, going all out to get whatever drugs they can squeeze out of the GPs.

maninthestreet

One month to wait for a Doctor's appointment?? I would be writing to my MP about this...

fionajbanana

So glad my GP has a drop in clinic every morning. I always get there at 8:25am and normally the 3rd patient. I just play games on my iPhone (on silent) to pass the time.

My previous GP practice you had to phone up at 8:30-9:00 each morning to get an appt. Was annoying to get the bloody engaged tone all the time and on the odd occasion, no more slots! OK for your days off as I wasn't fussed what time I saw the doc, but on days where I stated work at 12-1pm, always the afternoon appts available. I am really going to take a 2:20pm appt when my GP practice was 15 mins drive from work in the middle of the day.

Do GP practices understand that about half of their patients work?