Impossible to get GP appointment

summerspring

MicaMoo wrote: »

I have had to wait up to two weeks to see my GP before. Thats if I can even get through to someone to book it. You could be on hold for up to ten minutes - and then INFURIATINGLY they answer it and say "Will you hold please" and put you on hold before you can say NO!

Charles Dance put NHS receptionists into room 101. I wish some of them'd stay there :rotfl: I swear they're paid to be as stroppy and unhelpful as possible.

pollypenny

I rang for an appointment today. Not an emergency, but I have found a lump.

I was offered a call-back by a nurse. No thanks.

I can either queue outside the door at 8 on Monday or take an appointment on 29th!

The system is mad!

GwylimT

Ours has clinic in the morning until 10 am, after then you call at 8:30 to book an appointment for that day, some things can be booked in advance, such as injections that need to be done at certain times and follow up appointments. Each surgery in the area takes a turn to open during the night so people with nothing wrong with them at least aren't wasting time at a&e.

jenniewb

Our surgery requires you to phone the reception, give a general gist of your problem then sit on your hands and do NOT use your phone, possibly all day whilst you wait for a call-back which will inevitably happen when your under a tunnel/have a telemarketing call or are in the loo and cannot for obvious reasons get to or want to answer the phone.


After you get the call (can take several days to actually be able to speak to a Doctor) they will talk over the phone to you about your problem (so make sure at all times your able to get to a space where you cannot be overheard if it's at all personal-not easy unless your bedridden and possibly need to be in hospital as most of us override this bedridden thing to get on with our day and collapse when we get home after 7pm/when the surgery calls would have stopped).


Then they will arrange a time for you to come in to the surgery if needs be, or send out a prescription, or whatever.


Whilst it can be helpful to have an intro to your problem and not have to go right from the start, it is annoying to have so many trial-and-error calls which are missed as the chances are you will only ever get a call when you cannot take it. It normally takes me several attempts over a few days to get to speak to a Doctor due to this.


I liked it better when I could call up on the day and have everything done and dusted inside 1 day, now it takes me up to a week and possibly longer to get the same issue dealt with. Apparently it's a new scheme and many surgeries are using it.


If it makes the Doctors less stressed this is great, but tbh I can't see how and so can't see the benefit for anyone.

Nicki

pollypenny wrote: »

I rang for an appointment today. Not an emergency, but I have found a lump.

I was offered a call-back by a nurse. No thanks.

I can either queue outside the door at 8 on Monday or take an appointment on 29th!

The system is mad!

Would the nurse not make an earlier appointment for you to see a GP when she called and found out what the issue was? That system sounds to me like a triage system to allocate earlier appointments rather than that the nurse would actually be treating you.

pollypenny

Nicki wrote: »

Would the nurse not make an earlier appointment for you to see a GP when she called and found out what the issue was? That system sounds to me like a triage system to allocate earlier appointments rather than that the nurse would actually be treating you.

I did think about that later, however, I want a doctor to assess this lump.

Our practice is yet another with a number of part-time doctors.

System

jenniewb wrote: »

Our surgery requires you to phone the reception, give a general gist of your problem then sit on your hands and do NOT use your phone, possibly all day whilst you wait for a call-back which will inevitably happen when your under a tunnel/have a telemarketing call or are in the loo and cannot for obvious reasons get to or want to answer the phone.


After you get the call (can take several days to actually be able to speak to a Doctor) they will talk over the phone to you about your problem (so make sure at all times your able to get to a space where you cannot be overheard if it's at all personal-not easy unless your bedridden and possibly need to be in hospital as most of us override this bedridden thing to get on with our day and collapse when we get home after 7pm/when the surgery calls would have stopped).


Then they will arrange a time for you to come in to the surgery if needs be, or send out a prescription, or whatever.

Our GP surgery used to do this, but it has now changed to a mixture of telephone appointments and face-to-face appointments. It put me off going to the doctors when we had to phone first, tell the receptionist what was wrong, then wait anxiously for a phone-call. Luckily I am at home during the day so I don't have to worry about being overheard but I imagine a lot of people would be out and about and using a mobile. Discussing things of a medical nature would be very inappropriate under those conditions.

Comyface

My surgery now lets you book appointments online. The other week I booked an appointment in the evening when the surgery was closed, and had an appointment for the following day.
I wonder if this is going to be an NHS-wide thing, because my friend who works for a totally separate PCT (or the current equivalent) about 30 miles away told me that it was coming.
I also order my repeat prescriptions through this booking online tool, it's good. Hopefully everyone will get it.

pinpin

pinkteapot wrote: »

Switch to a different GP? You're no longer under any obligation to be registered with your nearest.

Can you be registered to more than one out of interest??

Personally, I've found it fairly easy to get appointments fairly fast (although I know that lots of people don't!)

My biggest problem is that they are usually quite unhelpful, are only good for dishing out antibiotics, and don't run blood tests when I ask them too (probably because it costs money to run such tests)

I once begged for a blood test on 2 occasions due to some symptoms that I believed was due to a hormone issue. They kept refusing saying I was fine.
I eventually had to make up a number of lies about my condition and 'discomfort' before they eventually took blood tests, which then CONFIRMED what I thought, and had told them all along!

You keep hearing of cases where someone dies as the Doctors failed to pick something up. Probably because they would rather save money and not run blood tests

DaveTheMus

the NHS is set up for the convenience of GP's first and foremost.....

everything else is secondary.