Difficulty Getting GP Appointments

Ames

I was at the GPs again this afternoon - twice this week, and both times the reception staff had people abusing them.

And yet they carried on being pleasant to the next patient.

maman

meer53 wrote: »

I must be lucky, i called my GP yesterday and got an appointment for this afternoon, it wasn't urgent, i just needed a referral to a consultant, i don't seem to have any problems seeing my doctor. It obviously varies hugely according to where you're registered.

I think you're right. And from what we've been told each practice can choose for themselves how to organise their system. On top of that, like any job, some practices will be more attractive to applicants for various reasons.


Made me laugh in today's budget. Where are these triage GPs to put in hospitals gong to come from? I could see that just doing odd shifts might be attractive to some but still only the same limited number of GPs to go around.

SallyUK

It would surprise you with what we have to put up with!

Sal
x

Ames wrote: »

I was at the GPs again this afternoon - twice this week, and both times the reception staff had people abusing them.

And yet they carried on being pleasant to the next patient.

System

SallyUK wrote: »

Our area's crisis team is available 24-7 for anyone needing help.

Sal
x

Thank you, i have a GP appointment next week so i'm going to ask her about it

lufcgirl

So my experience (as a patient)....

In the past four years, we've had a major new housing development built next to us, yet no new doctors surgery or increases to capacity. The same doctors have been there, including one who likes to remind me how he remembers when I was born

Anyway, in January I was playing badminton and felt a pain in my shoulder. Immediately I stopped playing and the next day woke up in pain. Called the doctor - we don't have a doctors appointment for four weeks but you can see a nurse today (this was after the receptionist quizzing me endlessly about what my ailment was, which to be quite frank is nothing to do with them).
I went to see the Nurse and was told it was nothing, to take paracetamol and it will heal in a day or two. She didn't even feel it or ask to assess it.

Two days later I woke up and couldn't lift my arm above my shoulder height. In the end I went to the local walk in who sent me immediately for X-Ray and to the fracture clinic. It turned out I'd had a torn ligament in my shoulder and had it in a sling for four weeks - and this nurse (who is apparently qualified to help) didn't even try in the slightest to help me.

Since then I've tried to book another appointment to try and get painkillers for pain I get in it after sports and have been told it's a four week wait. But everytime you go in that surgery you see the same faces, nobody ever 'looks' sick, it's all just a giant pain.

I think reception shouldn't be quizzing people as to what my problem is - if I think I feel bad enough to need a same day appointment they aren't qualified to disagree with me. And Nurses should not be used as a fallback to Doctors. I wouldn't wish the pain I had on anyone, and feel ridiculously angry she didn't even attempt to diagnose it.

SallyUK

We don't quiz as such, but we do have to ask for an "idea" of what the problem is.

For example, we have people asking to see the nurse for something that only a Dr deals with and vice versa. Some people insist on seeing a Dr, when it's something that the nurse could deal with. So if we book the patient in with the right person in the first place, it saves an appointment being wasted.

We also have patients who think that they ought to be seen on the same day, as "in their opinion" they are an emergency. We're taught to ask the right questions when they say they need an emergency appt.

We don't "quiz" but ask in a manner that's not construed to be quizical or nosey. The GPs actually ask us to ask the questions, it's not the receptionist whose just being awkward, although you do get some who are like that!

Each morning we get a list of patients who have attended out of hours, or A & E the evening before. It would astound you the things that they go with.

Stubbed toe
Blocked nose
Splinter in finger
Nosebleed
Period Pain
Cotton wool stuck in ear
Bruise

And then there's the ones who come to see their GP, who suggests referring them to hospital. The paper referral gets done, they don't collect it. Then they'll make another appointment to see the GP, tell GP that they can't make appointment at the hospital, why? because they didn't phone to make their appointment, or they will get the appointment booked and just don't go.

They don't seem to care about how much money is wasted in not turning up to appointments.

It's high time they started charging people for wasting the hospital staff's time.

Lufc girl - sorry to hear your nurse didn't help you. Did you complain?

Our nurses at our surgery are useless too - I think they got their degrees out of a lucky bag!! I wouldn't trust them as far as I could throw them - as they say!

Sal
x

lufcgirl wrote: »

So my experience (as a patient)....

In the past four years, we've had a major new housing development built next to us, yet no new doctors surgery or increases to capacity. The same doctors have been there, including one who likes to remind me how he remembers when I was born

Anyway, in January I was playing badminton and felt a pain in my shoulder. Immediately I stopped playing and the next day woke up in pain. Called the doctor - we don't have a doctors appointment for four weeks but you can see a nurse today (this was after the receptionist quizzing me endlessly about what my ailment was, which to be quite frank is nothing to do with them).
I went to see the Nurse and was told it was nothing, to take paracetamol and it will heal in a day or two. She didn't even feel it or ask to assess it.

Two days later I woke up and couldn't lift my arm above my shoulder height. In the end I went to the local walk in who sent me immediately for X-Ray and to the fracture clinic. It turned out I'd had a torn ligament in my shoulder and had it in a sling for four weeks - and this nurse (who is apparently qualified to help) didn't even try in the slightest to help me.

Since then I've tried to book another appointment to try and get painkillers for pain I get in it after sports and have been told it's a four week wait. But everytime you go in that surgery you see the same faces, nobody ever 'looks' sick, it's all just a giant pain.

I think reception shouldn't be quizzing people as to what my problem is - if I think I feel bad enough to need a same day appointment they aren't qualified to disagree with me. And Nurses should not be used as a fallback to Doctors. I wouldn't wish the pain I had on anyone, and feel ridiculously angry she didn't even attempt to diagnose it.

Rosemary7391

SallyUK wrote: »

Our nurses at our surgery are useless too - I think they got their degrees out of a lucky bag!! I wouldn't trust them as far as I could throw them - as they say!

Sal
x

The last time I went near a doctor's surgery, I actually ended up seeing a nurse practitioner. She was very helpful. The reception staff had a printed list of things that the nurse could deal with, so you just said if it was on that list or not. Nice and straightforward, not at all intrusive. Wouldn't work on the phone though.

EmeraldEye

My GP surgery is dreadful, it really is.

There are no full time doctors; The two "partners" work three days a week, then there's a junior doctor and a locum for the other two days. There was a third partner but he retired about a year ago.

There is only one nurse and she used to be available four days a week but that has now been cut to two days a week. Two years ago though there were two nurses working four days a week but times have changed.

The surgery is in a densely populated area and their patient list exceeds 4500 (They have a sign up in the waiting room about the size of their list), so getting to see either a doctor or nurse is a nightmare.

The typical waiting time to see a GP is three weeks but sometimes it's four and the nurse is very hit and miss because often she's not in on the days she's supposed to be.

There used to be a daily walk in "emergency surgery" from 9am to 12pm five days a week but they stopped offering this a few months ago, so you now need to phone up that morning with lines opening at 8.30am and closing at 9am to try and convince one of the three receptionists that your problem warrants an emergency appointment and that's only if you've been lucky enough to get the call answered.

There's no online booking facility and when you do have an appointment often the surgery is running behind by at least an hour, there's a lot of waiting on top of the excessive waiting you've had to do to even have been given an appointment in the first place.

I have a very serious medical issue and because of this I am regularly at my GP's (out of necessity, not choice) but I find it all very stressful because of the hoops you have to jump through; I have to have regular blood tests as well and with the nurse's unpredictable schedule there are times when I don't manage to get my bloods done when I'm meant to.

I mentioned this to my consultant and he was adamant that I should lodge a complaint but why? There's no point, the system is a mess and me raising a concern won't change that.

justme111

That is the only way to change - complaint. Otherwise politicians will keep telling how everything is fine, working despite difficulties. It probably will not help to you personally but it may help to get acknowledged that NHS 8s not fit for purpose and something has to change.