Getting a GP appointment

ahll

Hi,
I was under the impression that Tony Blair has scrapped this system once he found out about it during the election campaign. I went to make an appointment the other day, my doctor has been away on holiday and doesnt get back until this wednesday. I was told the usual then when I mentioned that I thought that system had been scrapped she did admit I could make an appointment 2 days in advance now. However that was no help to me so she suggested I come down to the surgery on Thursday morning at 8am and hope I can get an appointment....I ask you what kinda service is this !!!!!!

penrith

update...

tried to get an appointment on thursday (as you know from the OP), also tried friday, monday and tuesday. Everyday i rang and was told at the time i rang there were no appointments left for any GP at any time of day. Today i am sick to the back teeth. i rang the non-appointments phone number of my surgery. I asked the receptionist that if i left a message for the GP could she personally assure me that the GP would get the message. I pressed home this point before leaving the message. She gave me her name and assured me that she personally make sure the GP got the message. I then told her the message 'It's Mrs. X, i've been trying to get an appointment with you since last thursday but i keep being told there are absolutely none available whenever i ring. I am very sorry to bother you but could YOU (GP) make me an appointment with you at whatever time is convenient and let me know when i should come for it". Funnily enough she offered me an appointment for an hour later with the GP of my choice and said there was no need now to give the GP this message.

Felt a bit guilty for trying the trick but it sure worked!!!

When i had my appointment i mentioned it to the GP just incase he had got the message. he laughed his head off and said it was a brilliant trick and i should try it again if i ever needed it.

We_Laugh_Indoors

well done!!

i will defo remember that one for the future!

LondonDiva

ahll wrote:

Hi,
I was under the impression that Tony Blair has scrapped this system once he found out about it during the election campaign.

Is this the drop in system, or the 48hr one? If it's the 48hr -No it hasn't & GPs get assessed on if they are operating a system like this.

ahll wrote:

....I ask you what kinda service is this !!!!!!

The one we pay for.

LondonDiva

robnye wrote:

.....also the receptionist - albeit harrassed with phone calls, and people coming and going didnt come across as an ogre.......

Next time this happens, please do take the time to say thanks or point out the difference it made. I bet you'll be the first person in a long while to bother

LondonDiva

WHA wrote:

So they should find a way of dealing with this tiny minority who abuse the system. Our doctors have just started putting up their silly posters saying how many people have missed appointments (along with all their other silly posters). I worked it out to about 1 missed appointment out of every 50 (just 1 or 2 per day) - not that bad a problem! How can it be fair to punish the majority who would never do this?

The problem is not a minority one. It is actually one of the major costs of the NHS is people not turning up for appts either GP or in hospitals. If people can't make it, there's always a waiting list to offer the rimes to even at short notice, but the majority of people just don't bother & I think it'a real shame as it could make a difference to someone else.

Re silly posters, the majority of them contain information that the NHS/Govt needs to get out there somehow. Until you have a better solution, idea or want to work with the services concerned, it's a little unhelpful to dismiss a sincere effort to provide information without giving pointers about alternatives.

Please sign up for your local patients' forum or write in to your local PCT/hospital so that any ideas you have of improving the way they present loads of information can be improved.

Diva

Bogof_Babe

I was horrified to see our surgery now has a poster in the waiting room informing that anyone using threatening or abusive behaviour on the premises will be de-registered from the practice's list.


What is the world coming to? I mean why bother to seek medical help if you can't behave while you're there?

Xbigman

I went with my daughter to the doctors this morning. She's glucose intolerent (possible early indicator of diabeties) and needs to see a dietician. Only appointment available Sept 23rd. Her mother is remarrying the next day so she can't make it. Because she is 'uncooperative' they can't fit her in until December now. What a load of cr*p.
Regards




X

penrith

Xbigman wrote:

I went with my daughter to the doctors this morning. She's glucose intolerent (possible early indicator of diabeties) and needs to see a dietician. Only appointment available Sept 23rd. Her mother is remarrying the next day so she can't make it. Because she is 'uncooperative' they can't fit her in until December now. What a load of cr*p.
Regards




X

oh i know! I was given a 6 month appointment in dec 2004 to go back and see the hospital consultant on 14th june 2005. In february 2005 i realised i had an exam on that day and i simply could not make the appointment. I was not going to fail my 2 year course for a hospital appintment. I rang them with 4 months notice and explained this to them and asked if i could rearrange. They offered me an appointment for 5 january 2006! :eek: I couldn;t believe it! they said that was the next available one! They then asked me if i was sure i wanted to cancel my june 2005 appointment. i said i would 'cos i am not going to fail my course and the hospital appointment is for a relatively minor problem.

Afterwards i had a (sneaky) thought. If i got them to discharge me and then my GP re-referred me, they have to see me within 16 weeks from a GP referal don't they? Well that makes it 0ct/nov 2005 before i'd be seen again damn sight quicker than january 2006!

I did a similar thing with my daughter. hospital (X) has main eye clinic but an eye doctor comes to our local hospital (Y) every week to do a clinic. This doc has been off ill for months so there is a massive backlog. My daughter was told she'd be waiting 9 months to be seen at local hospital Y. I rang the main dept. at hospital X and asked if my daughter could be seen by a different eye doctor at the main eye hospital if we were prepared to travel to hospital X. i was told they saw their referals within 6-8 weeks but i could not swap to hospital X because health visitor had referred my daughter to local hospital Y. [they were dead picky about not allowing people to swap hospitals due to the backlog] So i asked them on the phone to discharge her. They said "are you sure?" my response was "yes please discharge her and then i'll go back to our health visitor and ask her to refer my daughter specifically to hospital X and NOT hospital Y and then my daughter will be seen within 8 weeks rather than wait a further 9 months for our local hospital."

Funny but she miraculously found my daughter an appointment for the following week at our local hospital Y with a locum eye doctor... the one where i;d been told it would be 9 months for an appointment!

Some might not like what i do but i tell the staff exactly what i am doing simply because they know that if it is an inter-hospital referal there is no time scale and they can take as long as they like. if it is a GP referral then they HAVe to see you in 16 weeks. You just have to fight to be seen!

I *always* attend hospital appointments i've been given, i wait however long it takes when i am there and i always ring to cancel/change appointments with as much notice as possible when i really can't attend them. Perhaps if we had to pay a nominal fee like £10 to see a doctor and could get it back when we attend, this would perhaps stop people treating the NHS as a 'free' service?

penrith

Bogof_Babe wrote:

I was horrified to see our surgery now has a poster in the waiting room informing that anyone using threatening or abusive behaviour on the premises will be de-registered from the practice's list.


What is the world coming to? I mean why bother to seek medical help if you can't behave while you're there?

Absolutely! But what gets me (and i am talking about hospitals now not surgeries) is that the staff can be rude you can be kept waiting for no good reason due to mix up and general incompetence and if you show you're just a tad annoyed, they start waving their finger at these posters as a "threat". I have seen this done, i felt for the patient really, he was been threatened that they would withold treatment because he was simply explaining he was annoyed and in pain and they were being incompetent.

Also what happens if the patient appear a little aggressive but this is due to a health problem they have (i'm thinking about mental health or some learning difficulties type probs). Also when you are in pain, often you can be a little sharp and irritable, btu that is because you are in pain. I feel some NHS staff take these posters as meaning they can deliberately mistake a persons irritablility for aggression and abuse.