Parents unable to get doctor appointment after weeks of trying

Nicki · 1 June 2017 at 8:23PM

There are fewer GPs per head of population. It is the school holiday period where I live - Whitsun half term.

kirtondm · 2 June 2017 at 12:34PM

ageing population
more difficult to recruit GP's esp in country areas.
More demand - The current generation of elderly have grown up with the NHS and will use it.

gettingtheresometime · 2 June 2017 at 1:26PM

Also I would imagine there's a view that general practice is the poor relation of medicine - one below A&E consultants.

Would worth contacting the practice manager directly, explaining the situation ? You never know, they may be able to work around the problem for him

ElusiveLucy · 2 June 2017 at 4:37PM

Ring the NHS helpline and then when they say you need a doctors appointment you ring your GP surgery and tell them the NHS helpline said you needed an appointment and they fit you in

FBaby · 2 June 2017 at 5:13PM

Surely everyone registered with the surgery is in the same situation and if the phones are jammed and then there are no more appointments, the people must manage to get through. It is therefore hard to believe that for 21 days in a row, your mother has not managed to get through on time once.

Without doubting that your mum knows what she's doing, I'm wondering whether she's been a bit selective when she told you she's been calling every day. Or maybe she gets up later and therefore calls 1/2 - 1 hour after opening hours and therefore always miss the chance.

Either that, or if it is truly as bad as she claims, then it is more than time to call your local CCG and put a complaint in and this is way beyond acceptable.

boots_babe · 9 June 2017 at 7:51PM

FBaby wrote: »

Surely everyone registered with the surgery is in the same situation and if the phones are jammed and then there are no more appointments, the people must manage to get through. It is therefore hard to believe that for 21 days in a row, your mother has not managed to get through on time once.

Without doubting that your mum knows what she's doing, I'm wondering whether she's been a bit selective when she told you she's been calling every day. Or maybe she gets up later and therefore calls 1/2 - 1 hour after opening hours and therefore always miss the chance.

Either that, or if it is truly as bad as she claims, then it is more than time to call your local CCG and put a complaint in and this is way beyond acceptable.

Sorry only just seen your reply. I know it sounds ridiculous, I questioned it quite hard with my parents too, as it sounds like a situation that shouldn't be possible.

But it is. My mum has cited several friends that have had exactly the same issue, so my dad is far from the only person having this issue unfortunately. She really is calling on the dot of the opening time, in fact my mum and dad are both calling on separate phones concurrently - she has given me chapter and verse each time I speak on the phone to her, about exactly what she did, how many times she redialled, how long it took to get through, and that at that point there were no appointments left. Unbelievable :-(

I've looked on the NHS site and their surgery gets an appalling review score (only 1 star out of 5 across all reviews).

It's just made worse by the fact that my parents were forced to move to this practice (only a few months ago) when their existing one closed down. So they've not had much choice in the situation.

I've looked myself at what other surgeries are in the area that they could move to. The nearest other option is quite a lot further away, but I've tried to encourage them to consider moving, as it would be better to be further but at least be able to be seen.

But as they are very (very!) regular visitors to the GP they're not keen.

We're just in the process of helping them to move up to be near to us (they're a few hours away currently) and the new area has lots of great GPs nearby, so hopefully this problem will go away in a few months for them when they move.

System · 10 June 2017 at 2:29PM

I would be looking to change surgery, given your parents' experience and the bad reviews on the website.

suejb2 · 10 June 2017 at 4:40PM

Do your parents have an out of hours emergency service in their area? I have BARDOC

boots_babe · 10 June 2017 at 4:45PM

I didn't know what BARDOC was so have just googled it, it looks like a means of seeing an emergency GP?

I don't think that would help, as my dad has already been to a walk-in centre and seen a GP there, but they said he needs a referral to a specialist, and that that can only be done by his own GP.

teddysmum · 10 June 2017 at 4:47PM

avogadro wrote: »

I would be looking to change surgery, given your parents' experience and the bad reviews on the website.

There aren't many options available.

Our practice used to be very good ,with an open surgery, on 5 mornings a week. However, because of staff loses (two doctors being replaced by a pharmacist and nurse practitioner ,who treat minor ailments ) and people abusing the walk in by using it to request repeat prescriptions and vaccinations (despite many warnings that this would lead to cancellation),the open surgery is no more and we have bookable appointments, including same day ones , but they are difficult to get.

On top of this is the problem that the three practice owners are approaching 60 and retirement, so the practice will close. There are lots of small practices nearby, but they are probably full, like ours and don't have the specialist nurses (diabetes, COPD, women's problems etc). On talking to a patient of one, I gather that they seem to have little knowledge of diabetes , a future worry, as mine is well controlled, but is not guaranteed to stay that way.

Parents unable to get doctor appointment after weeks of trying

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