GP surgery

Whereas my mother's doctor rings her up to see how she is. Yesterday, a practice nurse phoned her to say she was coming to the house the next day to do a blood test, and arrived on time too.

My GP has randomly decided a topical medication I have had prescribed for many years is not on my repeat list, (In spite of it having been prescribed every month for over 5 years)
I now have to speak with a doctor before I have it dispensed again.
Ring on Monday at 8am for an appointment.
Unfortunately I work Monday to Friday so I am on my way to work at 8am and will be driving.

Our surgery staff have become very good at posing for pictures on the practice Facebook site. But I can't even get in the phone queue. They just cut you off. So I am self-diagnosing and self-treating. Hope it's nothing fatal.

I haven’t seen my GP for six years. If something is wrong I fill in a form on the internet. Then a paramedic visits. If necessary he informs the GP who telephones me.
My home help cut her finger badly so went to the surgery just round the corner and was told that they no longer deal with those minor things and advised her to go to A and E. 28 miles away. She had to drive there and then wait four hours before being attended to. There are a lot of qualified staff in the surgery all standing around chatting.

My GP surgery is wonderful, can always get an appointment, they are great at referring you for hospital checks too and chase up on your behalf if appointments slow

A couple of years ago, before I retired, when I was about to go back to work for the September term, I noticed blood in my poo! It was August bank holiday so surgery closed. I rang 111 and eventually spoke to a doctor who said I needed an appointment with my GP. I asked him what I should do if I couldn't get an appointment and he said "Go to A&E"

When the surgery reopened I did the 'queue on the phone' thing only to be told there were no appointments left! I was offered a telephone appointment with a doctor but told them I'd already had that on 111 so I would be following their advice and would go to A&E. I had an appointment at my surgery within the hour! Obviously it felt a bit like blackmail and I wouldn't do that if I wasn't genuinely worried, but surgeries don't want us to go to A&E because they wouldn't fit us in. I guess they get in trouble!

There used to be a walk-in centre near us, which was the place to go if there were no GP appointments, but that closed during the pandemic! Ringing 111 got us an appointment for my daughter when we really needed one to have some stitches out and our GP had none. It was at a walk-in centre 15 miles away! OK for us but not everyone can easily travel that distance!

It's a very sad situation in the NHS and I worry that it will get worse. Thankfully I get regular check ups with the diabetic nurse and my health is otherwise fairly good so I'm not too badly affected. I advise people to make use of 111 if their GP isn't meeting their needs. They usually find an alternative somewhere.

Our surgery wasn't great before the pandemic - even worse now! My husband developed an inguinal hernia, but they wouldn't give him an appointment, just sent him for blood tests and an ultrasound., which was so poorly done that it didn't show the Hernia. only a small lymph node. He had a phone call from a GP a week later, and despite him saying my husband would be referred to the general surgeons, he referred him for the lymph node! Fortunately the lady who saw him there wrote a scathing letter to the GP, and copied us in. I was then able to get him a face to face appointment (6 weeks later) The GP who examined him was horrified at the state of the hernia, and referred him to the general surgeons immediately, but the 1st appointment available is 19th June. It took 6 weeks of extreme pain and swelling for us to get a face to face appointment, for something which could be life threatening, if I wasn't so careful about managing it.

I echo that GrowingOld.
Mallin 💐 please be persistent - don’t give up.

My GP surgery is brilliant too. I recently filled in the GP's on-line questionnaire, had a text from the GP 20 minutes later saying she had sent a prescription to my local chemist for anti-biotics for my UTI, which I collected 15 minutes later. All done within the space of an hour. I would add I was going abroad on holiday two days later which I mentioned in the questionnaire.

Mallin, that's dreadful. I really hope they sort themselves out and treat you properly.

Thakyou BlueBelle,
I have worked as a receptionist in primary care for many years.
The insults, agression and even threats have become commonplace.
Staff turnover is enormous and morale rock bottom, many of us end our day in tears.
Please remember that reception staff can only work within the terms of their remit. The practice partners are the ones making the rules.

Ours was dreadful pre-covid, even then had to queue down the road first thing in the morning to get an appt, as no chance of getting through on the phone. In fact, in one of those surveys published recently, it is in the bottom quarter of surgeries in the country for patient satisfaction.
A family member works at the pathology lab at one of the hospitals in the city, and says she has to spend a hugely disproportionate amount of every working day trying to get through to GP practices in connection with patients' tests and results - apart from the few fortunate GNers on here who have properly functioning GP practices, the whole system is just no longer working.

I don’t want to die.
Yet it looks like I might, as due to not receiving the correct medical treatment I’m going downhill daily.
I’ve been waiting 2 years for an appointment with a cardiologist. In that time I’ve been admitted to hospital 3 times and I’m still waiting for a GP to prescribe the tablets the hospital told me I needed last time I was in hospital.
I go over the shops myself. I drive there and Tesco security guards collect a mobility scooter for me. There’s another, German shop I go to when I feel able to walk where they put my shopping into the car for me.
I have 5 tablets which keep me alive. The prescription is for 2 months at a time. Another tablet which I’ve been warned only work if not missed, have a prescription which lasts 2 weeks. The receptionist at the GP surgery says I must see my GP face to face as it sounds like I might not need to take so many of them as most prescriptions last a month. To see a GP I need to phone back the following day even though I’ve just spent 1 hour 43 minutes on hold waiting to get through.
The last Dr I saw at hospital even phoned me at home to make sure I got the prescription she had ordered for me and was disgusted that I was having to wait for it due to the GP surgery receptionist refusing to make an appointment for the following day and expecting me to phone back the following day.
I don’t want to die yet.
I don’t need to if I was receiving adequate medical care

Our large city practice is giving much better support to its patients now than it was a year ago.
Yes, a triage system is in place to decide how long a patient must wait for an appt. but I have been seen within the day when urgent.
It could be better and I have seen patients complaining/ranting at Receptionists but feel they don’t make the rules it is not usually them at ‘fault’.

I feel I must say what an utter waste of time the 111 service is in most cases. Almost every time that I've contacted them I've had a long wait and then either been told to go to A&E or they have called an ambulance for me. If I'd gone to A&E at the outset I'd have been an hour or more further into my wait!
However I did use the service in Dorset and was actually connected to an on-call doctor who had a prescription for strong antibiotics sent electronically to the local pharmacy.
As with most things NHS I think that the service varies enormously from area to area.

Anniel

I have no axe to grind as I am not in UK at present.I am interested in the great variation among the replies. Some of you find it almost impossible to contact the surgery or to see a doctor. As there seems to be quite a few grans who have children who are GPs could these gransbask their children the reasons for the current situation. It seems to have changed dramatically since COVID and there has to be a reason.
I did hear many older GPs retired because of a tax decision made by the govt. Then in recent years more women are training to be GPs ( a good thing) However, women have children and GPs in my surgery often worked part time so the chance of having a doctor you saw more than once was no longer possible. Doctors can earn high salaries and so working part time is an attractive option. Has anyone any knowledge of why things have changed so much?

Part-time GPs are very common in the UK and have been for many years. However I am told that although they are part-time so have limited appointments, the time taken to do all the paperwork and administration actually means that they effectively work full-time hours.

Saggi

What is ‘ Ask My GP’ Calendargirl?

It’s an online consultation tool that some GP surgeries are part of.

If you have an ailment, instead of phoning, you go online, briefly explain your problem, and they usually ask how you want it resolved, face to face, telephone, message.

They then come back with an appointment with a doctor, nurse, whoever, maybe not for a while, depending on how serious it is. You can ask to see a certain person or anyone free. I think a certain number of various appointments are earmarked for this system. It helps if you are not fussy about who you see.

It’s available between 8am- 1pm at our practice, you nearly always get a response quickly, the same day.

Far better than telephoning and being in a queue.

knspol

Just checked local surgery and face to face appt available on 9 May so a couple of weeks better than the last time I checked and this appt would be with a 'real' doctor and not one of the trainees who are often there. Fingers crossed local surgery might be improving although pre Covid I would have thought this was abominable.

Are they trainees or actually locums who are fully trained but not on the permanent staff? It was actually a locum who picked up that my husband had heart failure after two permanent and supposedly fully-qualified GP's had misdiagnosed his symptoms.
The last GP I saw myself was a locum but thoroughly competent and just as good as a "normal" GP.

You can contact our practice via their "Patches" online system asking for assistance, be it medical or administrative. I did this when I had a medical worry and had an appointment next day, on a Saturday.
It is shocking that some practices are so limited - though I do wonder if patients might not be aware of digital methods of contact which are already on offer?

My Gp surgery is wonderful.. I can get through within a few minutes on the phone and can always get an appointment, either for the next couple of days or maybe a week as I prefer a GP who is part-time. The receptionists are always so pleasant and what a difference that makes..

Things are deteriorating here in France as well. I have been trying to make a post scan follow up appointment only to be told the hospital can't make appointments as they are short staffed. I have finally got an appointment in another town.
Our GP and surgery are fine and see patients quickly but in other rural areas there are no GPs available.

Anniel not sure where you live but you may have missed our illegal Brexit which sent a lot of doctors back to Europe same with dentists add on to that Covid and lock downs and more ill people and a different necessary way to use surgeries pharmacies etc and you can see where it’s all coming from

It's a 55 week wait for physio in my area

travelsafar That is unacceptable - I put an econsult in about an infection, the nurse practitioner rang me back the same day to discuss it and issued an immediate prescription for antibiotics for me.

My surgery are pretty good, I get through in a couple of minutes usually. I do have to wait until 18th May to see my GP but she is popular and it was the only appointment she had free in either April or May! I did say it wasn't urgent, plus I needed a double appointment which didn't help. If its urgent then same day appointments are available. I am also heading into the menopause, the night sweats are a bit of a giveaway, but not bothering with the blood test - as I understand it, not wildly accurate plus I am needlephobic.