Bonkers new rule at our GP surgery

An example of odd GP surgery rules. Neighbour had a face to face appointment with GP. All clear and GP said make another appt for 3 months on your way out. Neighbour goes to reception and is told "we don't make appts here anymore because we minimise traffic in reception" (at the time there was nobody else waiting). "You have to phone for appt when you get home". Neighbour reluctantly agreed, dreading long phone waits on hold. Decided instead to phone on mobile from surgery car park on way out. Got through immediately!

I’ve been sent letters and text reminders for reviews for various conditions. I phoned for an appointment yesterday morning only to be told that they no longer book routine appointments nor appointments in advance. Oh and there’re no appointments available today l. 🤣

'Freyja
I don't know what the real problem with the GPs is but as we are paying these doctors £85000,00
to do the job so they should do it. Yes, they can complain and make excuses but at the end of the day they are suppose to be professionals. I haven't seen my allocated GP for 6 years. I thought she had left. I think I am entitled to have a moan, as a pensioner, I have paid my stamp all my working life and have never been ill. I am now paying twice, and have to spend the 'cost of living allowance' to get medical attention I am entitled too.
So have to cut back on the heating.'

Gosh, Freyja. Could you please tell my family where to apply for these £850,000 posts. They'll probably be stampeded in the rush.

I think you have been misinformed.

Candelle

If you aren't within walking distance to hand in a letter and have to use postal service patients will have to wait for days before getting a phone call. Absolutely ridiculous.

If some posters think that Maddyone has been a little brusque, it is no surprise. She has lost her daughter and grandchildren to the other side of the world purely because they were almost burned out working here.

Maddyone is absolutely right in her assertions that there are just not enough doctors and that most do not want to enter the GP profession as they see the pressures that those staff work under.

I will put my hand up to one of my children being a GP. She works regular fourteen hours a day. She barely saw her children during the tough two years of Covid. Just take a few seconds to understand what that must have been like for her - and them.

My daughter now works a four day week (totalling 56 hours) but... works much of her 'day off' when at home, too. When with her at a weekend, her mobile is often ringing with calls from psychiatry hospital departments. Or, I look at her and she will be texting - work related.

I have not mentioned the extra time necessary to run her practice, the two-day weekend planning meetings or the sessions inoculating patients with Covid or 'flu jabs.

Many of the tasks previously undertaken at a local 'cottage' type hospital were sourced to GP's but of course, there were no further hours in the day that could be fitted in. You require, for example, minor surgery? Yup, the GP has to do that too as the cottage hospitals have probably all been sold off.

The population has grown, so list sizes have increased.

Treatments are more complicated now and rightly so, but there are not enough staff to administer them.

Patients and shout away if you must - are more 'entitled' than previously. I am not suggesting a return to the deference previously shown to the medical professional but the 'I know my rights' brigade insisting, for example, that paracetamol should be prescribed instead of having to purchase them, are rife or some of her patients (having thoroughly researched their condition) insist that they be referred to x, y or z when in fact, they are incorrect. All time taken from a patient who does need help.

The NHS is creaking at the seams and it pains me to admit this. It has been run down and we believe there is a hidden agenda to bring in the American system of buying an insurance policy to cover health care. If anyone has even a rudimentary idea of how this works, be very afraid.

Finally, if my daughter was to calculate her hourly rate it would be less than the minimum wage so please please, do not believe all the waffle in the press about how much doctors are paid.

Most GPs work as they love their patients, want to help society and make a difference but goodwill has run the NHS for several years now (in most areas, not just GPs) and it is paper thin and will tear very soon. Be prepared as there is no quick fix. We shouldn't steal staff from deprived countries, we have not the number of trainee GP's coming through and money itself is not now the panacea. There is no easy solution and we are in for a few rough years.

Oh dear, this seems ridiculous!
I had cause to phone our surgery for an emergency appointment last week. I was expecting to be told someone would ring me sometime during the day & then I might just possibly get to see someone as well. I was quite shocked when the receptionist asked if I could come & see someone at 10am. The car park was very busy & it was obvious that things had returned to the previous pandemic norm, with drs coming into the full waiting room to collect their patients.

So what exactly is the problem with discussing it sensibly, since everyone is coming from the same basic start point.

A gp wants their patients to be listened to, helped to manage problems, and have access to appropriate assessments and treatments.

That is exactly the same as patients want.

Candelle does your GP family member who works 14 hours a day actually see many patients in a day?
Because most GP’s seem to prefer running a phone call system and not face to face.
Some people haven’t seen their own GP in a few years.Others struggle to even get a phone appointment.
They aren’t all working 14 hour days or even seven hour days.

Also Candelle please don’t insult our intelligence with claims of poverty regarding GP salaries.They earn plenty.

I used to work often the same kind of hours, actually, on minimum wage.

I don't expect that to be accounted for, however, but I do object to being somehow "entitled" for a perfectly valid request for an appointment, if necessary, with a gp.

I can understand that they are over subscribed and need to triage appointments and lots can be sorted over the phone , but sending a letter seems a bit crazy. Do people post them? What happens to the letter once they receive it ? What happens in a postal strike ? I’d have thought a telephone request to be looked at by the surgery so they can triage it to the right person would do the trick . Are other patients struggling ? Chat to the patient liaison at your CCG ( called something else now )

I've actually been able to get an appointment throughout covid up until now.

It's the admin side of things I have had problems with, but of course, not the gps fault at all, I'd imagine.

Email the practice manager and copy in your MP ….that’s totally ridiculous…..at my son’s surgery they won’t let you book in person, you have to phone…so when he tried to book they made him call even though he was in the actual surgery as he made the call and it was the receptionist on the desk who answered and booked!

I’ve seen it suggested before that GPs shouldn’t be allowed this choice. Of course that would result in even fewer GPs as they would choose not to work for a few years, and anyway as a feminist I couldn’t support the legal rights that other women have being removed from doctors

Of course they must be allowed to work part-time. That wouldn't work in practice and surely would be illegal.

I was told that all the GPs in our practice are part-time and that would include the men. Presumably they are part-time so they can share the care of their children with their OHs who might have careers too even if not in medicine.

@HousePlantQueen are you in Measham by any chance! That happens here too!!

maddyone

Why don’t you stop moaning and be glad your husband has got an appointment?

Somebody seems to have got out of bed on the wrong side this morning!

To me OP wasn't moaning, she was pointing out a ridiculous new rule that the practice staff don't seem to know what to do with either.

I would move to another surgery. Ours is over-stretched - apparently we live in an ‘affluent’ area, so we get less funding than poorer parts of the borough, so we’re never supposed to be ill. 🙄 It takes ages to wait on the phone for an appointment, but the staff are always lovely to speak to when you finally get through. I’m sure they’re doing their best.

Well said maddyonr

Oh dear. Know that all doctors and nurses up and down the country are under pressure as myself had a x-ray/scan got lost and dr. had to find the results kind of him and so he rang me.

But DIABETIES IS A SERIOUS CONDITION. I myself at the start of the panademic was told that I need to go on insuling from being on tablets for last 12 years, so I managed to loose one and a half stone, which took some 9 months and it was very hard seeing my husband with his sugar donuts each week.

When my husband years ago had an appendix operation in the next bed was a guy who had his foot amuptated due to diabeties and that made ME SIT UP.

I do my repeats order now on an email to my surgery a week before I need anything and it works for our surgery but appontments can also be booked on line so see if that system is also in place at your own surgery, a new way forward since COVID19.

Yes, phone the practice manager for a complaints form but that will probably wont get u anywhere as I did this about 14 years ago and it was a "chat" with the same doctor who had ignored a serious condition saying that I didnt have on the question i asked of her, and soon after she left as guess what someone else had previously complained and think in the end she was told leave but guess what her pension would still be a bloody good one compared to what in general others would get given.

Not the GP surgery but the hospital:

DO NOT come into the hospital for your appointment; it will be a telephone appointment

As a result, so far, in three years, I have not met my new Consultants but we've had some nice chats on the phone 🙂

"No, we cannot deliver your medication anywhere convenient to you, you have to come into the hospital to collect it". 🤔

One local practice has a private clinic within the NHS surgery. I had no problem booking a private appointment and subsequently treatment. I am not a patient at that surgery but I can't get an appointment at mine. I would estimate the rate to be approximately £240+ per hour.

It seems that each surgery has its own rules. I am housebound and have actually seen my GP once in six years. When I had a fall a paramedic came. I can go on line to describe symptoms and a doctor will phone back

Message withdrawn at poster's request.