Contacting the doctor

Blimey Whitewavemark2 what a palaver !

We can still go into our surgery and make an appointment or ring at 8am for an appointment on that day.

Sometimes it’s an initial telephone appointment which either leads to a face-to-face appointment or a prescription. Repeat prescriptions can be ordered via the app and take 3-4 working days before pick up at designated pharmacy.

My surgery has gone one better and joined up with another dozen so one may be given an appointment to go to any of these surgeries. Where most of them are is another minor problem. It will obviously be somebody I have never seen in my life and he/she does not know me.

I wonder if another surgery would take me on as a new patient at my age?

It is all so very sad - my OH was a GP and he would be utterly horrified by it all, having devoted his life to his patients.

I am not sure quite what is going on - do we suddenly have fewer GPs than we did pre-pandemic, when the system was troubled, but you could actually get to see an MP?

The last two occasions I have had consultations - both were on the phone - there were misdiagnoses and mis-prescribing. In the one case I was given antibiotics where it would have been clear these were unnecessary if I had been examined; and in the other, I was given a drug that it became clear was not appropriate in the presence of others I am taking.

I have osteoporosis and balance problems and fear what might happen if I fell.

Not MP - GP. although perhaps I would be better off seeing an MP!!

Whitewave Has your surgery recently changed its online service? If so, you might be asked to re-register, which would involve producing ID.

This is what happened to me. However, I was already registered for online services, so I sent a snail mail request to the Practice Manager, who said I didn't need to go through the ID palaver and he gave me new registration codes.

The new system seems to be working OK, apart from the practice turning it off when they've reached clinical capacity, which was before 10am on Tuesday. Apparently, the system is much more efficient than people hanging on the phone and many more people are getting through to the triage service.

Having gone through all this, I have managed to get an appointment next week with a musculoskeletal specialist (goodness knows who that is - I think it's the physio attached to the practice), which is what I requested.

TBH I don't think the situation in my GP's practice is worse than it was pre-pandemic. It started getting really bad about 5 or 6 years ago.

My GP will only be contacted online now. If you call and can't use the online system, the receptionist does it through the online system for you. I think the intention is to do away with the phone system as much as possible.

I've sat in the GPs waiting for an appointment and the phone really doesn't ring much now. So why is there such a long wait when calling? I can only assume it's to dissuade people from calling rather than using the online system.

We have less GP's.

Leaving rate has been high. Sad, we lost a couple of very experienced lovely GP's - stress, "time to get out" in Covid. They also left because they couldn't give the patients the time they felt appropriate - the job had changed.

Our phone system is up and OK - you have to ring before 10* to get same day call back, and that doesn't always work, but basically you start at 8.30am and keep trying. After 10 its for non emergency queries and its pot luck as to how busy they are. You are encouraged to book online I prefer a person so never tried.

*Having said that, if its a real serious emergency but not A and E, I've not known them turn me away.

Sorry to read that Whitewavemark2.

Online services do seem to vary. Our surgery has merged with another and the iconsult stopped to be replaced with ‘Klinik ’. It’s a triage appointment system but we didn’t need to re register. We’ve had to use it twice recently and some one called us back the same day. Both occasions required appointments which happened within 48 hrs.

I can’t understand why there seem to be so many different online consult systems. Some apparently, more successful than others.

Oddly our practice has stopped the online appointment system and they say put money into more people answering the phones. However when I tried today I was told 22nd December earliest available. However they advised me to try again from 8am on Monday. And I’m only following up a request made to GP by oncologist before it sinks into oblivion 😢

I don't know what's happening to the GP system but our online service is not easy to negotiate.

Ordering a repeat prescription seems fairly straightforward, but if you have a query then it's often easier to speak to someone at the surgery, if you have the patience to stay on the line for 35 minutes as I did last time. There seems to be just one receptionist and phone for those who want to make a swift call and those who need a lengthy discussion.
Because the new receptionist I spoke to a couple of weeks ago was poorly trained it took three times as long to sort out what I needed. She didn't even know the GPs' surnames.

The phone introduction on ours is endless and in Welsh first.

GagaJo

My GP will only be contacted online now. If you call and can't use the online system, the receptionist does it through the online system for you. I think the intention is to do away with the phone system as much as possible.

I've sat in the GPs waiting for an appointment and the phone really doesn't ring much now. So why is there such a long wait when calling? I can only assume it's to dissuade people from calling rather than using the online system.

That's how my GP practice works now. When I wanted to enquire about the new system because I couldn't order my repeat medications, I thought I'd give them a ring. I was number 32 in the queue for half an hour (and didn't move), which is why I decided to deliver a snail mail message.

My GP's surgery changed from PatientAccess to SystmOnline. Only parents of under 5s and genuine emergencies are supposed to ring. People are told if they don't have access to the online service, they should ring and the receptionist will complete the form for them and they'll go into the triage system like everybody else.

GPs were telling everyone ten years ago that more GPs were needed. Nobody listened so now we reap the reward.

Purpledaffodil

Oddly our practice has stopped the online appointment system and they say put money into more people answering the phones. However when I tried today I was told 22nd December earliest available. However they advised me to try again from 8am on Monday. And I’m only following up a request made to GP by oncologist before it sinks into oblivion 😢

I didn't need to ring for an appointment when hospital consultants requested GP follow up. On both occasions, the GP contacted me before I knew requests had been made.

I can’t understand why there seem to be so many different online consult systems.

Because they're all owned by private companies and their salespeople are competing with each other.

So when I tried desperately to get help, two weeks ago, for an infection that was growing rapidly (increased by 2 cms in a few hours) I couldn't reach my GP. Went to A&E only to be dismissed by the A&E doctor and told to go to my GP. This is how people die in the UK from very easily treated medical problems.

GP surgeries are private contractors of the NHS, are run as a business and can sub-contract to other suppliers.

It's nothing new.

Since the inception of the NHS in 1948 GPs were independent practitioners providing services to the NHS, rather than being NHS employees

Gagajo I'm no medic, but it seems likely that the infection should have been swabbed and tested and you should have been prescribed antibiotics.

Given that no magic wand is going to produce more doctors in the short term, I wonder what the solution is. Maybe there should be more investment in minor injuries units, prescribing pharmacies or nurse practitioners.

There needs to be an urgent investigation into what is actually happening in A&Es and listening to the people who are involved. This is all going to explode!

I've read your thread about your mystery condition and am wondering how you did eventually get to be seen.

growstuff

*I can’t understand why there seem to be so many different online consult systems.*

Because they're all owned by private companies and their salespeople are competing with each other.

I can’t understand why there seem to be so many different online consult systems.
I carried on to say that some apparently, more successful than others

I accept that budgets are tight but it's a pity that who ever buys into these systems for the surgery, can't spend some time researching into which ones actually work effectively.

I actually had a meeting with the Practice Manger about this earlier in the week. His claim was that the system they've now chosen does work best. He's new to the practice and apparently it was used in his former practice. We'll see!

Unfortunately, they just have too many people wanting appointments and not enough staff to deal with them all. Apparently, they switched the booking system off on Tuesday at 10am, when they reached 300 enquiries. In the past, people would have given up waiting on the phone, but now they can access the triage system. It shows how many people gave up in the past.

Personally, I think this system is better than the old system when people rang on the dot of 8am or queued up for appointments. People going to work or having to take children to school didn't stand a chance of getting an appointment.

Our surgery has turned off its online appointment service which I would much prefer to use, rather than waiting in a long queue from 8 am for ages (if you can even join the queue). I tried to send a message to 'ask the receptionist' which was still working - just an enquiry about whether more dates were available for the flu vaccination a while back - and they went to the trouble of messaging me back to tell me to phone, when they could have answered my very straightforward question with a 'not yet'.