Doctors appointments, or not as the case may be.

Calendargirl I begged my GP practise to look at AskMy GP system before the pandemic but they ignored the suggestion. And like others you have to phone at 8am for appt .They have never come back in the building properly post covid and my doctor has retired . Not sure I want a pharmacist looking after repeat prescriptions though - there's already far too many unused items issued but as pharmacies are making money on them not sure they'd have an interest in reducing them .

My surgery has a 'phone at 8' policy, which has been there since before Covid. If you get through, which is by no means a given, you might get a telephone appointment if it is deemed necessary, but as often as not the phone rings off the hook.

If you are granted an appointment, there is no indication of when it will be, so you can't plan your day. People could be on the way to work, in a meeting, looking after children, in the same room as an abusive partner or parent, and have to discuss personal issues. I am ok now, as I can be in my own house all day, and there is space if I want to be private - plus there is only me and Mr Dog at home. But by no means everyone is in that position. My guess is that most people are not.

When we came to this surgery the doctors would come out to visit patients who couldn't get to the surgery, you could get an appointment the same day, and with a named doctor the next day at the latest. There were Saturday surgeries for people who worked through the week, and you could turn up at 11.00 without an appointment and wait to be seen if you didn't have one booked. There was also an hour a day when you could speak to a GP on the phone. None of those things still applies.

I have recently been given an appointment to speak to a pharmacist who will review my medication. I have no idea who this will be, and am not very happy about it. When did pharmacists get access to patient records, and were we asked about this? It feels that more and more is being done by people other than doctors, so more and more people are being given access to our records, which are supposed to be confidential.

Meanwhile, our surgery website has a note saying that they are still accepting NHS patients and to make an appointment to discuss any particular needs before deciding to join the practice! I know they are businesses, but why keep taking patients whilst simultaneously cutting the services for the ones they have? And how do people get pre-registration appointments when there are none for the sick?

My last GP experience was late last year. I went online at around 8.15 to book an appointment, had a GP call at 8.40 and the prescription was at the chemist by 9.

Gosh Growstuff , I didn't realise that about missed appointments including none answered phone appointments. I had one of those. I was at work serving a customer and there was no way I could answer my phone.
I did get a very quick appointment a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, as I suffer from severe health anxiety, I immediately went into a panic and presumed it was because I was actually very seriously ill. You just can't win. The doctor I saw was so very new and young she looked like she was doing work experience. Maybe the practice just wanted to give her someone safe and nice. At least that is what I try to think.

Doodledog It could be a pharmacist working in your practice. My practice has just appointed a clinical pharmacist. Personally, I think it makes sense for pharmacists to do medication reviews. They know a lot more about medicines than GPs do and will be able to spot side effects and I expect you'd be referred if something didn't appear to be working. Moreover, it takes some of the pressure off GPs, so that they can actually treat people.

Gingerrice

Calendargirl I begged my GP practise to look at AskMy GP system before the pandemic but they ignored the suggestion. And like others you have to phone at 8am for appt .They have never come back in the building properly post covid and my doctor has retired . Not sure I want a pharmacist looking after repeat prescriptions though - there's already far too many unused items issued but as pharmacies are making money on them not sure they'd have an interest in reducing them .

I've been having medication reviews for years. The GPs usually just sign them off for another year, whereas the pharmacist goes through each medication, asks me whether I think it's still useful and asks about any side effects I think I've been having. I was taken off one medication, but the GP was consulted first.

We too have the email system. I emailed around 9.00am. Spoke to a doctor at 10.00 and was seen in the surgery at 11.30.

I was signed up to a research project at the University hospital on the spot and was seen at the hospital at 2.30.

We can go online at 7.55 and get a face to face or telephone appointment every day. We can also email with a non urgent problem and a doctor will ring you back within 24 hours. In extreme cases I have been able to ring at any time and speak to the duty doctor.
Our practice seems to have taken on more doctors recently.

Nannagarra

Sometimes I join the queue outside the surgery at 7.45 am to get an appointment. It has proved effective.

You can't do that here. You HAVE to phone. The only people who are allowed to actually enter the practice are those who already have appointments.

Our surgery has also employed a specialist pharmacist and a nurse practitioner. We find this works very well as the pharmacist has the specialist knowledge and could source alternatives for my DH’s medicine when it was not available.

Our Surgery is now up to full capacity Doctor/nurse/nurse Practitioner wise.
We called 8.30 ish and selected a ring back when MrOops was unwell recently, the call back came at 9am and he was seen by a Nurse Practitioner at 11am which was fine.
10 days later he had a call from the Surgery to check that he was ok!! First time that’s ever happened.
Long may it last, however he never saw a GP.

Where I live it is £55 for a face to face. No NHS. Our surgery is still terrible. They lost my prescription twice and I was told it would be delivered to the practice near me. I went to the practice and was told it had been sent back to central practice by a very rude receptionist who had no one in the surgery. I then showed her a text message from practice which was what I was trying to tell her. In the end the doctor came out of her surgery and wrote out a third prescription for me which was the original item I had asked for 10 days previously. It beggars belief. Then they said they would not charge me for the prescription and thought they were doing me a favour. Whole business would have come to 70 quid.

I can only praise my surgery They have a scheme were you send in an email you get an acknowledgment immediately within a very short space of time the receptionist rings and you either get a same day appointment (if urgent) a future appointment if not or a phone call later in the day from a doctor, nurse or paramedic
It’s a large modern practice with a dozen or more doctors
I ve recently had to use it and the care and urgency has probably saved my life The local hospital has been magnificent too

Our practice is not fit for purpose.
It’s dirty, badly run, one doctor is unhinged and the other is slightly better but doesn’t read your notes.
I checked something on my NHS app recently and saw a telephone appointment I had was put down as a face to face.
I wrote to the surgery asking for this to be rectified.
I wonder if it was an error or a deliberate attempt to skew the figures, I doubt many people check.

It's just so incredibly 'patchy' isn't it, if you by chance live within the 'right' postcode, you might be able to get an appointment - but some can't even get their call answered, or after waiting for an hour on the 'phone are told there are no more appointments for that day.

Why is this acceptable? It's such a bloody primitive system.

I suspect people ARE turning up in various A&E departments because they can't get an appointment - or because their condition deteriorates.

There's got to be a better way of running things, surely?

I know there is a shortage of GPs. But the measures put in place during the Covid crisis, and to cover the lack of staff should be temporary, What has happened is that they have become permanent.

Regarding pharmacists. They are more knowledgeable than we think. Mine picked up on the reason why one of my medications wasn't working. She had access to my notes, and determined that the slow-release medication prescribed by the GP wouldn't work because of my diagnosed condition - something the GP should've known. But didn't. Thanks to this pharmacist, I now have a prescription for something that does work.

Sago

Our practice is not fit for purpose.
It’s dirty, badly run, one doctor is unhinged and the other is slightly better but doesn’t read your notes.
I checked something on my NHS app recently and saw a telephone appointment I had was put down as a face to face.
I wrote to the surgery asking for this to be rectified.
I wonder if it was an error or a deliberate attempt to skew the figures, I doubt many people check.

I agree with you Sago about records. As I wrote above, I've had a few DNAs put on my record (which weren't) and I expect they contribute to the list they put up in the surgery. I've only recently been given access to my records and I've gone through all of them. One thing I noticed was that a telephone appointment I had a few weeks ago to discuss the results of my DEXA scan (I have osteopenia) was put down as a "cancer review". We didn't once discuss how I'm coping with the after-affects of treatment or how I'm feeling about it all.

Ours is fill in an online e consult too, which we did yesterday at about 12, it said ring for urgent appointment (for MrJ). Told he’d get a triage phone call on Monday, I wasn’t happy with that so we consulted our pharmacist, he said 111. Called 111, they said he need to see a GP within 6 hours. Rang GP, permanently engaged, MrJ went to the surgery, he was told GP would phone, phone call at about 3, appointment at 5:50.
The GP, who was brilliant, told MrJ if he hadn’t been seen, it would’ve been an urgent operation today, another appointment has been made for Monday.
We have tenacity and are mobile, including driving, but many aren’t.

For the record, I am in no way suggesting that pharmacists are not knowledgeable. My concern is about how our records seem to be being accessed by more and more people without consent being sought.

I agree that records are often inaccurate too. After a review mine often say things that were never even discussed, such as ‘good dental health’. There are also numerous mentions of ‘patient informed’ which I take to be based on my ability to look up my test results, and ‘short text message sent’ when I have bad nothing of the kind. It does seem as though corners are cut in order to tick as many boxes as possible.

Doodledog

For the record, I am in no way suggesting that pharmacists are not knowledgeable. My concern is about how our records seem to be being accessed by more and more people without consent being sought.

I agree that records are often inaccurate too. After a review mine often say things that were never even discussed, such as ‘good dental health’. There are also numerous mentions of ‘patient informed’ which I take to be based on my ability to look up my test results, and ‘short text message sent’ when I have bad nothing of the kind. It does seem as though corners are cut in order to tick as many boxes as possible.

I agree with you about the records. My surgery has a section on their 'SystmOnline' which gives details of who may access your records, and I think you have to give permission for the data to be shared - but I can't access that component of the system!

I've also noticed inconsistencies in the records, and in fact find the information often rather meaningless. An entry that says "patient informed" sits in a box on its own... patient informed - about what exactly? I couldn't relate it to anything.

I wonder if it should read 'patient is informed', meaning that we are aware of conditions we have? As opposed to 'patient has no idea that she is ill'. Or does it signal to a medical professional that we have access to our notes?

Doodledog

I wonder if it should read 'patient is informed', meaning that we are aware of conditions we have? As opposed to 'patient has no idea that she is ill'. Or does it signal to a medical professional that we have access to our notes?

It's rather ambiguous isn't it?

Perhaps there should be a 'guide' for patients accessing their records, ie, "what we say" - and "what it means" .

Also, what are "coded" entries? I have a couple of them, I'm assuming they don't want me to see what they've written - but as the dates coincide with my admission to and discharge from hospital via A&E, where I was fully briefed by a doctor and consultant, I haven't bothered about them.

... or maybe they've written something like, "this patient is a PITA...

I'm puzzled about your "good dental health" - was that apropos of something in particular - or was it a surprise entry?

You can google the codes and find out what they mean.

Re the dental health, I think it is something they are meant to ask about in annual reviews, as it is linked to heart conditions and more. I have never been asked about my dentistry, yet according to my records it is all good.

I agree that there should be a key to the notes - there is not much point in making them available if they aren't clear to the reader.

I have nothing but praise for my GP surgery. I had some calf pain, I completed an online consultation form, was called the following day, to which I was asked to attend the surgery within an hour and they conducted a DDimmer test, normally only done at hospital, to test for a DVT. Luckily all ok. They’ve asked for blood tests and have also recently reviewed my condition. I know this isn’t the case for some here. I can’t understand why some surgeries can invest in their services and others not.

As I’ve said many times before on other threads, the problem (and there certainly are problems) is that there aren’t enough GPs. We have a growing population and a diminishing number of GPs. A lot have retired, it’s something to do with pensions that makes it not economic for them to continue to work longer but I’m unsure of details, some have gone abroad to work including my own daughter, because the working conditions are so very much better in some other countries (so no 8 till 8 days but rather 8.30 to 5.00 days) and last but not least, a lot of younger doctors don’t want to train as GPs because they can see the pressures and are aware of the flack GPs get, especially from the media, and so they choose other specialties. Mind you, we’re also short of doctors in the hospitals too.
I don’t know what the answer is. It’s takes years to train a doctor, and more training to specialise whatever the speciality including GP training. We need more doctors and nothing will improve until we get more doctors.

I have been trying to see a Dr because of palpitations,and some bresthlessness.also for a pre diabetic blood test.
I had to dpesk to someone else.first who I thought was going to be a Dr.
The person who rang me was in Norfolk.and not a nurse want sure what she was but can't get a blood test until the 25 th of March.and palpitations don't sound anything to worry about