gp surgeries

I have been seen at my surgery about 5 times since the pandemic started and also been for jabs of one sort or another. There does not seem to be a problem if an examination is needed to make a proper diagnosis.

I have also had several phone consultations which have been very helpful - I would be happy for these to stay - it is a better use of GP time and saves me a 35 minute drive!!

No problem with ours, they seem to be back up and running. I have had my blood tests all through the lockdowns, seen nurses and last week went to make an appointment and was asked did I want a face to face or telephone one. So I saw my Dr.

I was wondering the same travelsafar and checked my surgery's website this morning to see what the procedure is.

I have had several niggling problems for the last 6 months and also need repeat blood tests but it has been impossible to get through to my surgery. Then they posted a letter from the senior GP on their website at the beginning of January to say that they have stopped doing e-Consult and will now not take any bookings at all. Patients have to phone at 8am to find out if they can have a telephone appt.

A friend began phoning at 2 minutes to 8 and the line was engaged. She tried repeatedly until 8.35am when at last she got through, only to be told that she was too late and would have to go through the whole rigmarole again the next day.

My surgery has over-extended itself and taken on contracts for various prisons and refuges, plus apparently they have 27,000 patients as well. I don't know what the answer is, but I am thinking of changing surgeries, which will be difficult because I have a number of ongoing illnesses.

Still difficult to see our doctors. I think it varies from surgery to surgery. I am still waiting on a routine blood test from pre covid. My husband is waiting on two procedures at local hospital in different departments but he has been told not to contact them - they will contact him when he can have these procedures.

Difficult if not impossible to see our doctors and not a fan if econsult. I hope they don’t decide to keep this ‘ system’ because it doesn’t work fir me.
I was promised a phone appt for 2 weeks hence and waited in all day as I expected call to be on landline, as there was a lot to discuss. At 5 pm I got a brief text telling me what I already knew. A waste if a day, for nothing.

I'm very much afraid there will be little change at our surgery. Here it is very similar to Sparklefizz (I think we must be in the same cohort). I haven't seen anyone for over 2 years, although repeat prescriptions are available via a telephone line that covers a huge region and many surgeries.
I did ring before Christmas to ask about something the Consultant had recommended on my visit 2 years ago (the meds in question are still on my repeat) and was told someone would be in touch. Text the next day asking me to ring again to make an appointment to speak to someone - I just gave up then.

They weren’t coping with the volume of visits and public expectations prior to the pandemic, so I don’t think they will ever go back to the same volume of visits to surgeries again. A mixture of telephone appointments, face to face appointments and appointments with other healthcare professionals in the practice seems the right way to go to me. My surgery is excellent at getting back to you and dealing with the issue. What I hope they do improve on is the first contact handling system so that you can speak to somebody without hanging on the phone for hours.

Our local surgery is open, but continues to restrict the numbers of patients attending for face to face appointments. I have had 2 nurse monitoring appointment (as has my disabled son) since 2019 and 2 virtual appointments by phone with a GP. All planned face to face attendances require a negative LFT before attending.
I know of locals who have needed to be seen by the GPs after a telephone pre-consult- have been seen- and others have been referred on direct for tests etc from a telephone consult.

I think GPs will be different in future from pre Covid days,- having learnt from the modifications of the pandemic- what works and what or for whom it doesn't. Nurse led preventative check ups seem to have been added to the agenda - so that I think might be a 'new' thing- at least in my neck of the woods. Telephone and video appointments suit some situations - but not others.

Our practice has merged with three others to form one large practice. When I needed to see a GP last week, I sent a message on the web site and quickly had a return message to let me know the GP would phone me the next morning which he did and, when he had listened to me, he made an appointment the following day. After he had examined me and given me his diagnosis, he took some blood so that I didn't need to make a separate appointment for that. This all went very well, but there are still some - of my generation - who are wary of the technology and they can get through to a receptionist by phone.

I was thinking precisely the same thing. All i want is my blood pressure checked, obviously the do it yourself blood pressure machine in the waiting room has been taken away, i fully understand that, BUT its been a whole 4 WEEKS to me first ringing up to request this procedure. I could have had a stroke or flippin heart attack in that time.

4 weeks !!!

I take my BP at home Serendipity then email it in.
Our surgery is busy, as I give people lifts, they’re doing a lot of face to face with Dr’s and nurses are changing dressings, bloods etc.
You still need an e-consult or can hang on the phone for ages..

Telephone and video appointments, NHS 111 etc are all very useful in their place, but our surgery just seems so reluctant to let anyone in. A friend’s daughter had a telephone consultation with the surgery nurse last week for symptoms of a UTI, and was told to go to A & E to be tested. A 3 hour wait and simple urine test later, it was confirmed. I can’t imagine the hard-pressed A & E staff were happy.

Then, DH tried to go in to make an asthma clinic appointment (he’d had a letter saying it was due). The receptionist told him he couldn’t go inside or make an appointment through the intercom - he had to go home and ring up. Over the top, surely?

On the flip side, I’ve had prompt and first class care from all hospital departments via 111 when I broke my arm, including a precautionary bone density scan, and from the hospital eye clinic when referred by Specsavers (I was told the routine appointment could take around 16 weeks, and was seen in less than 3).

Maggiemaybe

Telephone and video appointments, NHS 111 etc are all very useful in their place, but our surgery just seems so reluctant to let anyone in. A friend’s daughter had a telephone consultation with the surgery nurse last week for symptoms of a UTI, and was told to go to A & E to be tested. A 3 hour wait and simple urine test later, it was confirmed. I can’t imagine the hard-pressed A & E staff were happy.

Then, DH tried to go in to make an asthma clinic appointment (he’d had a letter saying it was due). The receptionist told him he couldn’t go inside or make an appointment through the intercom - he had to go home and ring up. Over the top, surely?

On the flip side, I’ve had prompt and first class care from all hospital departments via 111 when I broke my arm, including a precautionary bone density scan, and from the hospital eye clinic when referred by Specsavers (I was told the routine appointment could take around 16 weeks, and was seen in less than 3).

A friend’s daughter had a telephone consultation with the surgery nurse last week for symptoms of a UTI, and was told to go to A & E to be tested.

That is absurd. I know UTIs can be serious but it has been stressed that we should only use A&E in real emergencies because the departments are overwhelmed. Why on earth could they not give her a sample bottle to use at home - she could've then taken the sample to the hospital and handed it in to the appropriate department instead of wasting the overstretched medical staff's time in A&E, and her own time!

As for your DH - ridiculous that he couldn't make an appointment over the inter-com. He was obviously due for one, surely all the surgery had to do was book him in - it wouldn't have involved much discussion.

I do wonder at the way some surgeries operate now. 'Phoning for an appointment 'on the day' is simply a lottery as others have described. Having to keep ringing in the morning when everyone else is doing the same thing and often not getting through until all the appointments have been used up seems to me like a really haphazard way of doing things. This first-come-first-served system is very unfair on patients.

Is it really any wonder that more and more people seem to be going to A&E - a nurse in my local A&E some time ago told me that they were overwhelmed with too many 'casualties' turning up for relatively minor problems! Unless people can get to see or talk to their doctors more easily, this will continue.

As for the eConsult online form - fine if you have a simple question or concern, but not if you have complex and multiple health issues.

I would like someone to explain the rationale behind all of this.

Ours have been great throughout the pandemic.

DH has needed a couple of face to face appointments which have gone smoothly. He has had prompt telephone appointments too.

I used their online diagnosis to get some minor treatment in 2020, a prescription was sent to the pharmacy in less than 12 hours.

Recently I have had a more serious illness, three face to face appointments and then follow ups by phone. They have been in close contact with my consultant. When I needed to check something my GP phoned back within ten minute.

I can walk into Reception and organise a repeat prescription, they do that very happily, just ask people to wear a mask.

The surgery is forever being praised on our local Facebook page.

I had my HRT annual check up last week.It was with a nurse not my usual doctor,that meant the questions I had relating to the HRT couldn't be answered and I have to call in for an appointment .If the GP had seen me it could have been sorted at the same time instead of needing two people and two 20 minute appointments .It doesn't make sense

As for your DH - ridiculous that he couldn't make an appointment over the inter-com. He was obviously due for one, surely all the surgery had to do was book him in - it wouldn't have involved much discussion.

I know, Dickens, it’s crazy. The receptionist actually said to him “You can’t come in, I’ve got poorly people in here”. Even though the waiting room is separated from her desk by a glass door! I suppose it’s good to know that somebody had managed to breach the defences though.

I have a nasty feeling mine will stay the same or near enough.

It sounds like some GP practices are meeting the varied needs of all their patients and staff better than others!
I have been sent away to phone from the car too!

Ours does seem to be open. But there is no doubt they have used the covid problem as a reason (excuse!) to make it more difficult to see a doctor. Unless you are very ill a phone appointment seems to be the only option. It's very disappointing.
And surely one of the reasons that A and E's are busier now.

Reading the posts it seems everywhere is operating a different system, I thought the government had instructed `dioctors to start seeing people face to face.

Our practice is a joke. Impossible to get through on the phone so not easy to get even a phone consultation.

The GPs still get paid per patient whether they talk/see them or not and our surgery also have trainee GPs for which they get paid.

Like previous posters I need to see a GP about a couple of issues, but have given up.

I wasn’t aware that they were seeing patients in the surgery again. However I was offered the Pneumonia vaccine last week and when I arrived every chair in the waiting room was occupied (all wearing masks and socially distant). I was seeing the nurse but it appeared that everyone else was seeing the doctor. It was good to see the surgery getting back to “some sort” of normality.

They have never been shut although they have been operating differently. Mine has asked what people think of video and email services as well as phone appointments which they have done for years.

All our GP's are now part time. I wanted an appt with the female GP I have always seen for this particular complaint but now have to wait until early March before I can have an appt with her. Very reluctant to explain to male GP.