gp surgeries

At what has happened!

My GP practice insist on proof of a recent negative PCR test before they will grant a face to face appointment, they will not accept a LFT. It is becoming very difficult to see GP. I fear this is now the way GPs are operating . For the record I am not happy about that ! I recognize that all staff in a practice are in the firing line. However so are people who work in department stores or shops. I am very disappointed at the end ga to had happened.

That's the reason why A & E are swamped, with waiting times of 4+ hours. People are just by-passing the GPS and going straight to the hospital with trivial ailments.
Also, people who don't like being a nuisance, or are being fobbed off with a phone consultation are dying.
It's not more money that the National Health Service needs. It's a large dose of common sense. A lot more of the old-fashioned Health Visitors and Home Helps would remove a lot of the strain on beds and resources, too!

In our rapidly growing village (1000 houses between two villages in the last five years) there is no chance of seeing a doctor unless you have a child that is ill or have a previous history of ongoing chronic illness that they know already about. There is a surgery in our village and once in a neighbouring village but they share 7 doctors between them - doctors spend time each week in each surgery. Neither I nor MrA have been to the doctors in over ten years - wouldn't get an appointment even if we wanted one. My neighbour was sent directly to hospital without seeing a doctor. An incredibly expensive way to find out you a constipated - which was what he thought in the first place but couldn't talk to anyone.

I've read through all these replies carefully, but still don't know what on earth 'eConsult' is! Why have I never heard of it? Do some surgeries not have it?
We have an online 'Ask my GP' - but no forms to fill in.
I live a long way from a surgery so get my medicines delivered, but for the last 3 months they have missed my pain medication, and someone has had to drive all the way out here to deliver it again.
No-one seems to LISTEN any more.

It seems that most pharmacists now have BP monitors. It might be worth getting checked there to see if it matches your home monitoring machine, Very frustrating when shop assistants are braver than our doctors.

The phone to our surgery cuts off after about 20 rings forcing you to constantly redial which is extremely frustrating as you presumably don’t have a place in a queue of any sort. I gave up, rang 111 and ended up in hospital for five days.

It’s probably as well as we’ve been told that the receptionists took a two week course and we must accept their opinion on our health problems!

If I had got through the best I could hope for would be another series of prescriptions for antibiotics that didn’t work previously. It was the locum pharmacist who finally told my OH what to ask for that helped.

I’m now awaiting surgery that was initially supposed to be early January, then January some time. They didn’t actually say which year!

It's been almost impossible to get any kind of contact with my GP over the last two years. However, a few months ago I received a letter offering me my annual health check, which was missed the year before. I was informed that I would have to purchase my own blood pressure machine, use it 4 times a day, for a week, and post the results through the surgery letterbox. I was allowed to go for a blood test to my local clinic. The nurse would then phone me.
All my blood pressure results were higher than they were 2 years before. Was the machine faulty? Was I using it correctly? I wanted to go to the surgery to check it against their machine, but that wasn't allowed.
The nurse duly phoned me, and said that she thought I should start taking medication for my raised blood pressure. I stated that it wasn't an option until I was properly checked out and convinced that I needed it. I'm not prepared to put drugs in my body on the say-so of a machine purchased on Amazon. Stalemate! She said that we should repeat the procedure in a few months, then rang off. The most unsatisfactory health check that I've ever had! I've lost faith in getting proper treatment now, when I always used to tell people how good my GP was.

DiscoDancer1975

Dickens

I find the econsult form overly long, repetitive and badly designed.

Anyone else?

It’s ok for me if I do mention’ blood’ I have a bleeding disorder, well controlled, but if I mention it on e consult....it won’t let me proceed, I’m told to ring 111 ?

if I don’t mention blood ?

Dickens

I find the econsult form overly long, repetitive and badly designed.

Anyone else?

It’s ok for me if I do mention’ blood’ I have a bleeding disorder, well controlled, but if I mention it on e consult....it won’t let me proceed, I’m told to ring 111 ?

Margiknot

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!

I went to the surgery for a routine blood test, and a family came in with a baby. The receptionist told them they had to phone first. They did this from the waiting room! Quite strange to see her answer the phone from behind the glass!

I think there will continue to be more people going to A&E because not only is it difficult now to get a F2F appointment, even a telephone appointment is, for some, a battle.

I appreciate the fact that GPs have a huge number of patients on their books and, from what I've been able to see, a fair amount of admin / paperwork behind the scenes, too.

The digital age does not appear to have made things easier either. I have a nurse who comes in a three nights per week to perform a procedure. She has to log the details on her device and then fill in about 4/5 different forms on paper, and all the time she's doing this her mobile is buzzing with mails and messages, some of which are urgent so she has to deal with them at the same time. If this method of working is replicated in surgeries, I would imagine doctors have even less time to see or talk to patients than they did in the days when they sat with a pen and pad in front of them.

When I was in hospital recently for an extended period, I helped the nurses by filling in my own fluid / output charts... everything I wrote then had to be entered on the computer.

I don't know what the answer is, but it seems like technology has created another level of work effort.

As for the eConsult form - it's fine in principle and I understand why it's been introduced, but I found it took too long to complete and was repetitive. For those of us with complex and multiple health issues - especially those which are inter-related, a simple form where you can just type in your questions and possible symptoms would be more helpful, even an email which can be stored electronically. My surgery does not allow emails, so it's either an eConsult or, if you can't manage that, you tell the receptionists your issues and she types it all up, presumably on an eConsult form.

This new way of working for the patient is fine if you're well, tech-literate and good at making your case, but not if you're really unwell, unable to access or use the 'net or have any kind of cognitive impairment. One size does not fit all.

Our surgery is open. My husband has had several phone consultations and three face to face appointments. Two were in hubs rather than our GP because our GP was fully booked but was referred there by our GP and one appointment was with the GP.

We moved in July and registered with a local GP practice. We’re organised for repeat prescriptions, they get sent electronically to a local pharmacy, but I have yet to meet one of the doctors or nurses. My vertigo had a burst of being bad and, worried about being wobbly enough to keel over, I filled out the online form and sent it off. Message came back asking if my request was urgent. How should I know if it is or not? I reasoned that, as I had thus far managed to stay upright even though walking like a drunkard, maybe it wasn’t, so I answered no. That was the end of that and I don’t t think the doctor even got to know about it.

I find it hard to get an appointment at the Doctors
Having to phone at 8am is so annoying If you are feeling I'll there is nothing worse you join a long question and when they get to the end of the air are there any appointments left.Do the receptionists then spend all day answering the phone to angry maybe sick patients who they tell you must phone at 8am Obviously it's easier to go the hospital

I find the econsult form overly long, repetitive and badly designed.

Anyone else?

My GP Practice has never been shut - as a person with multiple incurable, chronic and progressive illnesses/conditions I have been seen almost weekly, as required, and am extremely grateful for that. Many friends and rural neighbours have been seen in the same way at the practice. Likewise with many of the 10/11 hospital specialists who care for me - had some Phone Consultations, but been seen Face-to-Face as required.

I can't even get through on the phone, and the eConsult option has been stopped. I have nothing and I've needed an appointment of one sort or another since last November.

Until last July we lived in Kent, it was nigh on impossible to get an appointment to see someone. As a result, a heart problem was missed which has had an ongoing impact on my life. I also became very anaemic which again was missed.

At the end of July, we moved to Cambridgeshire. Our doctors is a rural practice covering many villages. The staff are lovely, and they give us the option, phone call, internet, or face to face.

So I think it's really a postcode lottery.

I haven’t seen a doctor for over two years. I am housebound and when I asked to see a doctor a young paramedic came. Had to wait for two weeks for phone consultation because my pain was so bad and needed more painkillers. Was prescribed two more tablets a month.
My help cut her finger very badly and it wouldn’t stop bleeding. Was advised advised by the surgery nurse to go to A and E, 26 miles away. A and E questioned why the surgery nurse couldn’t attend to it.

So far...mine is the same. May change as we get better weather though I suppose.

I was told that they will not go back to how it was, that it will remain as it is now. Saw the practive nurse today , first time in about 3 years (at home) she said the doctor works mornings, then does house calls then goes home. She also only works part time. I'm housebound and have real difficulty even getting to talk to a doctor.

I have been seen 3 times in the surgery since pandemic struck plus for shingles jab, flu jab and initial vaccination. I have had telephone conversations, blood tests by practice nurse plus fast tracked to the hospital for a lump scare. My partner is being seen on Thursday face to face for what we suspect ( hope) is a chest infection. Our clinic is now open again all day as are the other two clinics linked with the practice. I feel very lucky plus we live in the suburbs of a very deprived city in the north of England. I think you need to challenge your surgeries to make them realise you need to have face to face communication.

Goldenage my daughter is a First Contact Physio. She does a telephone triage to assess how urgent or not a problem is, she can the refer straight to f2f or other services ie X-ray so that it speeds things up. Patients can book with her without seeing a GP. The staff in these roles are highly experienced and know by questioning the best way forward.