Thank goodness it wasn’t a gynaecological problem!!!

I was supposed to have my Asthma review yesterday at 10am by phone.

10am came and went...eventually at 11am the phone rang and the HCA expected me to be available, unfortunately I was just walking into a meeting at work (which was why I had specifically booked the 10am appointment 4 weeks ago)

The assessment is at their insistence, I too work in healthcare so can't drop everything at a moments notice.

But I was amused by imagining if I turned up an hour late and expected to be seen by the doctor.

I won't repeat the story of DD and telephone consultations, apart from the fact she ended up very ill. She qualifies for a free flu jab this year because she has been classified as having been critically ill.

I have had a text message to tell me my diabetic podiatry appointment will be conducted by phone.Not sure how they will check the pulses?

I did manage to get an appointment with a GP in the surgery after a primary telephone consultation; she examined me and then rang me a week later to see how things are.

DH had a swollen, red and painful toe. Fearing it could be cellulitis, to which he is prone, he phoned the Dr's surgery, (he was at work at the time).
Dr. rang him back to do a telephone consultation. He described his problem, and she asked him to send some photographs, he said he would.
He had no idea how to do it, so he asked a young colleague to photograph his toe from different angles, and send them to the Doctor.
Once the Doctor had the photos she rang DH with her diagnosis, not cellulitis, but gout.
She prescribed a course of antibiotics which he collected from Boots the next day.

What you have to do, in the time of Covid!

I can't say as I understand it.
I work with people who are very vulnerable, in VERY close contact, but I wear ppe.

I guess a GP may need to meet face to face with seriously ill & vulnerable patients which dentists and nail technicians etc are less likely to do, hence greater caution.

When I had swollen feet, I took lots of pics, thinking the doctor might want me to send him one, but nope.
I saw the hca, who kept disappearing into the bowels of the building to "check what the doctor says".
She didn't even take one of my pictures to show him.

A neighbour with a chest problem was examined in her open porch by her GP.
He stood outside and asked her to lift her jumper and listened with his stethoscope.
She said she didn’t know whether to laugh or be outraged.

We have phone/video conversations followed by examinations at the surgery if the GP thinks it’s necessary, which I think it’s good practice.

My dentist gave me a filling- albeit in full PPE - but surely that was riskier to her than looking at a mole!

So you can have intimate waxing, micro bladed eyebrows, eye tests etc etc but a GP cannot sit in a consulting room with a patient let alone examine them!

Knee, shoulder and feet checked over the phone here. It’s a funny old world.

Very different here. I had a telephone conversation with my gp, she asked me to come into the surgery, which I did the next week. Four weeks later I had an appointment with a consultant at our local hospital, this was last week. I was quite impressed with the speed of everything.

Our neighbour had his knee checked over the phone.

Gosh and my DH phoned the GP at 8:00 this morning and by 10:30 had had a phone consultation and then whizzed down to the surgery for an ECG..happily heart was clear and so diagnosed with a torn muscle in his ribs! Different management in different places.

My neighbour was told the nurse was going to check her copd over the phone.

Forgot location- just below the leg of my knickers!!!!??