GP doesn’t act on hospital advice without prompting

I had a phone call from the heart clinic last week advising me that my medication needed changed.
A couple of hours later, I received a phone call from the surgery, advising me that my new prescrption was waiting!
The letter had been sent electronically immediately after the hospital phone call and was picked up right away by the surgery.
Now that's service!

I agree that it may have been inappropriate procedure on the hospital’s part. Managing personal medical info online is essential but I don’t know what percentage of the population actually does.

In my practice the receptionists (or whatever their new-fangled job title is) deal with all hospital correspondence. They also deal with repeat prescription reviews. Allegedly they've been trained to deal with their new role, but I'm not reassured. I've had endless problems with hospital letters not being followed up and my repeat prescription being stopped in error. I've also had "needs telephone call" written on my blood test results, but have hardly ever received a call. The hospital always sends me a follow-up letter and I've learnt from experience that I have to follow anything up myself. Like many others, there's a four week waiting time for non-urgent appointments.

Are these problems the rule with healthcare in the UK? I've been a staunch proponent of universal/single payer healthcare here in the US but I'm starting to wonder.

I think it is partly down to the actual doctor's surgery.
Although I have been praising my surgery for their quick response to hospital communications, there have been a lot of admin problems concerning repeat prescriptions and phone messages not being passed on.
That is very stressful, when you are battling chronic illnesses.
In our town, the population is steadily growing, but the medical infrastructure is not developing to keep pace with it.

When DH was ill and in excruciating pain, and GP would do nothing, we asked for a referral for a private consultation.

When the consultant saw DH, he said he was on the wrong medication and turning to his computer he immediately sent a request to the surgery asking for a change. We were able to go the surgery the next day, refer to the email and get the new medication. We were copied into the email.

If the private sector can do this why can't the NHS? It wouldn't cost any money to do it, in fact it would save money and would be so much quicker and easier.

The onus is very much on the patient to chase up drugs and test results. The raised eyebrows by receptionist because I don't know the surgery routine.
I needed anticoagulants aftera PE but there was no communication between hospital and surgery, when I did eventually get them it was a one off prescription and had to keep returning to get it repeated.
Doctors surgeries are not for the old and sick, you could expire sitting waiting in ours. It is not unusual for a timed appointment to run 1.5 to 2 hours late.

gmarie The problem is that the whole system is underfunded. The government keeps on interfering with systems, but doesn't provide the resources for training and adjustment. GPs are doctors, not administrators and can't really be expected to develop systems.

Meanwhile, many GPs increasingly see the job as unsatisfying and not what they signed up to. They're as frustrated with ten minute appointments and little opportunity for continuity of care as the patients are. There's a chronic shortage of GPs, which just exacerbates the problems.