GPs and opening times, whats going on

I’m sure many of you must, like me, be feeling very alone when it comes to any medical problems that crop up in these difficult times.
It must be of great comfort and support for those of you who have relatives/friends in the medical profession to whom you can turn to who can hopefully point you in the right direction.

Our surgery will give you an appt for a day, but not time, when someone will ring you back. Which means putting aside a whole day to be available to speak to them - no-one wants to be discussing personal details outside of the house! At least face-to-face appts, even if the GP was running late, meant keeping the whole day available. In addition, my husband was hospitalised with covid before Xmas. The hospital has been very good at follow up care, but some existing problems of his, fobbed off by the surgery in previous years, were picked up on by the hospital, who wrote to the GP advising these needed to be addressed. One of these is the long standing need for replacement knee surgery. The GP subsequently rang my husband and said he was doing that the same day. 2 weeks later, it transpires the GP did not do that, and we have discovered that GPs get a bonus, linked to the savings made on not making referrals. Disgraceful. My husband's mental state has been adversely affected by the long standing pain and this false hope being dangled in front of him. The GP has now again said he will be making the referral - we will see. I actually have no faith in our practice, as have many other people in our area. They were ranked in the bottom 20 of ALL GP practices in the UK in a previous patient survey. No surprise there.

I have also tried to phone my GP and the answerphone said they were busy and that I would be placed in the queue. Fair enough, I put the speaker phone on and waited and waited for over an hour: the phone was not answered. I also had no success later in the day.
The next morning I managed to get through, but was only offered a telephone consultation in 15 days' time.
Fortunately for me I am covered by my husband's private health insurance, which enables you to see a GP privately. I have never had to use this before, but on this occasion thought that I should.
Within a few hours I was talking via video link to a private GP who was fantastic. She said that as I was a lady of a certain age, I should definitely be seen, the sooner the better. The one way to do this, she advised, was to phone 111 and that they had access to your GP. This I did, and within two hours I had a call from a very irate duty doctor from my GP practice, who eventually admitted that I needed to see a GP and I was asked to go to the surgery to see a doctor within an hour.
Luckily for me it was my own GP whom I saw and my condition is now being investigated, thank goodness.
I must mention that when I could finally attend the surgery, which was at a busy time, it was completely empty; I was the only patient!!!
Who knows what is going on with our GPs, but at the moment those refusing to see patients at their surgeries are giving all others a very bad name. I advise anyone in this position to call 111 for the best chance of getting access to their surgery.

I was speaking with the district nurse at work (I work in care) and they are becoming concerned about rhe amount of antibiotics being prescribed over the phone, where if it had been a face to face the dr would have probably decided they wernt necessary.
I can see this over use coursing problems in the long run.

Our surgery is brilliant but it's been very difficult to get to see a doctor during covid. I have a persistant cough that has been particularly troubling for the last 18 months, enough to get my doctor to refer me to a hospital consultant last June. I got a quick appointment at the hospital but only a telephone consult, I was told I could not be seen until I had a breathing test, but I have as yet been unable to get a test so am still back at square one. I just keep having courses of steroids which help but don't last.

A friend with a ruptured bowel was sent home from the hospital with an open wound after an operation at the beginning of the pandemic. It is still open and continually gets infections but she has been unable to see a doctor or consultant.

My MIL is deaf and 95 years old. She cannot understand recorded messages, and cannot speak to anyone anyway.

same here Fashionistal. My mum (87) is 'hard of hearing' and finds the phone tricky unless she is forearmed with a good idea of what the conversation will be about - so telephone consultations aren't realistic. She now writes to the doctor and puts the letter through his letterbox, so when he phones she can guess what he is saying - all a bit hit and miss, but I daren't 'interfere'!!

As people have said GP services do appear to be something of a postcode lottery. Personally we have to wait in a telephone queue an average of an hour just to speak to our GP receptionist.
However I did find it quite amusing that our vet refused to prescribe our cat’s repeat medication without me bringing her in for her face to face annual review last year.
No such problem with my own repeat prescription- 2020’s annual review was waived.
And before anyone says anything I do realise this was probably because we have to pay privately for veterinary services ..... but just saying ....

same here.phone/ telephone app/ lucky if I get that after 2 weeks.then its like getting blood out of a stone .oh you don't need a scan the last one was negative.em that was 4 years ago.I am in pain . so I went a bit further and phoned a local health care 2nd opinion.and now I have a scan next weds.my drs are useless

Yes same at mine too. I have to get regular blood tests and now getting allowed out lol I get them handed through a window. All my doctors appointments are via phone. Yet you can walk into a hospital and see a dr and have X-rays etc even when in lockdown. I even said to a nurse at hospital trying to see a doctor in person I’ve got more chance winning lotto and I can’t even win that lol but she said lots of ppl are complaining about it.

As the mother of Doctors, both hospital and GPs, I have discussed the situation with them. We have just moved and think our present surgery is appalling, by the way...but we can always ask our children for advice.
So what did they say ?The Hospital Doctors say patients are coming to A&E because GP’s appointments are difficult to get.. They feel annoyed with GPs as they feel they are offloading the worried well onto the hospitals. The GP children hotly deny that it is a deliberate policy. What they all agree on is that there are not enough Doctors.
The present Government has been in power for over 10 years, they need to train more.

I don't think GPs will ever get back to normal. Phone appointments are not really thorough and people with serious illness will be in danger. How would they check blood pressure as a small example, listen to your heartbeat, identify anxiety the list goes on. I am worried about it. My MIL is deaf and 95 years old. She cannot understand recorded messages, and cannot speak to anyone anyway. She has needed her blood pressure taken and we, who live in Surrey, have to ring Devon on her behalf and then they say she must go to the surgery. She can hardly walk much less get on a bus! It's OK if you are generally fit, but it doesn't suit everyone.

Its a rediculous situation, we have to ring at 8am but as there are thousands doing the same its pretty pointless. Consequently i dont bother, pain now for quite some months but doubt ill c a dr. When is ut going to open up, you can see hairdresser but not a dr????

Our surgery is brilliant. Unfortunately I have had to see the GP more frequently over the last 6 months than probably in the last 6 years. I have had no problem getting through to them and if it's been an issue with my heart rate, I've seen them the same day, often within the same hour. I noticed something on my face that looked a bit suspicious, had a telephone consultation then sent in a couple of photos and was phoned back the same day with a prescription ready for to collect the same day. I've also had no problems with collecting meds from the pharmacy. Pre Covid they were also excellent and gave me huge support whilst my MIL, who lived with us, was on palliative care. Honestly, nothing was too much trouble.

I have been simply appalled at the lack of care for my, at first, excruciating back pain. It started at the beginning of February and, to date, no doctor has examined me. I have had simply useless phone calls with a paramedic and two extremely unsatisfactory appointments with a physio who said I needed a scan and then rescinded the referral. I waited two months for a diagnostic appointment at my local musculoskeletal centre where I was not properly diagnosed, refused a scan and left in considerable pain.

I booked a couple of private sessions with my daughter's physio and he was horrified at the mindnumbing cocktail of addictive,powerful drugs I was encouraged to take (I did not take them!) and who indirectly told me the MSK centre was scandalously useless but expensive for the NHS.

I think the NHS has lost its way and used the Covid period to keep the public at arm's length. I read last week that Dominic Cummings took one look at the way the NHS was operating, took the vaccination programme out of their hands and created the administration that has seen half the country jabbed in a few months.

What every one thinks of DC otherwise, he got it right in this respect.

Something which stands out from all these comments in the huge difference between everyone’s experiences.
I have a friend who was seen by her GP 24 hours after reporting some “red flag” symptoms. Everything was put in place to diagnose the problem.
At another surgery in another area my DD was treated very differently. She felt unwell for a few days and wondered if she had shingles. She took the advice of the NHS website and called her GP. She spent all morning calling them and they didn’t answer. In the end she paid £65 to see a private GP who offered an appointment within 2 hours. She did have shingles and was sent straightaway to the eye department at A and E as one of the patches was close to her eye. Fortunately she could afford the cost of the appointment, the medication and the taxi to the hospital.
Some investigations need to be held urgently to ensure more consistency within the often excellent GP provision.

My mother is 95 and housebound. She has been ill for months and keeps getting diagnosed over the phone. Three separate lots of anti biotics have been sent, none of which have had any effect. They do not seem to do home visits any more but I believe they should visit and actually see her as she cannot get to the surgery. I know she is 95 and probably near the end of her life but maybe they could make her remaining time better.

growstuff Sounds like my surgery! It's been appalling. I had a bad reaction to my first covid jab. I rang the surgery. I was told no one could talk to me for a couple of days. It's no wonder so many people end up queuing in A&E. Recently, the same surgery also tried to prescribe an anti-biotic for me which contained something I'm allergic to. Just as well I was aware.

Our area has a central prescription service, they told me that adult ds (sn) needs a prescription review. I cant even get through to see if they want him to have a blood test!! I have given up and emailed!!

Our surgery has always been brilliant but that unfortunately changed with Covid. 2-3 weeks now for a phone apt and even then usually with a series of different trainees doctors who generally then have to go off, relay your details to an experienced doctor and come back with some sort of conclusion only to be asked another question and to go off again. I was treated three times with medication for something it eventually turned out I didn't have. So very much hoping they go back to pre Covid days asap.

NanKate

I managed to speak to the receptionist and get 2 phone consultations only by pretending I didn’t have a mobile or access to the Internet. I asked her if the Rapid Access Clinic was still working and she said yes, but I was not offered this even though I had had bad stomach pains for over 3 weeks.

We gave up in the end and went private and I will be having a colonoscopy on Wednesday.

I call our Surgery the Marie Celeste ?

Sadly I think this is what the current government is after, privitisation of the NHS, it is slowly but surely going that way
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I have tried to book a telephone appointment, but refuse to give my medical details to a receptionist, she is not qualified to assess my medical conditions, so I find the only way to get such an appointment is to say it's about my medication, this is always suffice enough to get said appointment.

Since the pandemic my GP practice has had phone appointments for GPs and nurses with photos submitted where applicable. Only after that and deemed to require a face to face appointment will one be granted. The problem is though there is a 3 week wait even for a phone appointment . Blood tests have a week waiting time. No idea what it's like for children. Have a feelings the pandemic system will be here to stay.

You're right. Some surgeries definitely aren't on the ball. We have to phone and remind our surgery when my husband needs his monthly injections for kidney disease. And then some fly by night nurse has the cheek to ask him why he needs to have them and could he not do them himself. He's 89 years old

Quite agree, have used e-consult two or three times and had gp call next day and saw me in person after that. No queues, or crowded waiting room to deal with. And I used to work for a gp surgery.

It takes 2/3 hours to get through to our doctors receptionists who think they are doctors. They have built a wall where the entrance doors used to be to stop people trying to get in and replaced it with a gate now that when you press the button you have to put your hands on this board that tests your temperature before the gate will open and that's only if you have an appointment. It's all triaged, doctor diagnoses you over the phone. A lady I know's hubby demanded an appointment the other day after being fobbed off for weeks and she ended up having a perforated bowel and rushed into hospital where may I add contracted Covid while in there. I'm am certain some people are being misdiagnosed left, right and centre. You cannot treat people over a phone, it's ridiculous.

this gov't want to force us to go private so GP & NHS services are being run right down, hence only a 1% rise for nurses and billions for Serco and the various private agencies that are now taking over NHS work, a US owned company now own many GP surgeries. There's good money in health and US business want part of it