GPs and opening times, whats going on

We all know that cancer cases are not being picked up. Anecdotally, I know a woman who has cancer that was only picked up when she went to A&E in despair. She struggled for months to get a real appointment with the GP but was fobbed off as menopausal and got prescribed an anti-depressant.

You realize that this likely would’ve happened to even if she had had face-to-face appointments, correct? Women’s issues are historically constantly ignored.

Lesley60

I just don’t understand what GPs are doing all day now that covid is so low, I had to wait two weeks for a telephone consultation.
I think they will probably try and keep it like this.

Having naps under their desks, while encouraging their gossipy receptionists to ask all the personal questions.

Obviously

I’ve just had a thought about accessing a GP if you’re finding it difficult. My son in law works in the Covid Hub after hours. He does his normal GP work at his Practice during the day, and some evenings and some weekends he works at the Covid Hub. The Covid Hub treats Covid patients who are not ill enough to go to hospital, and indeed does send Covid patients to hospital to be admitted, but that’s not their only function. They will see patients who need a physical examination for other conditions because basically it’s an out of hours service. If a patient can be diagnosed and treated without seeing them that will happen, but if you need to see a doctor, you can go to the Covid Hub. You might have to ring 111 first, I’m not actually sure about that. Anyway my niece went to the Covid Hub in her area for an infection that was spreading on her leg and it was weekend. She said to me that the doctor who saw her was wearing full PPE including a gown down to the floor, gloves, mask, and face visor. Well yes A......, they would as they see Covid patients too. Anyway the doctor told her she’d done the right thing to get her leg looked at as the infection was spreading. He gave her a prescription and it healed up. I don’t know if this information is helpful to anyone, I just remembered about it.
Incidentally my son in law caught Covid from working at the Covid Hub but luckily he wasn’t too bad. He passed it on to his wife and one of his children though.

Last year on the few occasions I had to contact my GP I was lucky. On one occasion i had a call and prescription delivered on same day.
Over the weekend i developed a style that became infected. I has experienced the same thing a few years ago. I was pretty certain i just needed antibiotic cream.
I phoned my surgery on monday although i had to call several times because the queue was very long and i was on my break at work.
Finally got through and was told i could have a phone consultation in two weeks time. I was quite taken aback and said by then the eye would have self healed or dropped out! Almost as an after thought receptionist mentioned e consultation which i duly did including uploading a photo. Yesterday morning GP phoned and asked quite a few questions. She prescribed eye cream stressing i needed to start that day and if not better by end of week go to A&E or call surgery for emergency triage appointment.( which i had never heard of).
All is well ,cream delivered within hours and eye already vastly improved.
The implications of waiting for that origional appointment have worried me though. The receptionist seemed to assume i knew about e consultation, which i didnt. What if i hadnt had the access to internet or skills required. ?
Maybe if I hadnt they would have offered an appointment sooner?
I also have a medical exemption certificate which runs out the end of the month. From what I remember it's a simple form you fill in and GP signs. I asked if I could do it digitally,or it be posted out and I take in to surgery ,or better still post back. B
Nope you have to physically go into surgery,ask for it,fill it in ,hand it in! I dont drive so have to get taxi. That isnt the problem ,but I'm bit surprised with such strict Covid guidelines in surgery you are told just to drop in to complete a process that could be done in alternative ways!
Obviously I dont know the full circumstances of the surgery,maybe face to face appointments are taken up with backlog of potentially serious illnesses. However I would have thought phone consultation would be quicker and speed things up!
In future I will bypass receptionist and go straight to e consultation. What the future may hold for those who cant and GP services in general is something I find rather worrying.

Figures show many fewer people seeking medical help during lockdown, So GPs are not more busy.
When I could no longer bear my symptoms and had self-diagnosed myself from Google I rang the Dr. I was offered a telephone consultation 3 weeks ahead.
I needed blood tests, also 3 weeks ahead.
Each time I rang I waited between 30 and 45 minutes on hold.
I was given faulty drug dosages by a receptionist. and test results dismissed by her as ‘normal’ when the Dr later said they weren’t.
When I was finally being treated and not afraid of being ignored if I complained, I wrote to the practice manager. No reply.

Years of austerity by Conservative governments that cut public services to the bone, failed to invest effectively in the nhs, alongside privatising services.
Brexit = many doctors and nurses return to other parts of Europe, where the feel welcome.
Then, this Pandemic, a perfect storm for a health service that’s understaffed.
Our Covid immunisation centres seem to be working very well. They’re fully staffed by doctors, nurses and volunteers. The medical staff can’t be running surgeries and immunising.

It’s frustrating and worrying that getting a face to face consultation is so difficult, with long waits the norm. A relative had his radiotherapy but back for a third week yesterday.

Yet - Mr Johnson is credited with the fantastic immunisation programme and he and his party given no responsibility for the long term impact on the health service of privatisation, lack of support for our nhs.

Looking at this thread and also from personal experience, could it be that some GP services are just better organized than others?

For instance, ours has been amazing with regard to Covid jabs and the reception staff are able to help with things like internet access or repeat prescriptions.

Our local practice is trying to modernise, joining with a group of community medical services in order to give better coverage. At the moment, it seems like work in progress.

I’ve personally had no problem. My one issue was dealt with quickly and efficiently. However I hear from someone in the game that A&Es are now ultra busy with issues that could have been sorted by GPs but have been left so long they now need urgent treatment. Not always the GPs fault- many people have put up with things longer than normal.

My son in law’s Practice had over 800 telephone calls yesterday. A huge number were saying that they had a headache after the AZ vaccine. There are protocols for dealing with those calls, which includes getting a blood test however mild the headache. There were also a lot of calls asking about when routine tests were going to be done.
So for those wondering what their GPs are doing, this is at least part of the answer.

I have chronic upper back pain, no cause found yet but there again no-one has tried to find a cause. Just know its not mechanical as I went privately to a see a Spine Specialist. He believes its an inflammation condition. My GP surgery has been hopeless with support for the pain and Wednesday night I ended up calling the ambulance service who were marvellous and sorted me out with some painkillers that I could actually take. They also sent an email to my surgery with a report and asking them to give me a prescription for this medication. I was then able to actually get a telephone appointment with a Dr and talk it through with him, also asked him when were we going back to face to face appointment. His answer was that they are expecting a peak in covid at the end of May and another later in the year so they have to stay as they are the moment.

That’s interesting barmey, I hope we don’t get another peak in May or another later in the year. If that actually happens, I shall feel as if there’s going to be no end ever, and I’ll find that very depressing.
Gla£ to hear you’ve got you’re pain sorted out, and you were able to speak to your GP.

I have a serious disease which will need years of treatment with powerful drugs which have many side effects. I’ll need frequent blood tests and reviews.
Every single thing about my condition I’ve learned from Google. I have spoken to a doctor once for five minutes.
This has profound impacts on my future life and I feel very alone. How ill do we have to be to see a doctor?
If I should need minor surgery I expect to be told to watch a video and do it myself.

I rang my GP on Friday morning as I was worried about certain symptoms, last time I had these I was hospitalised for 11 days with sepsis, got a phone call from a nurse and an appointment at 6pm that night, not sepsis but they are concerned and I am having tests, my DH had his diabetic check done during lockdown he didn't ask for it he was contacted by his surgery, I am happy with the service thus far

My Gp surgery uses the AskmyGP system. I have found it very easy and useful. So, when I sent a message about some wart-like growths on my face. A GP rang me within a couple of hours, asked a few questions and then made me an appointment for a face to face the following day. From that I was referred to hospital Dermatology and received that appointment for the following week. Could not have been easier or more efficient.
Equally, I have just sent a message this morning asking for an email reply as all I want is some numbers from a recent blood test. Would have been a waste of everyones time for me to have to there for that - this way is so much easier for me, and more efficient use of their time.

Just to add to my comment. I sent that request on AskmyGp at 08.20 and have already had the reply, less than an hour later. Now what could be better than that!!!!

I’ve just seen my phone bill. Five calls to the surgery with waits up to 45 minutes cost me almost £20.
Now I need to book more appointments I shall stagger down to the surgery to make them, which is 20 minute’s walk away.

I think we must be fortunate then. My DH was ill with stomach pain over the weekend and we suspected it was his gall bladder. He phoned the surgery at 9am and had a call back from our GP at around 12:30pm. She arranged for him to see her at 2:10pm and gave him a thorough examination, prescribed antibiotics and arranged to see him the next day at 12:15pm (yesterday). After examining him she arranged for him to be admitted to hospital almost immediately and he is being operated on today. His infection score was found to be 200, the average is 5 so if he had had to wait for an appointment I dread to think what would have happened.

Retired Dr thankfully here!

Aren't these Dr bashing threads rather old and tiresome!

Thought it may be useful to add some facts to the discussion for anyone that is interested. Obviously one would realise that across the many, many GP surgeries things will be done differently due to size, patient cohort, staffing issues, GP preference etc etc etc. BUT the numbers really are not difficult to find if anyone wants to have a reasonable discussion rather than a n=1 trial based on just their own experience!

app.powerbi.com/view?r=eyJrIjoiYzU2OTA2ODktZTIyNy00ODhmLTk1ZGEtOGVlZmRlZDNjYzY3IiwidCI6IjUwZjYwNzFmLWJiZmUtNDAxYS04ODAzLTY3Mzc0OGU2MjllMiIsImMiOjh9

NHS digital (Jan data as more recent being awaited) shows majority of appts were done face to face, by GPs, and on the same day as requested, with an overwhelming majority being done within 0-7 days of request. Which kind of suggests the majority of GPs are in fact, surprise surprise, still working, still seeing patients in person and with a minimal wait time for an appt.

www.bma.org.uk/advice-and-support/nhs-delivery-and-workforce/pressures/pressures-in-general-practice

This details the pressure GPs face namely - increasing appt numbers, decreasing GP numbers, older more complex patient conditions plus decreasing funding.

And this details why so many doctors have left the country in the last 6 months notably that GPs are managing significantly more patients than is currently felt to be a safe number.

I rarely post but often peruse, and am so disappointed by some of the things I read with respect to doctors, in particular GPs that I felt obliged to post to try and educate.
www.pulsetoday.co.uk/news/workforce/hundreds-of-gps-have-left-the-nhs-to-move-overseas-new-figures-show/

It might be worth thinking before we all start criticising from our comfortable armchairs, that there may be more to all this than Doctors sitting on the golf course making a few calls and refusing to see us in person about an issue that can be wholly and safely managed over the phone, so that they can see the person who is unable to be vaccinated from COVID, or fails to build a proper immune response, and actually needs ( as determined by the doctor who is trained to make that decision, not a lay person who misinterprets wants for needs) a physical examination... Food for thought?!

watermeadow

I’ve just seen my phone bill. Five calls to the surgery with waits up to 45 minutes cost me almost £20.
Now I need to book more appointments I shall stagger down to the surgery to make them, which is 20 minute’s walk away.

the exercise will do you good I would have thought!

watermeadow

Figures show many fewer people seeking medical help during lockdown, So GPs are not more busy.
When I could no longer bear my symptoms and had self-diagnosed myself from Google I rang the Dr. I was offered a telephone consultation 3 weeks ahead.
I needed blood tests, also 3 weeks ahead.
Each time I rang I waited between 30 and 45 minutes on hold.
I was given faulty drug dosages by a receptionist. and test results dismissed by her as ‘normal’ when the Dr later said they weren’t.
When I was finally being treated and not afraid of being ignored if I complained, I wrote to the practice manager. No reply.

do you have data to support this please? The NHS digital data suggests otherwise?

Always useful to deal in facts and figures!

earnshaw

we have been with our local GPs for many years, quite a small practise ,they have , most of the time, been excellent but since the pandemic started, like other practises i suppose, have changed, not for the better, trying to get in is like trying to get into fort knox, we have to ring first, then, if we are lucky, we get a phone appointment sometime, maybe next week, then the doctor, whoever he might be, will decide whether he needs to see you or not ,if he does then you have to make an appointment for whenever, this is not new , with our practise there has always been phone appointments if the problem is treatable without seeing the patient but surely, at this stage , we should be able to see our GP at their surgery , it worries me that this will be the future, not happy

Just to be clear - what is the problem with this??

The problem is that people sometimes want to see a GP for reasons they don't want to discuss with all and sundry. I never feel comfortable on the phone anyway and I know there are others like me. Another problem is continuity of care. Very often people have symptoms which can't be explained that easily, so the GP gives some treatment and tells the patient to come back if it hasn't cleared up. The patient then tries to make an appointment a few weeks later and can't see the same GP, so has to use the first part of a ten minute appointment describing everything all over again. People with mental health issues are particularly affected by this sort of "care".

I was diagnosed with T2 diabetes 30 years ago after going to the GP for something totally unrelated, but a very wise GP was suspicious of my symptoms and sent me for tests, which proved positive. My concern is that that would not have been picked up if I'd only had a telephone appointment and/or been able to discuss one issue.

LadyWee

watermeadow

Figures show many fewer people seeking medical help during lockdown, So GPs are not more busy.
When I could no longer bear my symptoms and had self-diagnosed myself from Google I rang the Dr. I was offered a telephone consultation 3 weeks ahead.
I needed blood tests, also 3 weeks ahead.
Each time I rang I waited between 30 and 45 minutes on hold.
I was given faulty drug dosages by a receptionist. and test results dismissed by her as ‘normal’ when the Dr later said they weren’t.
When I was finally being treated and not afraid of being ignored if I complained, I wrote to the practice manager. No reply.

do you have data to support this please? The NHS digital data suggests otherwise?

Always useful to deal in facts and figures!

I have no idea what NHS digital claims, but this has also happened to me and I don't believe for one moment that "watermeadow" and I are the only ones.

How would NHS digital know how long I've had to wait for somebody to answer the phone or be given an appointment anyway? I've never been asked.

LadyWee I see that you're another one who thinks people like me are "entitled". Well, let me tell you something! I rarely go to a GP, despite occasions when I probably should have gone. I'm intelligent enough to make use of online search facilities and buy my own medication, if it's available over the counter, despite being eligible for free prescriptions as a diabetic.

Like almost everybody else in the country, I have paid taxes and NICs and I am entitled to NHS care. I've paid for it.

Unfortunately, we have got what the electorate voted for. The Tories don't want an NHS. It is a basic tenet of Conservatism.

This was on the cards with or without covid.