GPs and opening times, whats going on

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.

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.

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.

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calls with a paramedic and two extremely unsatisfactory appointments with a physio who said I needed a scan and then rescinded the referral.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.

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.

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????

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.

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.

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.

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

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 ....

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'!!

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.

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.

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.

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’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.

i feel very bad actually get-vidmate.com instasave.onl

Lilyflower

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.

The COVID vaccination program has not been delivered by DC. It has been practices joining together to deliver, one of the reasons they are more busy.

There have been some national sites set up but actually the majority have been delivered locally by the primary care teams.

Where do people read these odd inaccurate things?!

Not quite sure when legitimate complaints became ‘ GP bashing’ am sure viewpoints such as Maddyones wouldn’t be kindly received if those of us who have had less than satisfactory experiences called them’ GP whitewashing ‘

Yes I agree ours are the same, it makes me wonder what the GP’s are doing all day with COVID thankfully almost eradicated in my area

Two friends of my father started my local surgery after the war. Two more doctors were added as the practice grew. Their children went to school with their patients' children, met up at town social events, were part of the community. I was carried into the surgery at two weeks old, one of my earliest memories is our doctor coming in the night to see my brother during a polio scare. He saw me through two pregnancies and the first five years of my sons' lives then he retired as did the other founders, one by one. Since then a lot of different doctors have come and gone and gradually telephone appointments have taken over from face to face appointments even before the pandemic. Since the pandemic began the nurses and receptionists are there, but the doctors have been absent working from home. My present doctor is available for a telephone appointment after a two week wait - I can talk to another doctor in an emergency. Times have changed. They are not better or worse, just different.

Our GPs now have three surgeries, two close to us and a third one in the next town. One surgery is currently concentrating on Covid vaccinations while the other two are carrying on seeing patients. I needed a medication review which was carried out over the phone by the practice prescriber. There was no problem getting the blood test she recommended. I haven't needed to see a GP but my daughter has had a couple of face to face appointments for one of her boys. Interestingly, in spite of the national shortage of GPs, my own GP has retired and been replaced by three new ones!

It is disgusting you cannot get face to face contact. If you wear a mask why can they not see you , and the idea of taking a photo of a breast lump or any lump on your body is unacceptable. I had blurred vision for 2 months after a cataract op and could not get a GP appointment. All I got was a snotty nurse telling me I was abusing the system and did I realise there was a pandemic on. I was about to take myself to A & E, but my vision cleared the next day.

As has been said we DO have a great NHS, and we want to keep it, but the way in which GP surgeries have been accessible throughout this pandemic has left a lot to be desired in my opinion. My surgery is in a health centre which houses 3 different GP surgeries, and a community site for different ailments (podiatry and children's communuty based services etc) they all have individual telephone systems, so have to be accessed differently. My own surgery, you have to phone at 8am, but try as I might I can never get through to them, phone engaged from dead on 8am until around 8.30am, and then if you get an answer, it's always appointments for today have been allocated so phone back again at 8am
tomorrow ! Tomorrow is an exact replay of today (and tomorrow and the next day!!!) I managed to get an appointment last week for a shingles vaccination, only because the surgery sent me a text message to ask me to phone them for it. Off I trotted, only to be told by the nurse that because I had had my 2nd covid jab only 2 weeks before I couldn't have it (she did send a quick email to a doctor, presumably in the building to check!)
I just don't understand why the system cannot now revert to how it used to be......but I suppose "ours is not to reason why" we just have to do as we are told and hope for the best.