WAITING Times for GP andNurse Appointments

I am interested in understanding about the health service and no I am not just interested about my own needs to get a face to face appointment although when you can manage to get one it is almost a treat these days.
I have been with my surgery for about 15 years now and it has certainly changed.
There were two doctors that I found particularly excellent in their profession and a few years ago it could be guaranteed that an appointment would result in seeing one of those doctors. Both of those doctors are still at my surgery but I have not had an appointment with either of them for TWO YEARS and as I have already said getting an appointment is difficult enough. The last two appointments I have had has been with sessional doctors who I didn't know and one of those has left and is not coming back.
I still wait and hope maybe in the future I just might get an appointment with one of those doctors it would be welcome after 2 years.

3nanny6 Totally agree with you..feels quite sad doesn't it when you don't see/hear the GP you know and know all your history...I've had a designated GP for last 5yrs + and actually had a callback from him recently - felt quite emotional it was lovely to hear his voice as I was also concerned how he has coped with covid within his own family...talking to locums who don't know your history takes more time but appreciate they are trying to keep the surgeries going..also had an Army medic who was super enthusiastic and helpful over the past 6 mths on callbacks...

I can’t help but notice that many Gransnetters talk about seeing/not seeing their GP over the last few months or through Covid. I have a number of conditions that are managed by my own GP Practice, but I have only consulted by telephone, about one of these conditions. I also consulted, by telephone, after I was discharged from hospital when I had serious Covid, as I needed ongoing medication for a while. Otherwise I have not consulted my GP and I don’t normally consult with my GP at all during a normal year. So it strikes me that a lot of people are consulting their GP far more often than I do normally, and the verified numbers of consultations across the country over the last year bears this out.
Delia I am not being patronising when I say that if accessing health care is difficult because someone chooses to live in an isolated village, I am merely being practical. It is unfair to complain that medical services are difficult to reach whilst continuing to live far away from medical services. If you do not have a car so that in fact ten miles is not so very far, and you live in a village without services (even a bus service) then that is your choice so you shouldn’t be complaining.

Meanwhile the GP problem we have here has a knock on effect in that patients, frustrated at their inability to even have a telephone consultation with a GP, results in them pitching up at A and E in pure frustration.

This inevitably clogs up the emergency services, dealing with folk who should really have been seen by their GP.

maddyone

I can’t help but notice that many Gransnetters talk about seeing/not seeing their GP over the last few months or through Covid. I have a number of conditions that are managed by my own GP Practice, but I have only consulted by telephone, about one of these conditions. I also consulted, by telephone, after I was discharged from hospital when I had serious Covid, as I needed ongoing medication for a while. Otherwise I have not consulted my GP and I don’t normally consult with my GP at all during a normal year. So it strikes me that a lot of people are consulting their GP far more often than I do normally, and the verified numbers of consultations across the country over the last year bears this out.
Delia I am not being patronising when I say that if accessing health care is difficult because someone chooses to live in an isolated village, I am merely being practical. It is unfair to complain that medical services are difficult to reach whilst continuing to live far away from medical services. If you do not have a car so that in fact ten miles is not so very far, and you live in a village without services (even a bus service) then that is your choice so you shouldn’t be complaining.

How dare you assume that people who have tried to consult with their GP have done so unnecessarily? Just because your daughter is a GP doesn't mean that you have any medical expertise. Just because people need more consultations than you does not mean that you are in any way the "norm".

BTW I agree with the poster who saw your post as patronising - and ignorant of her situation.

As you like growstuff.

Maddyone, I do drive and fortunately I’m able-bodied & rarely have cause to consult a GP. My concern is on behalf of others, who face problems caused by a substandard GP service, compounded by the difficulties of distance from alternative sources of care. I emphasise that we were well provided for before lockdown, with no cause for complaint.

For example, before covid patients went to the GP surgery for their ‘flu jab, just over a mile away in the next village. We are now required to attend a health centre in town 14 miles away to receive the jab with no public transport available. The public transport issue wouldn’t be a problem if we didn’t now have to make a round trip of 28 miles to be vaccinated instead of 2 miles.

This isn’t a problem of an ageing rural population stubbornly insisting on staying put while expecting services to come to them, this is the decline in/removal of a service that used to work perfectly well for two villages, and no longer does. It’s a huge loss.

Delia thank you for explaining and I’m not being patronising when I say that. Obviously I understand that it is a big loss when the GP services appear to disappear as it were. When my elderly mother lived at home in her sheltered apartment, when we could no longer take her in our car for vaccinations or routine appointments (because she was no longer safe getting into or out of a car) the services came to her in her flat. She received her Covid vaccination at home, delivered by a paramedic the first dose and a nurse the second dose. She’s now in a nursing home so she will vaccinated there. I am surprised that no such service exists, and I feel it should exist in villages such as yours, as some disabled or very elderly people are unable to even get in car safely, even if people like yourself who drive, offered to take them.
Obviously I don’t know where you live, and wouldn’t expect you to say on a public forum, but my daughter was involved in the delivery of services across the south eastern corridor, and the provision of vaccines, especially the Covid vaccine, was part of her job. We had a very efficient system here, excellent vaccination centres, and vaccination at home as well. I’m justifiably proud that my daughter was involved in this, and despite what some people think (not you) I obviously know a lot more about this than some others as my daughter talked to me a great deal about what she was doing. Obviously this job took her out of the surgery for one day a week, and so she was only there two days a week as she worked part time, unsurprisingly as she has seven year old twins and a three year old.
It would be interesting to know how your very elderly residents received their flu/Covid vaccines as they wouldn’t be able to travel fourteen miles without assistance and without home vaccination visits, it must have been very difficult.
I am not in charge of health nor do I allocate the money, but I reiterate that the main reason that people are finding it difficult to see a GP is because there are too few of them. There is no way I can influence government to provide more GPs, but because I know how hard my family members worked, especially throughout Covid, I will not allow ‘slagging off’ GPs to go unchallenged.

maddyone

I can’t help but notice that many Gransnetters talk about seeing/not seeing their GP over the last few months or through Covid. I have a number of conditions that are managed by my own GP Practice, but I have only consulted by telephone, about one of these conditions. I also consulted, by telephone, after I was discharged from hospital when I had serious Covid, as I needed ongoing medication for a while. Otherwise I have not consulted my GP and I don’t normally consult with my GP at all during a normal year. So it strikes me that a lot of people are consulting their GP far more often than I do normally, and the verified numbers of consultations across the country over the last year bears this out.
Delia I am not being patronising when I say that if accessing health care is difficult because someone chooses to live in an isolated village, I am merely being practical. It is unfair to complain that medical services are difficult to reach whilst continuing to live far away from medical services. If you do not have a car so that in fact ten miles is not so very far, and you live in a village without services (even a bus service) then that is your choice so you shouldn’t be complaining.

I too have a number of health conditions but rarely need to see my gp. That’s fine as long as things remain stable but if something gets out of control or escalates, then I do need to consult with a doctor or have some tests. That’s when, during the pandemic, I have struggled to get an appointment as the system for booking them changed and made it very difficult.

For instance, my blood pressure was far too high ( picked up by the nurse at my flu jab) and I was asked to monitor it by taking readings twice a day for eight days then emailing to results in before a telephone conversation with a doctor. It took three cycles of eight day readings and tweaking my meds to get it under control again. Hence my struggles to get an appointment, I was asked by the doctor to make the appointment but the system in place defeated me! It was only after making a complaint online that I managed to get an appointment.

But now the system has returned to the previous method, I phoned one day and was given an appointment for the following day - under the Covid system, they were only giving appointments for the day you phoned, no advance ones.

I am more than happy to have a telephone conversation if that saves time for the doctor but there will be times when I need a face to face one. Hopefully if that happens I will now be able to get one.

The reason for these changes was not staffing problems, it was changes being made for Covid reasons. I have a very close friend who is part of the group that oversees the practice so I know that staffing levels did not change much during this time except they were not accepting trainee doctors as they normally did.

I feel that any changes that were made to booking appointments should not have impacted on patients as much as they did, it was very stressful and confusing. Once my blood pressure is sorted out, I don’t anticipate needing to see my doctor for a long time - but who knows, I did not anticipate having a TIA!

You seem fixated, Maddyone on defending medical members of your family whilst ignoring people’s valid concerns/complaints about the poor service they are receiving from their GPs. No-one has the slightest interest in “slagging-off” your relatives or their colleagues, and many posters have given credit where it’s due, but those of us who have had poor experiences are justified in complaining about it, and asking “why”?

I think many people appreciate the hard work & dedication of doctors, and recognise the enormous stresses of the job, but there are two sides to this story, and patients have need of and deserve a good GP service, which many cannot now rely on.

You will inevitably find yourself being challenged if you ignore the obvious fact that GP provision has declined drastically in the last months.

By the way, when elderly and infirm non-drivers in my village had to travel 14 miles to receive their covid vaccinations those of us who could drive ferried them back & forth. As I said, we are pretty self-sufficient, but it makes no sense for people to travel so far for something that used to be available a mile down the road. Apart from other considerations, it’s unnecessarily wasteful of energy.

Just chatting to a friend, her surgery, about 8 miles away had 192 missed appointments last month, what is the matter with people?

Delila I live in a small town (not an isolated village) and I had to travel 16 miles to get vaccinated. There are two GP practices in town, but for some reason it was decided to leave my age group to the national system, even though vaccinations were being done by GPs in a sports hall about 400m from where I live. It's annoying when things like that happen, but long-suffering patients put up with it. Goodness how people with poor mobility and no transport managed. Everybody I know is putting off seeing GPs whenever they can because they do appreciate that they're at breaking point. I object very strongly to being told that GPs are some kind of martyrs.

I doubt if it would help if you moved anyway. Although I don't live in a rural location, it's almost impossible to see a GP and the hospital is miles away. We don't have an out-of-hours service. Rather than constantly moaning about patients, maybe GPs' family members should campaign to address the underlying problems, which are caused by underfunding, outsourcing and profiteering.

Jaxjacky

Just chatting to a friend, her surgery, about 8 miles away had 192 missed appointments last month, what is the matter with people?

What percentage of available appointments is that?

Does anyone like myself IF their GP deems a face to face necessary have to sit in the car park on the day and approximate time of their appointment and wait for another member of staff to fetch you when its your turn to see the GP?. I dread the oncoming winter .

I’ve been accused of being patronising and fixated by other posters, whilst in truth I am neither. It seems to me that in actual fact some other posters are extremely stubborn (fixated) in continuing their view that GPs are mostly hiding behind closed doors, frightened of catching Covid, lazy, not seeing or consulting with patients, and hiding behind their receptionists, not to mention being paid far too much for doing little or no work.
I can’t be bothered to correct these ridiculous views any longer. If that’s what posters think, so be it. Tomorrow I’m going to the Greek Islands on holiday. I’ll leave you at this point to discuss amongst yourselves how dreadful GPs are. Enjoy!

Just before I go, a small note of thanks to those few posters who have recognised the work their GPs do, and have been happy with their service, and added it to this thread to counter some of the other nonsense.
I’m off now to finish my packing.

growstuff

maddyone

I can’t help but notice that many Gransnetters talk about seeing/not seeing their GP over the last few months or through Covid. I have a number of conditions that are managed by my own GP Practice, but I have only consulted by telephone, about one of these conditions. I also consulted, by telephone, after I was discharged from hospital when I had serious Covid, as I needed ongoing medication for a while. Otherwise I have not consulted my GP and I don’t normally consult with my GP at all during a normal year. So it strikes me that a lot of people are consulting their GP far more often than I do normally, and the verified numbers of consultations across the country over the last year bears this out.
Delia I am not being patronising when I say that if accessing health care is difficult because someone chooses to live in an isolated village, I am merely being practical. It is unfair to complain that medical services are difficult to reach whilst continuing to live far away from medical services. If you do not have a car so that in fact ten miles is not so very far, and you live in a village without services (even a bus service) then that is your choice so you shouldn’t be complaining.

How dare you assume that people who have tried to consult with their GP have done so unnecessarily? Just because your daughter is a GP doesn't mean that you have any medical expertise. Just because people need more consultations than you does not mean that you are in any way the "norm".

BTW I agree with the poster who saw your post as patronising - and ignorant of her situation.

Totally agree with you, growstuff

maddyone, I have seen your comments praising GPs and pointing out the shortage.

You're quite right about the shortage but to suggest people are ringing up unnecessarily is very rude and ignorant.

Sick people are making many phone calls because they're not getting appointments!

To also blame people for living in rural areas ... that would be funny if it wasn't so rude.

You don't know anything about these people you are blaming.

So enough with your comments and stop blaming members of the public who are just attempting to access the health care they are entitled to .

maddyone

Just before I go, a small note of thanks to those few posters who have recognised the work their GPs do, and have been happy with their service, and added it to this thread to counter some of the other nonsense.
I’m off now to finish my packing.

And you're not the only one to have a GP in the family. I have 3. And they managed to stay in the country that paid for their training. It costs a lot more than 9 grand a year, you know

Same here it is so frustrating, I have managed to get a telephone consultation for next Monday afternoon at some point after 2 pm. Trouble is he won`t be able to tell anything from a phone consultation as its pain in side I am complaining about. So much for all these adverts about getting checked. Rant over, nothing I can do

I posted on wed 15 that I made a phone call in the morning, saw my Dr at mid day and was sent to the hospital where I was kept in overnight for observation.

To day I’m still no better so my OH went to our Surgery to talk to the receptionist. I have a face to face with my doctor tomorrow morning.
This is a better service than before covid.

So managed to receive callback from nurse practitioner who was helpful (sort of) but when i asked another ? was informed that a GP would need to answer ..of course asked if i could be transferred..you know the rest of this story....?its soo bloody frustrating...

I don't plan to add to the discussion but please read this article written by a trainee GP about the pressures they are under at the moment:

unherd.com/2021/10/the-nhs-is-betraying-doctors/

I remember being absolutely shocked at the number of failed appointments at the various GP practices where I saw people for assessment. The number used to be put up in reception in each one. At one practice it was more than 300. I don't think GPs can win whatever they do!

My doctors have gone back to the old system for booking appointments, - phone in the morning for same day emergencies or book regular visits in the next two weeks. It’s much better but the first point of contact with a doctor still tends to be over the phone, not face to face. I don’t actually mind that as I’m sure if necessary I could get one in person.

I’ve had a health issue recently, TIA or mini stroke, spotted by my optician and I have nothing but praise for my doctors practice and the two hospitals I have visited - all within three weeks! The receptionist have been so helpful with sorting out referrals and reassuring me about my different medications and blood tests. I’m now on blood thinners and, from today, statins as my cholesterol levels are a little too high as is my blood pressure. Still got a few more hospital visits to look forward to as I’ve lost some vision in one eye but I’m very happy with the NHS.

Added bonus, the gp I spoke to on the phone had a lovely sexy voice and was so nice that I think I am in love with him!

Aveline

I remember being absolutely shocked at the number of failed appointments at the various GP practices where I saw people for assessment. The number used to be put up in reception in each one. At one practice it was more than 300. I don't think GPs can win whatever they do!

What percentage did that represent?