WAITING Times for GP andNurse Appointments

I think that Redheads neighbours went to A&E because they were told to by local walls in centres.

It's not up to people to say that something is trivial. It may well be but just. today a young girl has been told she is dying from an inoperable brain tumour. She'd been to her GPs and were told her migraines were trivial.

My son who has a PhD and does research and treats pancreatic cancer was admonished by his GP when he presented with symptoms similar to those of appendicitis. Eventually the chemist took one look at him when he went to purchase his GP prescribed Ibuprofen and called an ambulance for him. He had appendicitis and was operated on immediately. My son sees lots of patients who have come to A&E in desperation when a GP has called something trivial It isn't always trivial

GPs can and do make mistakes. There are some brilliant ones out there. There are also not so brilliant ones.

Redhead56

Our Drs call system is now almost virtual and it’s difficult to speak to “someone” regarding medications and tests etc. This must be awkward for people not familiar with computers or technology.
My husband was waiting over a week for a Drs telephone call and two weeks to speak to the nurse. It was stressful for him because he had changed medication and wasn’t well.
We have young neighbours with small children who had eventually been directed to the local walk in centres. On two separate occasions only to be told to go to A&E then being told the problems were trivial. That the walk-in centres should have sorted the problems out. There is a distinct lack of communication between department's which seems illogical.

Redhead’s post tells us much about what’s happening. Her husband had difficulties getting to speak to his GP, meanwhile their neighbours have wasted the time of their walk in centre twice and wasted the time of A+E with problems described by health professionals as ‘trivial.’ Why were these people wasting the time of medics on several occasions with trivial problems? I guess the answer is because they can!

That's great, Gwyneth. How it should be. I know that up to 1000 surgeries have been told they need to start seeing patients again so maybe things will soon improve.

My son came home from work today having cut his leg on rusty barbed wire. I told him to ring the surgery to check when he last had a tetanus. To be honest I wasn’t optimistic about him getting through but within a short time he found that he would need a booster and has an appointment at 8.00 tomorrow morning. So am really pleased and relieved that the surgery have acted so quickly and we didn’t need to go to A&E. It’s pleasing to report good service when we receive it.

My daughter has been blessed with a brilliant surgery. Every time she's needed an appointment for her or the boys, she's managed to get one.

Mine on the other hand is the total opposite.

I've given up. I'm not well but I just can't be bothered phoning, waiting, being on hold for half an hour, explaining my problem to a frazzled receptionist. I've phoned 23 times in the last 18 months. I do tend to get a phone appointment which would be great for many things but I need a face to face appointment but I can't get one.

And so I stagger on

Our GP practice is a nightmare. 40+ minutes to get through and then there’s never any appointments so I have to go through the whole rigmarole the next day.

Hmmm, I’m upset today about my surgery although I’m not trying to get an appointment. I phoned to find out what was happening about a referral made by my optician to ophthalmology and cardiology after my eye test showed sight loss possibly caused bi a TIA. The surgery deny receiving the referral even though I saw the optician make it online. So I’ve now lost a week waiting to hear from the hospital and it’s supposed to be a two week protocol like cancer referrals.

I do not need to see my doctor, there is nothing he could see as it needed a 3D scan of my eye to see the damage. I have now collected a paper copy of the referral from the optician together with copies of the scans and took it round to the surgery myself. I’m going to chase it up on Monday and if needs be demand to speak to a doctor.

I feel on edge and worried about having a stroke while in the house on my own!

Triage is here to stay. I don’t think GP services will ever return to the way they operated pre-covid because the pressure on surgeries was unsustainable, largely due to inappropriate use by the public. Young doctors don’t want to go into primary care now because of those pressures, and experienced doctors are retiring early or going to work abroad. Imagine sitting in your surgery all day, with a stream of people coming in, the majority of whom don’t actually need medical care, but use the GP as their sounding board/backstop - one every 10 minutes for 7 hours a day in a typical day. There is a shortage of doctors in nearly every surgery throughout the UK, I don’t under- estimate what a very difficult job it is being a GP. Covid is slowing the system down because of the need to clean rooms between patients and all the other infection control requirements - many people are anxious about attending a healthcare premise.
Huge efforts are being made to redirect people to other professionals who can help them, which will free up capacity for those who have genuine medical issues. I don’t know how else they can determine who really needs medical help other than a triage system. It sounds like some surgeries have really not got the triage right yet, and I feel very sorry for those whose genuine medical issues are not dealt with in a timely way.

I think the service must depend on the post code lottery. For us it’s easy to call the surgery and a doctor will call back, usually same day. My husband has had 3 calls and three appointments, one with the diabetic nurse.

I feel so sorry for those with surgeries that will not engage with their patients. Often a short conversation is all that is needed but some need urgent face to face appointments and these should be available.

What a sorry state for our once good health service.

I can't understand it either. If a GP can phone you and discuss your problem for ten minutes (this has happened twice with my dh) then why can they not see you face to face for ten minutes? If it is because they are scared of getting covid, then wear masks, leave windows open etc, just as our dentist does.
To rub salt into the wound, our surgery is holding a two hour information afternoon later this month where we can 'meet the members of our health care team to see how they can help us'. Really? They can help us by returning to the decentish service they offered pre-covid.

I've worked out how to access the system at both my GP and my daughters.

I use their online system to register the problem and give LONG and detailed descriptions.

If I'm not happy with the response (been fobbed off a couple of times) I reply each time, again in detail.

I haven't actually been able to see a GP, but I've seen a nurse practitioner and DGS was able to have a video appointment and get the prescription he needed.

111 is not much better. A few weeks ago we thought my DGS had drunk something poisonous but DD was on hold to 111 for almost an hour. We drove to the nearest walk-in centre to us (7 miles away) and they referred us straight to A&E.

I think it's a case of working out what works in your area. AND being able to access online contact with your surgery, know how to use video calling, even basics, like having a car to drive to the walk-in centre. It shouldn't be that hard and lots of people are cut out of the system because it is so hard.

Goodness after reading these posts I realise how fortunate I am with my GP practice. Biggest issue is their only point of contact is via phone and it’s continually engaged. However if you manage to get through that and still within that days allocated patient numbers , the GP’s themselves are excellent. Always get same day phone contact and then if necessary GP will arrange to see face to face or if more appropriate deal with it over the phone.

I rang this morning and managed to get through quite quickly. GP rang back within ten minutes. Had an appointment for lunchtime and was seen very quickly.

It’s awful how so many people are receiving less than optimal care. I also can’t understand how it’s possible to get a private face to face appointment but GP’s still aren’t seeing patients.

My doctors in North Devon is pretty good and I can usually get an appointment to see my own doctor within a couple of weeks but they do have a same day team as well

Our GP surgery can only offer phone appointments and they usually involve a wait of a week.

Those few lucky posters who get seen quickly are probably benefiting from a postcode lottery rather like the treatments offered at varying times in varying places described in this interesting article.

www.theguardian.com/society/2021/sep/01/huge-discrepancy-nhs-england-waiting-times-common-procedures?

Our surgery is brilliant, I’ve had three face to face appointments in the last 15 months after initial e-consults and a couple of phone calls for updates. One face to face meant a breast clinic referral within a week.

We’re lucky enough not to have needed much interaction with our surgery. I’ve done two e-consults, which were ok.

However, a friend tried to book a smear test yesterday and was asked if she’s accept a phone appointment!

My DD's surgery seem to be almost back to normal now, while ours (2 doctors, and one only part time lady doc) still barely sees anyone- most appts are by phone, and nurse sees most folk who go into surgery.

Our surgery is brilliant. I have been able to get sane dat appointments the whole time.
Yesterday I tried their EConsult where I filled out a form with symptoms etc. I sent the form off at 8am and at 10am a doctor rang me and solved the problem. This was amazing especially after a bank holiday.

But yes, since start of pandemic theres been hardly any face to face appts at all at our GP surgery, Nothing at all for a year, but now most things are back to almost normal running/opening, the doctors is like a ghost town! Just day to day management by repeat prescriptions mostly, and you get a third degree grilling if you want an appt. That reminds me, i need to ring& enquire about blood results from a few weeks ago, that they definitely told me they would ring & tell me about....??

I bet they do 'mark the card' of folk who ring often- for years i was in/out of our GP surgery with my son, who always had one thing & another wrong-( besides knowing he had been born very early, previous lung disease & left with asthma) it turns out he had an undiagnosed neurological condition, and an undiagnosed gastro problem as well.I wont say the surgery receptionist changed overnight, but it was a bit easier to secure an appt for him after that.

It's the same here, 3 week wait for a GP telephone appointment. However it's more likely that a nurse appointment is a possibility. However no continuation of treatment, pot luck.

Our practice is not short of Drs there are three of them. It’s the reason why patients are questioning the lack of service we are getting. My friend works as a medical secretary at the other practice in the same health centre.

One answer is that there weren’t enough GPs before Covid and more have retired or simply left. My practice is very efficient but the GPs are either old or part time. Lack of investment from both political parties in the past.

Our Drs call system is now almost virtual and it’s difficult to speak to “someone” regarding medications and tests etc. This must be awkward for people not familiar with computers or technology.
My husband was waiting over a week for a Drs telephone call and two weeks to speak to the nurse. It was stressful for him because he had changed medication and wasn’t well.
We have young neighbours with small children who had eventually been directed to the local walk in centres. On two separate occasions only to be told to go to A&E then being told the problems were trivial. That the walk-in centres should have sorted the problems out. There is a distinct lack of communication between department's which seems illogical.

Also, sad to say, we aren’t always the best judge of what is urgent. I also wonder if they are looking at people’s records and judging them by how often they contact the surgery
Even before covid I was told not to keep bothering the surgery for something they couldn't put a finger on which turned out to be serious. So yes, I can see they might think the above now.