Doctor's appointments

Bumped into an old acquaintance last week. She told me her husband had been feeling ill, was on various meds but possibly because of his mental state may not have been taking them properly, she was worried about him, particularly his colour, and she asked repeatedly over the course of 3-4 days for a home visit (she does not drive and is disabled so could not take him) but was refused. 3-4 days later, she found her husband dead. Was it right that the decision to refuse a home visit should have rested with the admin staff?

Was it right that the decision to refuse a home visit should have rested with the admin staff?
No. And saying that is neither GP bashing nor being unsympathetic to receptionists.

PERSISTENCE! Seriously if you really need a face to face appointment then make it clear and tell them you want to speak to the practice manager if they will not allow it. Complain, complain and complain again - threaten to complain to the local trust - do whatever you need to get an appointment (if you REALLY need face to face). Never take NO for an answer if you have a genuine reason to need face to face (type of illness, poor english, deafness, etc etc). Our practice is excellent but this is the advice I've seen from patients in our city in inferior practices.

Some of you sound very lucky to be in your GP practices. Able to contact in some way, hear from a doctor, get appointments and so on. We have a lovely practice but it’s impossible to actually speak to a doctor, never mind face to face. I am quite a confident person but it’s completely beyond me to try and be forceful and persistent with a receptionist doing her best, I was a medical secretary most of my life and I’m now on the PPG of our doctors but I can’t get through. There’s only the phone call at 8, you’re number 17 in the queue. We’re retired so can just wait but obviously the appointments to even speak to a nurse have gone by five past so you try again the next day. Anytime of the day you’re 17/18/19 in the queue.

I rang at one minute to eight last week, number one in the queue, wheyhey! I thought wow! I’m going to get an appointment! I hung on through all the messages, the phone was eventually answered…..and bang…… I got cut off! I give up. We don’t have the ability to fill in a form to be triaged so there’s no hope at all. I daren’t complain too much at the PPG meetings because all the staff are so resentful at explaining how they are so busy and can’t help this situation. What are they doing all day? They cannot be available for telephone appointments, with 12 doctors or so, there would be many more slots surely?

I have heard about this issue and even my youngest daughter says that her family surgery, you raise the problem by email first, then the Dr rings in a day or two and then if he or she decides to prescribe without seeing you they do.
I live in a Suffolk village, here you ring at 830 and the Dr rings before 12 am and you are seen that day if needed.
But when I was in Somerset it was different ( pre pandemic ) so I went to see a private doctor for advise and a prescription and the prescription was half the price of the NHS one and consultation and advise was £90 .
I don't know the reason behind today's Drs and dentists problems but you can't get a NHS dentist up here, i had to travel to Colchester to see one.
But some people don't get medical help at all in some places in the world -so I guess we should count our blessings.
In 2018 I had breast cancer surgery and lymph nodes clearance and treatment and 2 tears prior to that may eldest daughter had the same. I really thought I was being treated privately, the NHS were amazing with us.

EmilyHarburn, have you read the reviews from bluecrest's customers ? they are pretty poor.
either you had an unusually good experience, or you are an advertiser.

heard this evening on LBC a caller, Andrew, whose son aged 26 died due to being unable to get any medical help for what started as an ear infection and became mastoiditis, and then meningitis, over 19 days.
very hard listening.

caller andrew was speaking to ian payne on LBC at about 11.30pm, tues 4th oct.

sorry, was last night, tues 5th.

Good for her, but I must say that our practice is excellent and we have managed to get appointments if needed, not always with the doctor but they have Urgent Care Practitioners who we always manage to see and if a Doc is needed then they arrange this either as a visit or a phone call. The system works very well for us but I am aware it is not the same everywhere. The hospitals have reduced consultants appointments and have stopped face to face visits, only phone appointments now. It is different but it is just the way it is.

Spot on Hetty58 I don’t dispute that receptionists can have to deal with angry, rude and unpleasant calls but some of that comes from anxiety, pain and stress in the patient. It takes many people huge courage to even ring for an appointment given that prevailing feeling of ‘bothering the doctor’. A recent tv interview with a local GP asked him what he would say to patients about the matter. His response was to say he would ‘like to tell them to wind their necks in’. So glad he’s not my GP and I’m sure his patients feel all the better for hearing that.

Nanika my Mum has to have INR tests whenever they request her to book one .It varies between appointments but I ring to book them for her and they are usually quite tutty up have to do it !. When one refused we'll said they had none I rang the number on the card explained.1 hour later call from Mum surgery appointment on appointed day ?

melp1, did you actually read my post?

Miss Adventure, I don't understand this either! Perhaps patient numbers have grown exponentially and overwhelmed the area? List numbers do change periodically.

Perhaps it is just poor administration and things could be made better - which is where patient participation groups come in. At meetings, the Practice Manager should be present and points could be made to help improve services..

My own surgery is generally excellent but I am sure that there will be some patients who have not got their own way with whatever it was that they were seeking and will feel aggrieved, such is the nature of man!

Urmstongran, so is Lloyds!

'It is owned by the German company Celesio, formerly GEHE AG, which is in turn owned by the American McKesson Corporation'.

Although these are not surgeries or hospitals, it won't be long..... People can't see that we are being led down a path to privitisation, so why not carry on bashing the poor old GP who is soldiering on, hit by more diktats from Government and by expectation of their poor patients?

Nothing is free!

Vaccines are bought in by GP surgeries according to the number of patients on their list. If these patients go elsewhere, the vaccines are wasted - they are non-returnable. The surgery therefore has paid for vaccines to be discarded. The money wasted could have gone to help the surgery pay for other services.

Just for interest, in the States, vaccines are available at a varying cost of $40 to 80.

Yes, but if you can't get through on the phone, how are you going to book an appointment to have it?

Doodledog, I'm afraid I do see it as doctor-bashing! I obviously have a personal interest and seeing my daughter with purply-blue patches under her eyes from tiredness (she should see a doctor!) is of concern to me - nobody else will care.

Yes, I absolutely agree that people have a right to complain but the ease with which this is available means that thoughtless people can whizz off moans and complaints willynilly. There is a lack of understanding about the perilous state of our health system, the way it is funded and the direction in which it is going.

There is sometimes a lack of common-sense as to when a doctor is needed. Not for a slight headache of a day or two but many patients will worry (having used Dr Google and now fear they may have a brain tumour or whatever) and demand an appointment.

I have been in the situation of not being able to get through to my surgery when ill and vividly remember how frustrated and upset I was. I joined our patient participation group and we made suggestions as to changes in the telephone triage system - it helped.

The bottom line is that there are not enough doctors, not enough funding and things, unless a radical reform takes place (with more 'bos' {bums on seats}) matters can only worsen. Jolly thought, eh?!

spabbygirl I didn't particularly want to turn this into a political debate but, having voted Tory all my life and now being disgusted at what is happening to the NHS, I feel they have lost my vote.

I think there was a recent thread where the poster was saying that she does not know who to vote for as she has been alienated by all the main parties and I am in her boat!

All Governments in the recent past have completely underfunded the NHS whilst raising patient expectations (as should happen - but not without adequate staffing and funding).

I have no answer for you. More money to the NHS is the only logical answer I suppose.

At many GP surgeries, all staff are 'working' the telephones first thing in the morning but are still not enough to handle the volume of calls and of course, once the appointments are filled, they are filled.

We need more GPs.

If there is a patient list of, say, 13,000 patients and 1% of these need an appointment, that's 130 calls coming in simultaneously first thing in the morning. Larger resources (sometimes not possible because of building constraints etc.) would be the only way calls could be handled faster.

I'm a bit confused. Why are doctors not seeing people face to face? Is it Covid or lack of NHS funds/not enough doctors? I thought Covid was under control now.

Candelle, on what are you basing the notion that those who are concerned about the NHS are suffering from a lack of understanding of the issues.

I, for one, am fully aware of the reasons behind the waits, and the impossibility of seeing a doctor, as well as the frustration of receptionists and nurses, but that is not the focus of my concern as far as this thread goes. I have done all I can by never voting Tory - much beyond that there is little I can do about the parlous state of the NHS (although I have campaigned for changes to a local service).

Knowing why the situation is as it is does not, IMO, mean that I should meekly accept that the NHS, the funding for which I have contributed to all my working life, is being run down to the point where even the most principled of people are considering going private if they can afford it. Frankly, if we all put up and shut up there is even less chance that there will be an increase in the number of GP appointments.

Nobody is having a go at your daughter, or suggesting that she doesn't work hard. What people want to see is a system under which she and her colleagues are not run into the ground, and are not bearing the brunt of the frustration of patients, many of whom who are scared, in pain and frustrated at being patronised by people who assume that we are whinging.

When you have an adult child who is part of a profession, in this case, a GP, seeing endless GP bashing in the media, especially The Daily Mail and The Telegraph, and endlessly it feels, on various news programmes such as Jeremy Vine and Sky News, and then that parent comes on here and sees the many comments that disrespect doctors, asking questions such as ‘Why are GPs hiding behind closed doors?’ or ‘What are GPs doing all day?’ or even ‘Why are GPs paid so much?’ and complaining about anything and everything to do with GPs, then that parent feels like their adult child is being attacked, and that’s exactly what is happening. I wonder how many Gransnetters would rise to defend their adult child if there were many threads attacking the job their child does, implying that their child is lazy and overpaid!

I completely understand that - as a mother myself, I really I do. But people are not saying that GPs are lazy and overpaid. They are saying that they aren't able to see them when they need to.

I can only speak for myself, and I am in no way attacking the role of GPs, nor suggesting that they are lazy. I am saying that the telephone appointment system is not appropriate for a number of patients, and that having to wait for weeks to even speak to an GP is potentially dangerous.

I'm sorry if that is upsetting for parents of GPs to read, but it is how I feel. I know from talking to friends who are GPs that many of them feel the same.

Incidentally I’ve said before and I’ll say it again, if you persist in using the chemist shops to get your flu vaccines, you are in a small part contributing towards the end of the GP Practice as we know it. GPs initially pay to buy in the vaccines for their eligible patients, and they in turn get paid by the government to administer the vaccines. They do not receive this payment individually (as some people apparently believe) but their practice receives the money. This money goes towards funding everything the practice needs such as maintenance of the building and other support staff (nurses, receptionists, practice manager etc.) When you go to Boots or wherever to get your vaccinations, Boots gets the money, not the GP Practices. Boots is owned now by an American company, and so you are contributing towards the profits of an American company in America. The payment is not going into the NHS as it should, it’s feeding the company profits of an American company, in the case of Boots (other chemists may be owned by British companies.) This is how our NHS is being starved of funds and gradually possibly creating a private and for profit Health Service. Is that what you want?

People who say it’s too far to go to the GP Practice to get their vaccine may very well be the same ones complaining that they want a face to face appointment with their doctor. Ironic isn’t it?