Bonkers new rule at our GP surgery

I didn’t know that the receptionists are being phased out either growstuff.

maddyone

Why don’t you stop moaning and be glad your husband has got an appointment?

Why don't you show a bit more empathy?
Lots of us are having trouble with our surgery at the moment presumably you haven't or you wouldn't give such a sharp and thoughtless reply.
I hope all goes smoothly for your DH. I was told something similar that I couldn't have a repeat until I had been seen at the surgery but they could not give me an appointment there and then I had to do the 8.30 sit like you.

maddyone

Just tell them it’s urgent because it’s an investigated lump. Mind you, if it’s been there since before Covid and it’s unchanged, it’s probably not urgent at all. You could send a picture in with an email of course.

What if the lump is somewhere intimate, would you like to photograph your privates? Who knows where some people including maybe you in the future get lumps then you could put your idea into practise ,maybe ask a friend or partner to take the photo for you

Yammy

maddyone

Just tell them it’s urgent because it’s an investigated lump. Mind you, if it’s been there since before Covid and it’s unchanged, it’s probably not urgent at all. You could send a picture in with an email of course.

What if the lump is somewhere intimate, would you like to photograph your privates? Who knows where some people including maybe you in the future get lumps then you could put your idea into practise ,maybe ask a friend or partner to take the photo for you

It's not just in intimate places. I have a brown lesion on my back. It's about 2 centimetre in diameter with uneven edges. I can only see it in a mirror and it seemed to be growing.

At the time, I was on my own (before OH) and we were limited to the people we could see during the pandemic. I managed to get an online appointment and was told to take a photo. I obviously couldn't see what I was doing and it took me about an hour to get a photo of the right place. I sent it to the GP, who complained it wasn't clear enough and got me to go into the surgery anyway. He had a special camera which ruled out any malignancy. It took about two minutes. I couldn't help thinking that if I's had a face-to-face appointment in the first place, it would have taken ten minutes max and I wouldn't have had to do contortions to try and take a photo myself.

Yammy I know this is a bit of a diversion from the thread, but I came across this the other day:

111.nhs.uk/emergency-prescription

It could be useful if you've run out of medications and can't get a prescription review in time.

I haven't tried it, so don't know how it works.

maddyone

I didn’t know that the receptionists are being phased out either growstuff.

They are in my practice.

I'm thinking that the are going to phase out GPs. I expect that we will have to self refer after filling out an online forms in the not too dim and distant future.

growstuff

maddyone

I didn’t know that the receptionists are being phased out either growstuff.

They are in my practice.

And what are they proposing to replace them?

How ridiculous. Our surgery is not as bad as many l hear about, in that you can generally get some sort of appointment but the nurses seem to do most of the work. The daftest thing at our surgery is that you can now no longer book non-urgent appointments in advance. You have to ring the surgery at 8 am along with everyone else.

Thanks, Growstuff I will write that sie down. I am talking with experience about a lump that you would not want to photograph. After I had one of my DDs I discovered a lump. The G.P. referred me straight away to a Urologist. Only to be asked by him if the medical students could come in and see it. Luckily they put a screen up so they could not see my bright red face.It could only happen to me.
Sometimes like you say a face-to-face appointment would be so much quicker and less worrying.

I once had a lump like that surgically removed. To this day I can recall the face of the extremely good-looking young male doctor peering at me between my knees, as I had my legs up in stirrups, while a couple of nurses looked on. I've never been so embarrassed in my life. Thankfully, they were all quite used to that kind of thing and we had a good laugh about it.

I think I would be even more embarrassed taking a photo of myself and uploading it to my computer and then sending it.

Fleurpepper

growstuff

maddyone

I didn’t know that the receptionists are being phased out either growstuff.

They are in my practice.

And what are they proposing to replace them?

They're not replacing them. The new digitised system makes them redundant.

Musicgirl

How ridiculous. Our surgery is not as bad as many l hear about, in that you can generally get some sort of appointment but the nurses seem to do most of the work. The daftest thing at our surgery is that you can now no longer book non-urgent appointments in advance. You have to ring the surgery at 8 am along with everyone else.

That's how my surgery has been. In that respect, the new online booking system might be an improvement. I've used a beta version of it and I was given the option of an urgent appointment or an advance booking. I had to write down exactly what the problem was and was given the option to state a preferred clinician, which was what I got - two weeks later, which was fine. I guess if I hadn't needed a doctor, I would have been directed to the appropriate person. I've also ordered blood tests via the system and been given an appointment without further triaging.

It's all been better than the 8 o'clock scramble and the queue of people at reception trying to beat the system. It gives everybody a fairer chance and hopefully people can be prioritised and directed to the appropriate person.

GP receptionists will be a job role of the past

I hope not. Despite the fact that I had a bizarre conversation with a new one recently and had a slight contretemps with one who called me a liar (turned out to be their mistake, not mine) most are very good.
They are helpful, knowledgeable and would be missed.

Receptionists haven't been called receptionists at my practice for some time. I've forgotten what their job title is - triage facilitators (or something).

What appears to have happened now is that the triage system has been outsourced because the telephones couldn't cope. The expectation is that it will be mainly online, so I have no idea where the people reading the online forms will be situated ... it could be Timbuctoo for all I know.

At the moment, there are usually three receptionists sitting at the desk. I'm sure they do other tasks other than answer phones and triage people, but I'm not sure what. There's a team of practice managers and admin people in another room. From the message we all received, it looks as though they're keeping one receptionist, but I don't know what's happening to the others. Maybe they'll be assigned other duties.

The whole practice is being reorganised - hopefully for the better, but time will tell. I've read the NHS's documents about forward planning and it looks as though my practice is following the guidelines.

There are plenty of good reasons to complain about Brexit but inefficient GP behaviour isn't one of them!

I popped in to see receptionist at our surgery to ask for the results of my recent blood test …..” I can’t tell you that face to face , you’ll have to phone in “…… so I took my mobile out of pocket and went outside the door and phoned and asked for results., she told me “ no action needed” I said thanks, and waved to her from the door! Is the world of doctors really gone that bonkers!

My surgery has the 'AskmyGP' system. If I have a problem I email. Have choice of type of reply...email, phone etc. Usually have call within an hour. If needed face to face appointment next day...once was within an hour. The system is amazing. Surgery is in a small town and covers outlying villages.

Just recently DH used our blood pressure monitor because he was feeling a bit dizzy and we noticed that his pulse rate was very low. To cut a long story short he has now been advised to stop taking bp medication and pulse rate is returning to a more normal level. We have an oxymeter (got during lockdown) and at one stage his pulse was 41 - he is not an athlete BTW! What worries me is that if we hadn’t done the bp check he might still be walking round with a dangerously low pulse rate. The moral of the story at the moment is, I think, that we all need to be extra aware of anything slightly out of the ordinary health wise. He was one of the people ‘jumping the queue’ as someone put it, standing at surgery reception and insisting he needed to see someone. Mentioning dizziness seemed to press the right button.

We are still buzzing through 2 doors if you get an appointment as we have an hour to phone in the morning and sometimes the slots are away in half an hour. We then wait for a phone call from a doctor all day just to get triaged by them before they decide if they want to see you or sometimes you have to send a photo of the problem.
I've to get my Covid booster and flu jab next Sat morn. It's for all 50-59 year olds in our large town and we have to queue outside, no appointments given and it's just for 2 hours. If it's pouring down dear help us all. The other doctors set up an appointment system in an unused shop in town for their patients. Our doctors don't seem to think things through at all. My friends 87 year old mum stood in a queue for over an hour 4 weeks ago, no seats for them, nothing.

Just for balance I would like to say that my local GP surgery in Sussex has had face to face doctor appointments throughout. Appointments were made by ‘phone and when waiting for the appointment had to wait outside until called instead of being in the waiting room.
In the last couple of weeks we have now returned to being able to make appointments online usually to be seen within two days. Seems as if my surgery is now running totally pre Pandemic and I know we are very lucky.
I have also had two oral knee replacements on n.h.s. In the past year and various scans, very, very lucky and extremely grateful.

Sorry to hear about the doctors receptionist not being very helpful. That is rediculous, I am very,very lucky - My doctor visits me at home regularly at least once a month. I am 84 years old, with several health problems.

I have had terrible trouble with our surgery. It started a year ago when I had a fall . Unfortunately for me I could not get an appointment to see the doctor or nurse for the same reasons as discussed. 3 weeks later in desperation I went to A&E to be told my elbow as broken. Over the coming year I have had various problems associated with the fall and still I have not seen or spoken to a doctor.
The last straw came when a month ago I had an ear infection, same problem, so cut out the middle GP and went to A&E then spent 4 days on a drip. Still no contact with my surgery.
Two weeks ago I tried phoning etc, even tried econsult because of very high BP. After one week the doctor phone whilst I was dealing with another call. Contacted the surgery to rearrange, and to date have had no phone call from the doctor.
As my BP was very high I went to a private doctor, was seen straight away, given blood test etc and had a complete check up. just like on the old days.

I don't know what the real problem with the GPs is but as we are paying these doctors £85000,00 to do the job so they should do it. Yes, they can complain and make excuses but at the end of the day they are suppose to be professionals. I haven't seen my allocated GP for 6 years. I thought she had left. I think I am entitled to have a moan, as a pensioner, I have paid my stamp all my working life and have never been ill. I am now paying twice, and have to spend the 'cost of living allowance' to get medical attention I am entitled too.
So have to cut back on the heating.

maddyone

Our surgery always responds to contact on line, and although it’s difficult to get through in the morning, it’s usually okay in the afternoon. Whenever I have needed to see/speak to my GP, I have managed to do so. I can make an appointment for a phone consultation usually a week or so later. If it’s urgent, the GP will see you, as happened when I had a kidney infection.

Oreo I may well be overly defensive but I don’t understand why it’s too difficult for the population to understand that over the course of the pandemic we lost 2000 GPs. We also have an increasing population. Fewer GPs are being trained because it’s a very stressful job and doctors don’t want to go into it. We can’t force people to choose that speciality over others. We have too few GPs, it’s that simple. We cannot attract doctors into that particular speciality. Given the constant complaints, I’m not really surprised.
It would be pointless to write to your MP because the government are trying to attract more people to train as GPs but they just don’t want to. Have you ever wondered why?

The government puts a cap on the number of medical school places.

HousePlantQueen

Update: DH has just come back from his little walk to the surgery, he went in to hand over letter and was asked ' Would you like an appointment?'. This despite several posts on our local FB page telling people that they must not drop in to the surgery to make an appointment. It seems that having a letter in one's hand is not construed as a personal visit. Sounds as if the staff training is going well........

We are supposed to phone for routine appointments and results, but there's usually a queue at the reception of people who can't get through or whose call gets lost in the phone system.