Making a GP appointment

It's almost impossible to get any type of appointment with my GP.
Filled in form this morning. Had a we tried to contact you, phone us, email this afternoon. No missed calls on any phone, unidentified numbers show on log, so they haven't called. Second time this has happened.
Will try to phone tomorrow so will have another day waiting!
Dr sent text to say blood test results were normal.
Saw a nurse recently who said they are not so requested copy of results.
There are advisory notes suggesting acute or chronic kidney disease. Big drop in function.
Only risk factor I have is high BP so for now just want review to check meds are keeping it stable, getting high readings with home monitor.
Have asked for the retest advised in New Year.
Worried that GPs surgery sent all OK text and now inaccessible.
I've had routine appointments with nurse but only 1 face to face GP appointment in 5 years so not a frequent flyer!

I was lucky to get my appointment on the same day but it was 11.55am when I tried to make it but the receptionist said I would have to wait until 12.00 to book it. Don't ask me why. There was a lady at the desk at the same time and she was really ill and wanted to see a particular GP and told she would have to wait till next week to see him. I felt for her.

Yammy

The receptionists have no medical training how can they possibly assess who needs to see a Gp

I think they have a tick list but no medical training in assessing who needs to be seen urgently.

I was once warned by a receptionist that, if my problem was deemed to be non-urgent by the GP, when I said I needed to see one 'fairly soon', then I would face consequences. What those consequences weren't spelled out.
Urgent is same day or possibly the next morning.
Non-urgent is about five or six weeks in advance.

The receptionists have no medical training how can they possibly assess who needs to see a Gp

Just stop calling professionals "idiots" for doing the job their surgery asks them to do

They may work hard, do an excellent job but the job of receptionist is not a profession.

get fobbed off onto a nurse when you need a doctor.
Our senior Practice Nurse is excellent.

AussieGran59

MarilynneT33, I hope you aren’t fobbed off. To us here in Australia this seems inconceivable. The receptionist never queries why we need a doctors appointment over here! You simply phone and ask for one. If there are none available quickly you just go to one of the medical centres and see a doctor there. No appointments just sit down and wait your turn.
Someone on GN criticised our health system but it’s not difficult to see a doctor and you never have to justify it with some idiot of a receptionist or get fobbed off onto a nurse when you need a doctor.
All the best, hope your health improves.

AussieGran The message on the phone at our surgery (when you have waded through the Welsh then English options and instructions to either dial 999, 111 or go to the pharmacist), then waited as you are number 12 in the queue! is that the receptionists have been instructed to ask questions about the reasons why we need to speak to or see a GP. So they are just doing their their job.

However, one I spoke to recently did need more training as she floundered over the names of everyday drugs, did not know the surnames of the GPs and took three times as long to take a simple message.

Just as well I never claimed to have had the whole surgery practice changed then, eh?

They did change the way they reported results though.

The set format in my surgery is that you get a meeting with the practice manager.

If you don't believe me, fair enough. Can't help that.

No, I meant incredulous one woman getting the whole surgery practice changed. As in most organisations, there is a set format for formal complaints about a surgery.
You might think you are incredulous but I am not going to say what I think.

Oh, I just read it again and noticed the final comment.

I didn't write a letter. I phoned them. Explained that she had told me one thing about my results and then when I pressed her on it, she told me the exact opposite. Got a meeting with the practice manager, who changed the policy on the way results were explained over the phone and told the receptionist not to "dissemble" again. First Written Warning. No letters, no tribunals, no more slopey shoulders.

What do your live-in medics think of that? Incredulousness?

Do you think perhaps your name is known at the surgery like your alias is known on GN for sharp retorts and put-downs? Especially after you reported someone accused them of lying and got them disciplined and the whole system changed!!!! Which seems incredulous.

I think you mean incredible. But I am incredulous.

volver

Please stop calling the receptionists "idiots" *Aussiegran59". I have a minor problem at the moment, called for an appointment, got one within a week, suited me fine. The receptionist asked if I minded giving her a few details to back up the appointment, which I did, no problem.

I've once had a problem with a receptionist who lied to me. A decade ago. Reported it, she was disciplined and their systems were changed.

Just stop calling professionals "idiots" for doing the job their surgery asks them to do.

You are lucky, in two incidents I have had trouble with a receptionist who is not a medical professional, and certainly does not have the knowledge or skill to decide if you need an appointment and should not be asking for your details to make that judgment. That is certainly not professional.
I phoned for an appointment with a bad back. After sitting for an hour on the phone I was told by the receptionist she was very busy, all that day's appointments were booked, and someone would call me back. It was a Young Spanish Dr. who eventually phoned and saw the joke the same as me. How could he see my back down a phone or examine me, he apologised and said I would have to self-refer to the physio department at the local hospital.
The second the receptionist just kept repeating all today's appointments are taken and would not listen. In the end, I phoned 111.
Do you think perhaps your name is known at the surgery like your alias is known on GN for sharp retorts and put-downs? Especially after you reported someone accused them of lying and got them disciplined and the whole system changed!!!! Which seems incredulous.
How can anyone know from another country know what our NHS is like at the moment when we do not know what it is like from one practice to another?
Living with medics most of my life I find it incredible that one person's letter got the whole system changed. Did you have to appear at a tribunal?

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Reading your story Sago it seems that common sense was seriously lacking in your surgery

During Covid I had a text asking me to call the surgery urgently.
I was out but as soon as I was in the car I called the surgery,40 minutes and still in a call queue.
I drove straight to the surgery and stood outside, still on the phone, I pressed the buzzer and waited for 5 minutes in the rain.
Whilst waiting a patient in a wheelchair had wedged himself in the door between the consulting rooms and the waiting area, I signalled to him I would get help.
I pressed the buzzer again to be shouted at!
I explained the situation, receptionist came and freed the patient then released the front door, I went to hold it open only to be told off again, she thought I was trying to barge in.
The door was closed and the receptionist then answered the buzzer but told me she couldn’t give me the information through the buzzer I would have to ring, I explained I was in a call queue and had been for an hour.
I asked if I could come in and be told what was so urgent, no, I couldn’t!
I told her I would remain outside with my finger on the buzzer until someone let me in.
They relented.
The message to call them urgently was an error.
The phones were ringing in the background and staff were ignoring them.
The term idiot is not strong enough for the way I felt that filthy February afternoon.

Marilyn, so glad you got to see your GP and getting correct treatment. It's a bit of a postcode lottery it seems with surgeries but receptionists are just doing their job. I think if I had diffuculty seeing someone I would ring 111 as suggested.

AussieGran59

The only reason I mention this is that I feel for the poor patients who have complained about a complicated system here on GN. None of this is my experience but can't I be annoyed on behalf of the sad stories I've read on GN?
Situations which could have been avoided had people given the protocol some thought and commonsense?
How that went from sympathy for people's predicament to me being rude to receptionists I do not know nor do I care.

You referred to receptionists as idiots.

That's rude, and insulting. That's all there is to it.

We are a married couple and aren’t exactly complaining. We are registered with a surgery in Chelsea and we live well away from there. They hassle us non stop to have face to face appointments. This vaccine and that vaccine. We get fed up with the constant harassment but realise how lucky we are.

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Yes I object strongly to reception staff being called idiots. I rang our surgery one late Friday afternoon before the Queens Funeral about terrible back pain, I was almost crying, said I believed it was a lung infection and thought I might need antibiotics. I was told she would. Get a Dr to ring me and they did within 10 mins. Our reception have always been great, they do ask why you want to see a dr but I just say it’s ongoing and they are fine It’s part of their job and they have been asked to do this. Show respect and you get it back Aussiegran

Good to hear that you managed to get an appointment MarilynneT33. I hope all your health issues clear up soon.

Thankyou for your comments. Just to update you all I managed to get an appointment with one of our good GP's this afternoon. The outcome is I have an eye infection for which I have some drops and some painkillers for my back pain. He has also given me a card to take to one of our local clinics to get an x-ray because my bad knee which has been a problem for me for quite a few years and is probably the cause of my back pain and the fluttering nerve in my leg. So I'm satisfied I've got somewhere at last. I managed to fit a further thing is which is I have a growth on my back which they are not allowed to treat anymore but he recommended some stuff to buy to treat it with. I did well for a 10 minute appointment.

I would have a word with the pharmacist when you pick up your prescription they are very knowledgably and can prescribe for you if appropriate. The pain in your shin may be related to your back - how about seeing a physio or osteopath for that?

Firmly and calmly state you have a number of issues you wish to discuss in person.
It worked for me, first face to face appointment in over 3 years.