Contacting the doctor

Security number to your mobile? What happens if you do not have a mobile?

Our surgery has a turn up and wait session for 2 hours every weekday morning. It seems to work as you are triaged and then get given an appointment or see a GP immediately as necessary.
We even use it to get test results from a clinician rather than a clerk.
Neither the phone line nor the surgery website are fit for purpose.

My 3 AC’ s and I are all with different surgeries but its the same tale with each! I called for my youngest DD about her youngest eldest boy and started dialling at 8.29 (they open at 8.30) I was 3rd in the queue at 8.30!! The phone then went dead and when I called back instantly I was 15th in the queue! As someone else said calling at 8/8.30 is a nightmare! DD was at work and I was making the call while doing a school and nursery run! Aside from the massive inconvenience of making a call while trying to drop young children there was also the issue of being cross examined by the receptionist as to why an appointment was needed and having to discuss private medical issues while out in public! If I did not call at the time no appointment would have been achieved!

I can only say good things about our GP practice. I got through this morning by phone and was given an appointment for late morning. I saw a GP who was lovely and I’m back home having a coffee. I rarely need to visit a GP so I was very impressed especially after reading everybody else’s experiences. I think I’m really lucky.

growstuff

Gagajo I'm no medic, but it seems likely that the infection should have been swabbed and tested and you should have been prescribed antibiotics.

Given that no magic wand is going to produce more doctors in the short term, I wonder what the solution is. Maybe there should be more investment in minor injuries units, prescribing pharmacies or nurse practitioners.

There needs to be an urgent investigation into what is actually happening in A&Es and listening to the people who are involved. This is all going to explode!

I've read your thread about your mystery condition and am wondering how you did eventually get to be seen.

I was sitting in the Walk-In Centre, when I got a reply to my online contact from the day before (via my surgery's system) from the GP asking for information about the infection. I fired off about 6 messages, including close-up photographs and information about how quickly it was spreading and got a GP appointment for that evening. So left the Walk-In Centre in favour of my GP. He DID give me antibiotics but the infection was quite bad by then, so that night I went to A&E which was when I was dismissed. Back to the GP (another one) the next day since the 1st one had said to go back if it got worse, and he sent me to the hospital with a letter, otherwise I assume I would have been dismissed again.

Doc at hospital cut it open to clear it (not nice at all) but didn't swab it. An error the doc I saw for follow up noted.

It was all a bit of a nightmare. I was in a lot of pain, but it didn't look like an emergency and it was easy to dismiss. The A&E doc more or less implied I was wasting her time.

OH sent an engage consult message this morning at 8 am. His GP rang at 1 pm (OH asks her not to call until the afternoon) and he was offered an appointment this afternoon. He’s there now.

Eeeek! That sounds horrible. You shouldn't have had to go to all those people. Have you discovered anything more about your bumps/rash? I'm amazed they didn't swab it because they would have been able to target the antibiotics better.

It’s a lottery, some people can see a doctor, others have as much chance of reaching the moon on a moped of doing so.

I think I’m really lucky.

You certainly are. We have to wait 5 weeks in between each contact with the doctor, and then it's a telephone call and wait 5 weeks for a follow up visit.

We don't often have to see a doctor (it's been 9 years since my last visit, 12 years since Mr A had to see one) and we live in a reasonably affluent area. It wasn't too bad at first, but Mr A has now been waiting nearly a year after having X rays that showed he has (probably) some sort of arthritis in his hip. He's in quite a lot of pain, can't sleep much and is finding driving more and more difficult (I can't drive because of my eyesight). After 3 months he finally got to see some sort of specialist who reviewed his X-rays and told him he should be referred to a consultant immediately. Sadly our GP doesn't seem to be able to do referrals - apparently their system doesn't communicate with the new hospital system so although they tried it kept failing. No one had the sense to actually ring the hospital and talk to someone, and no one told Mr A what was happening. It was only after we complained to the surgery by email that we finally got a doctor to speak to Mr A (after 5 weeks of course!), explain what was going on, and promise to deal with the referral. 3 months later Mr A has finally spoken to the hospital himself, asking the specialist he saw to deal with the referral (which he has). Mr A is now on the referral list and will be contacted in about 5 months to see the consultant. Maybe.

Is it possible for you to change your practice?

Just wait until GPs start the new 9 to 5 schedule they have apparently voted for 😮
This news horrified me.

My surgery does not have a triage system but does have an online consult system for non urgent issues. This is really complicated with lots of pages of similar questions to complete.
The last time I used it for an issue I have had for a couple of years, it told me I needed to see a doctor urgently and would not let me complete the query. I knew it was not urgent and had to book a face to face appointment instead.

Having a receptionist complete a triage form on the phone seems very inefficient as it means even less people can get through on the phone.

Elusivebutterfly The idea in my practice is that people don't get through on the phone. The practice wants all patients to come through the triage system and actively discourages phone calls. The system is switched off for most of the day and patients are told to phone 111 or 999 for emergencies.

TBH I don't think it's any worse. It was common for people to be told by 8.30 that there were no more appointments of any kind and to ring back next day ... and the day after that ... and ...

It was common for people to be told by 8.30 that there were no more appointments of any kind and to ring back next day ... and the day after that ... and ...

Ours didn't work like that. It still doesn't if you can eventually get through.

Urgent face to face appointments are given for that day or the next - the receptionists have been trained (well, most have!) to ask you certain questions to assess if you need to be seen or a telephone appointment will suffice or if you could see a nurse.
Non-urgent appointments can be made for about 4-6 weeks ahead.

Ours did. Before this system, it was only really possible to get same day appointments on the phone. There was another triage system (which was clunkier than this one), which I always used to make appointments because I haven't needed an urgent appointment since my children left home.

I don't mind seeing a nurse, if it's appropriate, and telephone appointments can be OK. There was no point ringing up for blood tests and diabetic reviews because they weren't emergencies, so I went online to book. Thankfully, I can now get my blood test results online, so I wait for them to come back and if they're OK, I don't bother making an appointment for a diabetic review. After a while, I get a stroppy phone call about not making an appointment for a review, so I get them to make an appointment then.

growstuff

Eeeek! That sounds horrible. You shouldn't have had to go to all those people. Have you discovered anything more about your bumps/rash? I'm amazed they didn't swab it because they would have been able to target the antibiotics better.

I'm OK now, thank you!

They think it was shingles. But the main issue was a big infection. It has a huge necrotic black scab on it now. But at least the infection has gone.

It was the inability to access care that was the most worrying thing. I'm proactive (learned the necessity when I had cancer), but not everyone is as persistent or as flexible (I'm self employed, can drive, IT literature). It really shouldn't be so hard to get care when it's needed.

Gagajo, My immediate thought was shingles, the symptoms seem to fit with the tingling etc.

However, as someone mentioned hand foot and mouth disease is around now, it made me wonder if your DGS had been unwell, even mildly, and it could be that?

It really shouldn't be so hard to get care when it's needed.
I agree.

Forsythia

Is it possible for you to change your practice?

We worry that if we changed at the moment Mr A might end up having even more problems with the changeover and things would get delayed again.

Callistemon21

^It really shouldn't be so hard to get care when it's needed^.
I agree.

So do I.

And the postcode lottery is ridiculous.

I know surgeries are free to run their outfits as they want or as best suits the needs locally, but there should be a mandatory requirement for all practices to allow patients to see a doctor - or at least have a telephone appointment - outside of this blasted "call on the day" system.

And don't get me started on that online e-consult... pages of questions - often asking the same question. Fortunately my surgery does allow you to complete a simplified version online where you just answer a couple of specific questions but can then free-type your concern... but it is specifically for those with non-urgent symptoms. How long they will allow this is anyone's guess. There are many pensioners where I live and they cannot get to grips with the e-consult - so the receptionists have to complete the forms for them over the 'phone. I know the forms are designed for easy triage... but if the ambulance service system can categorise on a few simple questions - surely these forms can be more user friendly? Just a few simple, specific questions, then allow the patient to describe their ailment. And why can't the system operate outside of surgery hours?

I think we are being weaned of GP consultations - especially F2F appointments. In the end there will simply be a system like the 111 where everyone has to either fill in a form or describe their symptoms to a call handler, and will then be directed to a pharmacy, get a call-back from a doctor, or be told to go to A&E. That will be what is known as 'primary care'.

I've discovered how the waiting lists for surgery are manipulated.

When you phone to find out how many more years you'll have to wait for surgery, you're told you're not on the list, they forgot to add you.
🙂

To be fair, the sytem my surgery uses doesn't have loads of questions.

There's a box for your symptomes, then a couple of questions. The first is "What are you worried about?" and the second "What action do you want from us?"

And a couple of questions about preferred doctor and when you're not available

Spot on Dickens. It's precisely what the government wants. It's even in their forward planning document.

growstuff

Spot on Dickens. It's precisely what the government wants. It's even in their forward planning document.

Matt Hancock - July 2020

Unless there is a ‘compelling clinical reason’ to see a patient face to face, all GP consultations should be carried out remotely going forward, health secretary Matt Hancock has said.

Of course - he and his ilk will be able see a GP F2F as he has the funds, whether the reason is "compelling" or not.

I am under the care of the John Radcliffe in Oxford. They have been treating me for over 2 years now via telephone appointments - at my request, it is too far to travel. However, they have demanded that I now have a physical appointment.

I asked them why it was necessary as they had all the blood test results and reports via an agency that delivers intravenous nutrition in my home environment - all good results, all good reports.

The doctor I spoke with said, and I quote (because I always type-up - I'm a touch typist - the conversation whilst it's in progress)... "we need to see you because there's a lot we can tell just by looking at you - your colour, your eyes, your movements, your responses, they all tell us things we can't detect over the 'phone"

And we all know that's true. And it's always been true. But Hancock knew better. It's all part of the Tory agenda to ultimately privatise health care, stealthily... the boiling-frog syndrome, we are being 'acclimatised'.