Contacting the doctor

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.

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.

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!

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.

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

Our surgery has turned off its online appointment service which I would much prefer to use, rather than waiting in a long queue from 8 am for ages (if you can even join the queue). I tried to send a message to 'ask the receptionist' which was still working - just an enquiry about whether more dates were available for the flu vaccination a while back - and they went to the trouble of messaging me back to tell me to phone, when they could have answered my very straightforward question with a 'not yet'.

I actually had a meeting with the Practice Manger about this earlier in the week. His claim was that the system they've now chosen does work best. He's new to the practice and apparently it was used in his former practice. We'll see!

Unfortunately, they just have too many people wanting appointments and not enough staff to deal with them all. Apparently, they switched the booking system off on Tuesday at 10am, when they reached 300 enquiries. In the past, people would have given up waiting on the phone, but now they can access the triage system. It shows how many people gave up in the past.

Personally, I think this system is better than the old system when people rang on the dot of 8am or queued up for appointments. People going to work or having to take children to school didn't stand a chance of getting an appointment.

growstuff

*I can’t understand why there seem to be so many different online consult systems.*

Because they're all owned by private companies and their salespeople are competing with each other.

I can’t understand why there seem to be so many different online consult systems.
I carried on to say that some apparently, more successful than others

I accept that budgets are tight but it's a pity that who ever buys into these systems for the surgery, can't spend some time researching into which ones actually work effectively.

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.

GP surgeries are private contractors of the NHS, are run as a business and can sub-contract to other suppliers.

It's nothing new.

Since the inception of the NHS in 1948 GPs were independent practitioners providing services to the NHS, rather than being NHS employees

So when I tried desperately to get help, two weeks ago, for an infection that was growing rapidly (increased by 2 cms in a few hours) I couldn't reach my GP. Went to A&E only to be dismissed by the A&E doctor and told to go to my GP. This is how people die in the UK from very easily treated medical problems.

I can’t understand why there seem to be so many different online consult systems.

Because they're all owned by private companies and their salespeople are competing with each other.

Purpledaffodil

Oddly our practice has stopped the online appointment system and they say put money into more people answering the phones. However when I tried today I was told 22nd December earliest available. However they advised me to try again from 8am on Monday. And I’m only following up a request made to GP by oncologist before it sinks into oblivion 😢

I didn't need to ring for an appointment when hospital consultants requested GP follow up. On both occasions, the GP contacted me before I knew requests had been made.

GPs were telling everyone ten years ago that more GPs were needed. Nobody listened so now we reap the reward.

My GP's surgery changed from PatientAccess to SystmOnline. Only parents of under 5s and genuine emergencies are supposed to ring. People are told if they don't have access to the online service, they should ring and the receptionist will complete the form for them and they'll go into the triage system like everybody else.

GagaJo

My GP will only be contacted online now. If you call and can't use the online system, the receptionist does it through the online system for you. I think the intention is to do away with the phone system as much as possible.

I've sat in the GPs waiting for an appointment and the phone really doesn't ring much now. So why is there such a long wait when calling? I can only assume it's to dissuade people from calling rather than using the online system.

That's how my GP practice works now. When I wanted to enquire about the new system because I couldn't order my repeat medications, I thought I'd give them a ring. I was number 32 in the queue for half an hour (and didn't move), which is why I decided to deliver a snail mail message.

I don't know what's happening to the GP system but our online service is not easy to negotiate.

Ordering a repeat prescription seems fairly straightforward, but if you have a query then it's often easier to speak to someone at the surgery, if you have the patience to stay on the line for 35 minutes as I did last time. There seems to be just one receptionist and phone for those who want to make a swift call and those who need a lengthy discussion.
Because the new receptionist I spoke to a couple of weeks ago was poorly trained it took three times as long to sort out what I needed. She didn't even know the GPs' surnames.

The phone introduction on ours is endless and in Welsh first.

Oddly our practice has stopped the online appointment system and they say put money into more people answering the phones. However when I tried today I was told 22nd December earliest available. However they advised me to try again from 8am on Monday. And I’m only following up a request made to GP by oncologist before it sinks into oblivion 😢

Sorry to read that Whitewavemark2.

Online services do seem to vary. Our surgery has merged with another and the iconsult stopped to be replaced with ‘Klinik ’. It’s a triage appointment system but we didn’t need to re register. We’ve had to use it twice recently and some one called us back the same day. Both occasions required appointments which happened within 48 hrs.

I can’t understand why there seem to be so many different online consult systems. Some apparently, more successful than others.

Our phone system is up and OK - you have to ring before 10* to get same day call back, and that doesn't always work, but basically you start at 8.30am and keep trying. After 10 its for non emergency queries and its pot luck as to how busy they are. You are encouraged to book online I prefer a person so never tried.

*Having said that, if its a real serious emergency but not A and E, I've not known them turn me away.

Leaving rate has been high. Sad, we lost a couple of very experienced lovely GP's - stress, "time to get out" in Covid. They also left because they couldn't give the patients the time they felt appropriate - the job had changed.

We have less GP's.

My GP will only be contacted online now. If you call and can't use the online system, the receptionist does it through the online system for you. I think the intention is to do away with the phone system as much as possible.

I've sat in the GPs waiting for an appointment and the phone really doesn't ring much now. So why is there such a long wait when calling? I can only assume it's to dissuade people from calling rather than using the online system.

TBH I don't think the situation in my GP's practice is worse than it was pre-pandemic. It started getting really bad about 5 or 6 years ago.

Whitewave Has your surgery recently changed its online service? If so, you might be asked to re-register, which would involve producing ID.

This is what happened to me. However, I was already registered for online services, so I sent a snail mail request to the Practice Manager, who said I didn't need to go through the ID palaver and he gave me new registration codes.

The new system seems to be working OK, apart from the practice turning it off when they've reached clinical capacity, which was before 10am on Tuesday. Apparently, the system is much more efficient than people hanging on the phone and many more people are getting through to the triage service.

Having gone through all this, I have managed to get an appointment next week with a musculoskeletal specialist (goodness knows who that is - I think it's the physio attached to the practice), which is what I requested.