No GPs?

I have had a few telephone appointments recently, followed by a face to face the same day, after speaking to a GP. Last week a GP phoned out of the blue to check on me. I have been very fortunate.

The record for timely diagnosis of cancers in the UK is appalling, and to mind the more doctors deal remotely with patients instead of seeing them face to face, the worse things will get.

A close member of my family has been directly impacted in this area by not being able to access a GP face to face - waiting weeks for a telephone appointment and then another wait for a face to face appointment before an urgent referral was made.

In the first instance, the decision to book a routine telephone appointment was made by the receptionist on the basis that the symptom reported wasn’t urgent. They were also told that it was ‘one consultation for one complaint’ ( a notice to that effect is still on display in our surgery) and as a result received a routine face to face consultation, for which again, they had to wait. Once they were seen, the GP made an urgent referral as only then was cancer suspected.

We’ve effectively made GP’s the gateway to secondary care and we’ve moved rapidly to receptionists deciding what’s urgent and what’s not. I know that they have guidelines, but my relatives’ experience is an indication that it doesn’t work for everyone, and I do wonder how many people have had a similar experience.

Interesting to hear what's going on up and down the country. I did take the appointment for my DH. I did also after phone 111 this morning. My point was that there are no actual GPs at the surgery. Not a wonder a and e is bursting.

They wonder why the death rate is going up. And the anti vacc’ers are blaming it on the vaccine…I haven’t tried to get a doctors appointment for years but DH has been on blood thinners because of a blood clot and hasn’t seen his GP at all: he was prescribed them whilst on holiday at a walk in centre. He does get a yearly B/T but that’s it.

Shinamae

grandMattie

I called my GP this morning. As it wasn't urgent, I was given a telephone appointment on "Thursday morning" - 0900 to 1330!
It's such a shame that they are SO overworked that they can no longer see their patients, leave take time to get to know them...

You’re lucky, just for a telephone appointment I have had to wait three weeks! 🤦‍♀️

Same here!
It took 10 minutes at caller No.1 to even get through but at least that was better than No.23, as I have been in the past!

My surgery still uses real doctors
And I don’t ever ring I fill in an email form which is answered with in 24 hours and then directs you to a) an emergency appointment within a day or so or b) a non urgent appointment which may be a week away or if you want a particular doctor could be longer
There are about 10/12 doctors so a large and busy surgery but
I ve found them very accommodating
My grandson needed an appointment recently and as he works away from home it had to be within a specific time frame He got a face to face appointment exactly when he needed it
I m very happy with our surgery
I use the pod for any repeat prescriptions, again I find that very simple fill in what I need online and just pick up at my allotted pharmacy 2 days later

Primrose53

grandMattie

I called my GP this morning. As it wasn't urgent, I was given a telephone appointment on "Thursday morning" - 0900 to 1330!
It's such a shame that they are SO overworked that they can no longer see their patients, leave take time to get to know them...

Overworked? 🤣🤣 they’ve nearly all gone over to part time working. It’s a 2 week wait for an appointment at our surgery but when you finally get there it’s like the Marie Celeste! 3 empty waiting areas at ours.

I am very lucky as I am registered with currently the 13th best GP practice in the country - and we can get same day appointments if required, home visits, face to face and phone appointments, and triage calls with a Senior Sister who is excellent and she will get you an appointment with herself or a GP if necessary.. My GP will always call me back if I email or leave a message. However, the new ICB's have now decreed that it will now be a 'group' of practices in the same area that will be assessed by the CQC - which will have a dramatic affect on their ratings, as the practice closest to me is dreadful! No appointments, as you say, the waiting room is like the Marie Celeste, get seen by a nurse (2 people, 1 now dead, another terminal, as took 18 months to get a diagnosis from a GP [who should be struck off]; one had only been seen by the nurse who kept prescribing anti-biotics for a cough, only after 18 months did she get finally an x-ray, too late) My practice is fully staffed, but this one just cannot recruit GP's - affluent town, semi-rural, so if they can't recruit here, what chance do inner city practices have?

One thing that my practice doesn't have, is an 8am queue for the phone - you call, and they answer! Sadly, when I brought up the horrible blurb you now have to listen to at a meeting, I was told that they now have to have it - when I said their system was great, they said that sadly they may have to go to the 8am queue system! How ridiculous ..... It doesn't bode well ....

*Bella23 "From now on we could phone but it would be the receptionist with a G.P at her side who would triage the ailment and decide when in the next week it was urgent enough to see one of the Dr's." What an awful waste of a GP's time!

At my surgery I can book appointments with GP's online. Last week I booked a phone appt and the first date I could have is 18 August, over 3 weeks wait and even then it's not with one of the regular GP's just one of the trainees. It's not an emergency so no problem. Goodness knows how long a wait for a face to face appt.

Ours are run off their feet but are good at doing phone appointments. It's obvious that underfunding of doctor training for the past 13 years is to blame as well as the stress causing GPs to retire early or emigrate for a better life.

Why do you believe part time GPS aren’t over worked Primrose?

We aren’t training enough and retention an increasing problem because of the pressures on GPS. One of our best GPS left because she was working 14 hour days. My doctor said she’d leave if she could afford to. She’s a good doctor, dedicated, experienced everything we want in our family doctor

Our practice is rated outstanding. Despite this, I’m waiting 3 weeks to seethe practice nurse. 6 to see my GP of choice.

I am very lucky as I am registered with currently the 13th best GP practice in the country

That's very specific, MIY. Is there a league table, and where can I see it, please?

I don't think people realise what hours a 'part time' GP works. If you are doing three twelve hour shifts, and the masses of extra paperwork on top, do you count that as part time?

B9exchange

I don't think people realise what hours a 'part time' GP works. If you are doing three twelve hour shifts, and the masses of extra paperwork on top, do you count that as part time?

The criticism is often about women as pt doctors. Surely we should be supporting women to stay in the profession they trained so hard to achieve.
It’s still the case that women, that is mothers, do the bulk of child care, run the home and manage the family’s emotional needs.

It's exactly the same process at my local surgery. Telephone conference with a doctor first then follow-up appointment days or weeks later if deemed necessary. I despair at the inbuilt delays

I don’t usually mention this but I was diagnosed with heartburn over the phone by a GP I’d previously trusted. Four months later I was hospitalised with jaundice. Diagnosis was pancreatic cancer. If ONLY I’d had earlier diagnosis with proper testing 😟

You would be offered a nurse if it was something the nurse could deal with, if not you would definitely not be offered a nurse but a doctor at a later date.

You might perhaps want to take into account that this is the summer holiday season - presumably some of the GPs in the practice are parents of school-age children and on holiday right now.

Granted many practices do not seem to be well-run. but a lot of patients seem to think they can get an appointment immediately whether or not their ailment is serious or something that could wait.

That's terrible, Purpledaffodil. I wish you all the best in your treatment.

I don't have an issue with part-time doctors, but do feel that the hours should be covered by other ones, as in most job-shares. If one doctor wants to work half-time, why not get another one in who wants to do the same?

I had a telephone appointment with my GP yesterday. I made the appointment online two weeks ago. It was the first available appointment with her.

The econsult system is no longer used at my surgery as it was deemed to be unsafe as too many patients were using it. You ca no longer book appointments online either. More and more is being put onto the pharamacist including problems with taking statins.

Doodledog

That's terrible, Purpledaffodil. I wish you all the best in your treatment.

I don't have an issue with part-time doctors, but do feel that the hours should be covered by other ones, as in most job-shares. If one doctor wants to work half-time, why not get another one in who wants to do the same?

GP Practices do get GPs to job share. But there aren’t enough GPs in the country. I’ve explained all this multiple times in different threads.
Last year we imported 660,000 people net (actually it was over a million but some others left) and also a much smaller number arrived illegally. All these people, approximately 700,000 per year need services, including doctors. If you have fewer doctors but more people, do the maths, there are fewer appointments available for everyone. It’s not rocket science.

Purpledaffodil, I’m so sorry to read your experience.
I hope your treatment is effective.

I’m also sorry to read of your experience Purpledaffodil.
I hope you get the necessary treatment quickly and recover.
I think the problem here is that so many people of a certain age get heartburn that the relevant drugs, which are very good, are dispensed to anyone complaining of heartburn. Rarely are any investigations asked for at the beginning and by the time they’re relevant, the disease has developed.

What I don’t get is pre covid my practice had 3 GPs two full time one part time, 2 nurses, one nurse practitioner. Since covid same staff but both full time GPs have gone part time, one only working 1 day.
What is he doing the other 4 days. The GP shortage didn’t suddenly become a problem in three years. You couldn’t see a doctor during most of covid. They were at home.

maddyone

Doodledog

That's terrible, Purpledaffodil. I wish you all the best in your treatment.

I don't have an issue with part-time doctors, but do feel that the hours should be covered by other ones, as in most job-shares. If one doctor wants to work half-time, why not get another one in who wants to do the same?

GP Practices do get GPs to job share. But there aren’t enough GPs in the country. I’ve explained all this multiple times in different threads.
Last year we imported 660,000 people net (actually it was over a million but some others left) and also a much smaller number arrived illegally. All these people, approximately 700,000 per year need services, including doctors. If you have fewer doctors but more people, do the maths, there are fewer appointments available for everyone. It’s not rocket science.

I know you have explained, maddie, andI have explained what I think should happen (that there should be a training contract for medics) but you get angry at the very idea.