No GPs?

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.

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.

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!

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

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

I mourn the passing of the old family doctor who would say, 'Morning Kitty, Tom keeping well, all the kids ok?' Knowing that we have 5 and their approx ages.

But, times change and triaging seems a great way forward - so long as we have enough GPs and not just part-timers and doctors on rotation.

We have an excellent GP surgery but I know they still have difficulty recruiting GPs. Apparently we are training lots more GPs but they are not staying and worryingly over 11% of fully qualified GPs between 30 and 35 left in 2022. I think we need to ask ourselves why. Having read many posts on this forum about GPs and GP surgeries I think a lot of people think they are overpaid, lazy and useless whereas I think they are over stretched, laden with too much paperwork and have spent too much time seeing people who won't take responsibility for their own health and have too little time to spend with patients who need their support and medical services. Seems like a pretty thankless task to me so I'm not surprised they leave.
www.pulsetoday.co.uk/news/workforce/one-in-five-gps-under-30-quit-the-profession-last-year/

Appointments here have gone from 5 to 6 weeks for a telephone appointment. Then further 6 weeks if you need to see a GP or nurse. There are now 9 doctors, of whom 5 are part time, but they serve a huge number of people and split their time between two different surgeries in two villages. The number of residents have doubled over the last twenty years but there are effectively less doctors because we used to have six full time doctors. There is something badly wrong because lots of people are moving to a surgery five miles away where you can get appointments in days and they rarely do telephone appointments but the surgery is no bigger than ours. The drop-in centre at a nearby hospital is packed with people who can't get doctors appointments.

sassysaysso

I think though it takes some getting used to that GPs operate in a different way, partly as a result of the shortage of GPs, partly with greater use of technology. The triage system ensures a patient sees or speaks to most appropriate professional, be it a doctor, nurse or pharmacist, it means a nurse practitioner is able to see many patients and free up a doctor. I have found that if a problem is acute (in my case UTI) I have been seen quickly.

I find the econsult system helpful and have used it couple of times for a query that I wouldn't dream of troubling a doctor face to face with. My surgery's use of texting is also very efficient. So all in all, I think things have improved greatly, its just different.

You are satisfied because you can use the system. How would you feel if you were 92 like myneighbour and lived 8 miles from the GPs and pharmacy no public transport and can not use modern technology or drive any more?

In answer to th OP I would have taken the appointment with the nurse as if when they see you they decide you need to see a doctor they call one in at our surgery. We have one doctor in our practise who spends all day "helping the other staff out". On one occasion when I called to see a nurse after a minor accident to my husband's toe the doctor gave him a local anaesthetic and sorted it out between getting called to other patients and probably saved us a couple of hours in A and E. When I took my brother-in-law for blood tests a few weeks ago and the nurse/phlebotomist caught sight of his inflamed ankle she called a doctor in and he examined it and wrote him a prescription.

I have just got through. No more doctor appointments for today, and she said I need to see a GP.

Was offered a paramedic - but receptionist said that is normally for people who have not already seen a doctor about something, and a paramedic cannot prescribe anything, though could liase.

She mentined e consult, but said it would be 2 days miniumum before get a GP slot and the max time to be seen would be 2 weeks.

She tried to fit me in with a nurse, who could prescribe if necessary. but no nurses appointments today.

She said if it is a medical emergency, a duty doctor could ring me back. I told her it wasnt now, but could be in two days time so then would have to say that.

She is going to document our conversation and I am to ring back tomorrow morning.

I wouldnt normally write all this on here, but the op post was timely.

I'm pleased to say that my surgery is very good much improved since covid.I had an appointment this morning which the surgery booked for me regarding some abnormal blood results.
On Friday morning at 10 am I received a phone call from the surgery saying that they had a cancellation for 11.30 that morning and would I like to take it.Of course I said yes.
The reception staff are always pleasant and a same day appointment is nearly always available if you ring at 8am.

Lathyrus

I guess it’s better to have 8 part-time GPs than none.

Lots of women, in all sorts of jobs, chose part-time to balance family and work.

Not sure what the objection is to doctors doing that?

I suppose what’s needed is 8 full time GP’s, not part time ones though?

I know, there’s no answer is there?

I prefer the econsult system, when I have used it there has been a phone call within hours.

Taking time off work, travelling to the surgery and waiting for a 5-minute appointment with a doctor, usually just to get a prescription to me is a waste of everyone's time.

I guess it’s better to have 8 part-time GPs than none.

Lots of women, in all sorts of jobs, chose part-time to balance family and work.

Not sure what the objection is to doctors doing that?

‘Ask My GP’ has worked well on the (thankfully) rare times I have had cause to use it.

It used to be available 9am-4pm, but has now the reduced time to 1pm, as it is so busy.

My friend, at another practice, says her AMGP often shuts off at about 8.15am, often in mid-typing of symptoms!

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! 🤦‍♀️

About the same wait at ours. It is also now quite normal to be Number 17 in a phone queue while you listen to messages about how busy they are 🤣, how you will be asked about your symptoms and did you know you can submit messages on line? Oh great, let’s try that. You hang up, lose your place in the queue and it says “do not submit messages of a medical nature.”
So what kind of non medical messages can you send to a Medical Practice?

Yes I was amazed tosee an appointment , albeit a phone one in so short a time.

I much prefer face to face.I wonder how much is missed on phone appointments.

I think though it takes some getting used to that GPs operate in a different way, partly as a result of the shortage of GPs, partly with greater use of technology. The triage system ensures a patient sees or speaks to most appropriate professional, be it a doctor, nurse or pharmacist, it means a nurse practitioner is able to see many patients and free up a doctor. I have found that if a problem is acute (in my case UTI) I have been seen quickly.

I find the econsult system helpful and have used it couple of times for a query that I wouldn't dream of troubling a doctor face to face with. My surgery's use of texting is also very efficient. So all in all, I think things have improved greatly, its just different.

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! 🤦‍♀️

We got a letter from our GP practice last week listing the Dr's there are nine ,one man and 8 part-time women.
We were told we could no longer expect to phone from 8.30 and sit on the line for as long as it took to get an appointment. 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.
The suggestion was this would prevent the long queues trying to get through. On rereading, I realised you would still have to sit on the line from 8'30 to get an appointment for even later in the week as there was not an appointed time to phone for non-urgent cases.
We were also told we might get a better response if we contacted them on line.
Not everyone knows how to use the computer for this in fact my elderly neighbour does not know how to switch one on she relies on her family.
To me, it just sounds like a cop out I would be interested to know what others think.
To top it all one of our pharmacies has closed down and the others are not coping with the extra workload, we are not to bother the practice with this problem but sort it out with the pharmacy that is willing to have you. Lots of patients live in rural areas with no public transport the town practice can be up to 10 miles away. Who wants to go and pick up a prescription that is not there? I phoned Boots to see if mine was in and was told in no uncertain terms not to phone again, they would text me, again lots of elderly around me do not have mobiles.
To me, this system discriminates against elderly people who do not use technology and people who live in remote rural areas.