In despair with GP practice .....

We are moving to a town in the Addenbrookes catchment area. It is good to know that it is better than the JR at Oxford, where we are both dissatisfied and angry patients.

I couldn't afford to live in Cambridge either. I live in North West Essex, but Addenbrooke's is my nearest hospital.

Gosh it’s a good job you have a decent hospital, you may not have made it where I live. You’ve certainly been through it, and do need ongoing GP support. I wonder if that’s possible anywhere now?

A member of my U3A group is moving back to Cambridge where she used to live because she knows her husband, recently diagnosed with Parkinson’s will get better treatment there.
It’s tempting to do the same but couldn’t afford house prices!

I found out yesterday from my friend on the Patient Participation Group that our two part-time GOs are further cutting their hours to avoid paying supertax 🤬- they actually told the PPG this at their meeting.
So goodness knows how long it will take to see a GP here.

Farzanah

Why do GPs need a phone line for repeat prescriptions? Most I thought are ordered centrally, or on line to surgery or by post or on on prescription form if no on line access.

I look for my test results which are posted on line, then contact for appt if I need to discuss, or if abnormal they usually contact me.

The problem at my surgery is lack of appointments, particular with a doctor (a real one!).

Same here Farzanah. All test results are online. Some standard blood test results are back within 12 hours. DEXA, Echo and MRI results take a little longer, but I receive them at the same time as my GP. I know enough about what the results mean to follow up, if necessary.

Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge has a system called "My Chart", which means the results are all co-ordinated and I can send a message to a clinician when I want. I've always had a response within a day or so.

Ordering repeat prescriptions is easy - it's all done online and I pick the meds up from a local pharmacy within a couple of days. They're very good about letting me know by phone/text if there's a problem with anything.

As far as my heart attack was concerned, I've always maintained that if you have to have a heart attack, Cambridge must be one of the best places to have it. I was blue-lighted into Papworth Hospital, where the ambulance reversed straight into the cath lab, where a stent was fitted within an hour of my 999 call. I had a follow-up appointment a couple of weeks later and everything was explained to me.

I was told in the ambulance that I was having a heart attack and given aspirin. The hospital was prepared for me and, as I was conscious throughout the whole procedure, told me exactly what was going on. The only slight hiccough was with the transfer of care to Addenbrooke's because the two hospitals have different IT systems. I can't fault the hospitals' treatment in any way.

The GP surgery, on the other hand, was dreadful. I was told by the hospital to make an appointment within a few days, but was given an appointment five weeks later. I complained because I needed to set up repeat meds and couldn't wait five weeks. I also now know that my records weren't correctly entered into their system. I had the same problem with breast cancer surgery. The "follow up" recorded in my records was the GP asking me how I was when she was phoning me about something else. When I said "OKish but ..." she cut the conversation short and didn't want to know.

It really does seem to be a postcode lottery. Some hospitals and GPs seem to get it right, so why can't everybody follow best practice, so everybody gets it right?

I don't think we have e consult.

Ladyleftfieldlover

Some positive news about GPs!
I sent an engage consult message this morning at 7 am. I had an email confirming my request immediately. At around 8,39 am I had a message that a clinician would ring me soon. At 9.30 am a Dr rang and agreed I should have a face to face appointment. Would 10.30 am suit me? I saw her on time and she said the lump on the back of my head was fine and merely a cyst. She examined my left breast and thought the aching could be due to scar tissue from when I had a cancerous lump removed in 2017. She is sending me for a fast track mammogram and appointment at the hospital in Oxford. It was two weeks but more likely three weeks now.
Some GP practices do work well, and I’m pleased that mine does.

That’s how the e consult should work. I’m not sure all surgeries are using this, but I don’t see how GPs can fail to respond to red flags if you word it correctly, because they have it in writing. Not second hand via receptionist.

That's even worse than our GP surgery in NI and I thought that was bad!

I've had a letter telling me to see my gp within 2 weeks, after a blood test done by some sort of outside agency.

It's probably platelet problems, as it was a couple of months ago, when he told me to "see how it goes".

We get a text from the GP if there is something amiss with our test results. It either says make an urgent or non-urgent appointment.

That's an excellent service.
And you got two problems for the price of one!

Some positive news about GPs!
I sent an engage consult message this morning at 7 am. I had an email confirming my request immediately. At around 8,39 am I had a message that a clinician would ring me soon. At 9.30 am a Dr rang and agreed I should have a face to face appointment. Would 10.30 am suit me? I saw her on time and she said the lump on the back of my head was fine and merely a cyst. She examined my left breast and thought the aching could be due to scar tissue from when I had a cancerous lump removed in 2017. She is sending me for a fast track mammogram and appointment at the hospital in Oxford. It was two weeks but more likely three weeks now.
Some GP practices do work well, and I’m pleased that mine does.

We aren't allowed to order by phone.
(unless it's a problem they've caused, then they bend the rule "just this once")

Why do GPs need a phone line for repeat prescriptions? Most I thought are ordered centrally, or on line to surgery or by post or on on prescription form if no on line access.

I look for my test results which are posted on line, then contact for appt if I need to discuss, or if abnormal they usually contact me.

The problem at my surgery is lack of appointments, particular with a doctor (a real one!).

If only GP practises could standardise their operation. eg my GP practice has a dedicated line for test results for 2 hours each day. There's also a specific line for repeat prescription requests for 2 hours. Calls asking for appointments go direct to an appointment co ordinator. They can be contacted at 8am and 2pm for possible afternoon appointments. Thus receptionists are just receptionists. Everyone is very pleasant and human (once you get through!) Feels efficient and effective to me.

Humbley - that is disgraceful. But it sums up the way in which medicine is mechanised and compartmentalised.

One of my biggest gripes about my recent A&E episode and stay in hospital is that no-one seems to take responsibility for communicating with the patient in any meaningful or humane way.

In A&E a health care assistant came up to me after 3 hours and asked me to take 3 tablets of clopidogrel (which I now know to be an anti-platelet medication and that 3 is a loading dose for people have an acute cardiac event) - he could not tell me why. And at that point I had NOT EVEN BEEN SEEN BY A DOCTOR!! I just find that incredible. I was supposed to just neck these meds, having no idea why.

On the ward, I remained for a few days then was transferred for the day to a nearby hospital for an angiogram and stent installation (during which I now know something went wrong). I have seen the reports (so I now know that my right coronary artery was blocked to 94% at one place), but at no point did anyone explain this, tell me what went amiss during the procedure, talk to me about the implications/prognosis of all that has happened - indeed I was not even given a name for it - was it a heart attack or was it something else? I don't know ....... I still don't know for sure nearly a month later.

Trying to get answers on the ward from the doctors as they trolled round wheeling their laptops in front of them was impossible. Believe me I tried - very hard indeed.

It is all a bloody mess

I sympathise Humbley as I have had dexa scans, blood tests etc. via my GP - but no-one seems to think the results should be communicated to me - it's my body, my life, for god's sake!

I went to my drs last week only to be told I'm not your secretary when I asked about blood tests and ct scan tests. I was told that it is down to me to follow through but when I said the hospital said I would get the results sent to gp she said again call my secretary for them I'm too busy with patients who need a real appointment and I just answered so why do you refer me and not follow up again she said I'm not your secretary I need to be more pro active I suffer memory loss and only 59 I'm too young to get a Dassett box made up for me but my ailments are that of an 80 year old I was so worried when I got home and spoke to my daughter and she doesn't have much luck with them anymore either

I have hearing aids, but I got them just before covid arrived, and was just getting used to them.
In the meantime the clinic (NHS) which dealt with them who had said to pop in for batteries or queries has shut.
So, I'll need another gp appointment for that!!

Miss A that's awful . At my GPs I can talk about whatever I need help with . Saw my GP the other week about my swollen legs so she gave me a form for heart blood test that wasn't covered in my normal blood tests. We discussed the results of those she was pleased with them all. Plus I asked her for a referral for a hearing test at Specsavers.

If you get a referral from your GP and need hearing aid you can get NHS ones for free plus free batteries and repairs . The cheapest one Specsavers sell is £400 no way am I spending that kind of money if I need one or both . Having my hearing test Friday morning. They had booked me an appointment for Sunday but I don't go out to places like that of a weekend as I think weekend appointments should be for people who work .

This one issue is a nonsense. Tell them you are concerned the two issues may be connected.

You're right, I should.
I had a letter from the company that deal with one of my meds, saying to make an urgent gp appointment because of blood test results though, and I'm only allowed to talk about one issue at a time.

I would try and get an appt soon MissA before they decide to strike. I hope you can see someone soon.

Cadenza123

I don't think that there's any GPs in our surgery. I think that generally they are on the phone elsewhere. In the actual building there are only nurses and now a physician assistant. Who was very nice but way out of her depth. It's all about money, the system needs an overhaul.

If the doctors are going to employ physician assistants I think it should be made clear to patients that it is not a doctor they are seeing, I don’t believe physician should even be in the title as it is misleading. The advanced practitioners in my surgery have had more training and experience, yet get paid less than PAs.

Meanwhile, I'm still struggling along with my swollen leg.

Unsurprisingly, putting moisturising cream on it hasn't worked.

Never mind, make ANOTHER appointment if it doesn't get better, the nurse practitioner told me.

I should have made my next appointment on the way out of the surgery.

And now GP''s are talking about taking industrial action.