Are GPs as busy as they keep telling us they are?

I have been having problems with my throat for a few weeks. I called my surgery on Monday morning and luckily was. No. 5 in the queue for a receptionist. I explained my symptoms, difficulty swallowing, a dull ache and coughing at the least bit of saliva going the wrong way. She came out with "there's a throat bug going around at the moment". When I asked if she was refusing to put me on the triage list (which is just for the doctor to give you a phone call) she said yes, and that I should go and buy some cough mixture! So diagnosis by receptionist😳.

Grayling1

I consult more now with our chemist than I do with a doctor. I'm up in the north of Scotland and a new system has been devised whereby we phone our prescription needs into the chemist who then forwards it to the surgery who obviously check it and then sends it back to the chemist. This system takes an extra couple of days at least before you can collect your presciption. Not sure who benefits from this new system but it takes longer for me to get my prescription and it is quite confusing as there are a couple of items I need to order direct from the surgery. I used to order all items on-line and this took 4/5 days to process.

The Chemist does because he gets paid for this service. If you go directly to the pharmacist with anything they do not get paid for the extra service, everything has to go through the surgery for them to get paid. Pharmacies are changing in England and it sounds very much like this is the way forward. Seems doubling up on work, but apparently it works. Most surgeries are happy to do flu and Covid jabs together because they get paid for those as do the pharmacists.

maddyfour

^Are GPs as busy as they keep telling us they are?^

Yes.

Well they must be if they only work 2 days a week like they do at my local GP practice. What's worse though is when you get forms for blood tests but the receptionist tells you they "can't be done until next month" and I do mean in excess of 30 days. Why does the GPs work to rule affect all the other surgery services?

All anyone can do for flu is bed rest, plenty of fluids, and pain killers as needed. I thought this was common knowledge. A doctor visit would be a waste of time.

If you are not satisfied by any treatment you are getting from a medical person you can ask for a second opinion.

YES! I'm a GP.
We work very, very hard.
The only reason you aren't seeing packed waiting room is the appointment systems are more streamlined.
Please don't underestimate how hard we all work. It can be brutal.

Of course GPs are busy! When you ring the receptionist, have your reason for wanting an appointment ready, clearly and briefly stated with a view to what the doctor will want to know.

It's great that receptionists are getting extra training so they can help you to get the appointment you need.

I think a lot of appointments are on the phone, I had to make a real effort to see a GP last year. I'm actually quite happy to have a telephone appointment, provided the doctor doesn't actually need to see me in person. We still get appointments with the practice nurse for regular check-ups and my husband gets phone appointments with a pharmacist which we have never had before.

My doctors surgery is always empty yet no one can get an appointment. It used to be so busy. I agree what are they doing for their large salary. My doctor has a porsche and a swimming pool.

My main problem is getting past the rottweiler on reception. I have been having necessary blood tests for over 20 years and she grills me every time. Who said i could make the appointment, why aren't you having it done at the hospital, why do you need it. Shes like a member of the gestapo and so rude with it. She is not medically trained her last job was in a greengrocers.

Our surgery has outsourced the seasonal jabs to the pharmacy, but there still seems to be plenty going on in there.

Unfortunately for me, most of the consultations take place over the phone, which I don’t like because I can’t always hear everything that’s said to me. I believe the GPs and other staff are in the building, just on the phone, not seeing people face-to-face.

Most of my medication is ordered through the NHS app, and the prescription has to be sent to the pharmacy from the surgery. So a GP is spending time on my care while they’re doing this. They also have letters to write to consultants and so on, and plenty of admin, like most professions nowadays.

My doctor will only talk to you on the phone, and not give you an appointment until he has spoken to you. So he now needs time for 2 appointments instead of 1, to deal with it. `He prefers to transfer you to a nurse, rather than see you. Last time, I ended up in A & E with a very bad ear infection, as the nurse had told me to just put olive oil into it, even though I said how painful it was. You also have to phone at 8.30 for an appointment, for anytime, not just the same day. They will not give any appointments later in the day. Our surgery is always empty as well, as they try not to see anyone.

Local Surgery is usually pretty good. The head surgery not so much but they are usually busy if we have to go there. As far as the App is concerned I had been convincing myself that it was me not being too good with Tech that I couldnt get it to work for me! My son who is much better at sorting things has been unable to get past the point where it wants to contact the Surgery. Just the continual annoying circle round & round! So had to call 119 to book Flu & Covid appointment! Maybe one day something will work properly 🤔

lixy

Yes, they are.
GPS do home visits out of surgery hours, telephone consultations and a mountain of the dreaded paperwork.

Some enlightened practices now have a time dedicated to telephone consultations rather than each go trying to squeeze them in between face-to-face consultations; maybe you were there while this was happening?

Home visits? Don't make me laugh.
My partner has been basically chair bound for a year. He begged for someone to come and see him, he's very pale and feels basically very unwell although he can't put a finger on it, he does have pains which migrate round his body, spent 3 days in hospital because he was taken into a & E by ambulance and they couldn't find suitable transport to bring him home.
24 hours after arriving home he developed a painful itchy rash.
A Nurse practitioner was sent out...

golf course?

I went for my 'flu jab yesterday at the surgery and whilst I was there I asked about the Covid jab. Our surgery only offers the former, you have to go to a pharmacy for the latter. I said I wish I'd known that because I would have booked both through the pharmacy. The nurse said the surgery don't want patients to do that otherwise they will end up not doing the 'flu jab either. I pointed out that I wanted a service that was easy for me rather than one that suited them. She was really surprised. I pointed out that the pharmacy was becoming a one stop shop for so many things that it made sense for me to get my vacs in the same place.
I also said that I found it incredible that so many services had been outsourced but I still couldn't phone the surgery easily and had to wait a long time for an appointment. The surgery, as usual, was completely empty.

I think that the point made upthread about many GP's working part time is relevant.
I understand that my designated doctor (group practice) has just left.
I have never met or spoken with him/ her but have met with the nurse practitioner instead.
The doctor worked only on Mondays .
If a prescription request was submitted on Tuesday, there would be a week to wait for it to be signed. No prescriptions would be processed if there was more than one week's supply left....so this is a square impossible to circle.

don`t start me on about our surgery! surgery?? ha!

A friend who lives opposite her surgery was told to email a photo of her severely sore throat ( she couldn’t swallow and could barely speak)! The surgery is always empty apparently.

I had a face to face with my GP last week. I had a number of concerns following my heart bipass op 7 months ago as I haven’t seen my surgeon since the day before the op & had only a phone consult with his registrar after 6 months. I was with the GP for 40 minutes. Can’t ask for much more! The other patients in the waiting room weren’t too happy though 🤭 The surgery operates a call back system from the on duty Dr usually within a couple of hours. I rarely have to wait long to speak to the receptionist so I think we are all very satisfied with the service they give.

A recent message from my surgery tells me they provided 76,913 appointments ( ~ 9 consultations per patient per year on average) last year.
We have two new GPs starting this month.

We don’t have home visits at all, never have since we were here early 1970s. We also have to pay. The NHS, despite its failings, is a good service and I wish we had it here.

I phoned today for an appointment and got one. It was with a most helpful and competent paramedic who's part of the team.

My Dad's full of cold at the moment. His care team manager rang his surgery asking for a phone appointment and they insisted he be seen face-to-face!
So I took him down and he was prescribed antibiotics for a rattly chest.
No complaints from us.

Aged about 45 I caught chicken pox from my husband who had shingles. I also got the flu for the first time ever so was quite ill. When I requested a home visit all I can remember was someone laughing. Nobody came.

In my opinion all GP surgeries should have the same means of booking/cancelling appointments and patients should be made aware of how to use them, wherever they live. Our surgery has changed its online system several times, but now has PATCHS. I had a worrying spot on my scalp recently that wasn’t going, so tried it out. Instead of hanging on the phone from 8am I typed in details of it at 9.30, uploaded a photo, and received a call an hour later asking me to go in later that day, when I was reassured it was nothing to worry about. A great service, but I only found out about it from the surgery website and registering was a bit fiddly. If more of us could use an online system though, it would leave the phone service free for those who can’t, for whatever reason.

Funnily enough, when I got to the surgery I was the only patient and my doctor the only visible member of the team (not even a receptionist on duty). It was eerily quiet. They do a lot of phone appointments though.

I am disappointed with my (has always been very good) surgery, because until recently I could make an appointment to speak to my GP, or a nurse practitioner, online using the NHS app. Okay, it was usually about a week to two weeks away, so I used it for none urgent, but necessary consultations. It was a phone consultation but that was okay. Suddenly that facility has been removed and there is simply a message saying ring the surgery for an appointment.
I have no idea why this has been changed.