Doctor’s appointment.

Things have changed so much at our surgery too, and not for the better. Whatever do people do if they don’t have access to the internet and have nobody to help them? There must be many older people in that position.

I know it seems silly that you couldn’t make an appointment while you were in the surgery anyway and they were not busy., Although I do go online for repeat prescriptions, I have not yet tried to book an appointment online. Personally, I would either ring the Surgery and book an appointment or go over and book it at Reception. The girls in your surgery are probably quite ‘lazy’

Germanshepherdsmum

Things have changed so much at our surgery too, and not for the better. Whatever do people do if they don’t have access to the internet and have nobody to help them? There must be many older people in that position.

I find it very distressing that the use of the internet, meant to be helpful, can be so difficult/waste so much time faffing with emails, opening accounts, etc. Surely phones still exist?

I do all sorts of things on computer, but sometimes after lengthy 'assistance' faff - seems counterproductive to me.

It seems to be a total postcode lottery as regards the quality of service available from the NHS in general, including GP surgeries. We've been very lucky here on Tyneside with our surgery, where we can still make an appointment via telephone, although computer-based methods are also available. DH and I are both "at risk", with various long term health problems, and despite Covid pressures, have always received good service across the board, other than having the odd routine hospital check-up delayed because of lengthy waiting lists. No complaints though, as we're aware that there are many others who have not been as lucky as we have, some of who are very ill.

I think it was on Gransnet that I read recently, of someone being told at the GP's reception desk, appointments could only be made by phone. The lady posted that she opened the door, rang the surgery and made her appointment. Then she waved goodbye to the receptionist who took the call!

We can only make appointments by phone, and that's after a lengthy wait listening to the recorded message letting you know about all the other places you could go to instead of the surgery. You could go to a pharmacist, to A&E, to one of their other treatment centres, to an out of hours clinic....It just seems as if they want to put people off going.
When you do finally get an appointment, you need to wear a mask. Even the local hospital have stopped insisting on them now.

Antonia

We can only make appointments by phone, and that's after a lengthy wait listening to the recorded message letting you know about all the other places you could go to instead of the surgery. You could go to a pharmacist, to A&E, to one of their other treatment centres, to an out of hours clinic....It just seems as if they want to put people off going.
When you do finally get an appointment, you need to wear a mask. Even the local hospital have stopped insisting on them now.

Ha ha, we get all that plus “we are experiencing an unprecedented number of call”, then we hear about their triage system, then that calls may be monitored. Oh and at the beginning we are told if it’s an emergency we are to hang up and dial 999. At the end of all that, yesterday I then got told I was 14th in a queue. Why don’t they START by telling you where you are in the queue?

Everything is going online here in France. Its no longer possible to get help with official things at the Prefectures in the main. There are moves being made to try and reverse some of this as it's seen as discriminatory. There are many people who do not use the Internet etc for various reasons. Fortunately our Doctors have not gone down this route and we can still phone for an appointment which is usually available within a day or two.

It begs the question what would happen if someone with no internet access needed an appointment? I have a friend with learning disabilities and several elderly relatives who aren’t able to do this!

Nandalot

Firstly, I must state that my surgery are very good but I was irritated over the past couple of days about the inability to arrange an appointment except by the internet. I was at the surgery for a routine blood test yesterday and the doctor has asked that I make an appointment for a few days later. There was no queue at reception but instead of being able to book the appointment in person then, I was told I had to book it online. I have had to set up a special email for my doctor’s account as I usually share my DH’s and he uses it for his account. I had to fill out a form and they then sent me a link to my email to make the appointment.
OK. I see this might make admin. in some cases quicker, but this seems rather unnecessary when I was there, there was no queue and it took two receptionists to tell me to use the internet. The third was busy. Surely, common sense can dictate what is appropriate and when. I will be quite happy to use the system at any other time but thought this was a case when it saved no one any time as someone still had to deal with my request form.

Ridiculous, but I have an even better one than that!

My friend unfortunately has to use the practice in my town, whereas when I moved here, I was still able to stay with my surgery, which last year was the 13th best in the UK, and I know I am very lucky!

He went to the surgery to collect some medication for his wife, and whilst there asked to book an appointment. He was told that he could only do that by calling in. He literally had to go outside and call into the surgery, only to watch the same receptionist pick up the phone to book his appointment ... he went back in and complained!

Primrose53

Antonia

We can only make appointments by phone, and that's after a lengthy wait listening to the recorded message letting you know about all the other places you could go to instead of the surgery. You could go to a pharmacist, to A&E, to one of their other treatment centres, to an out of hours clinic....It just seems as if they want to put people off going.
When you do finally get an appointment, you need to wear a mask. Even the local hospital have stopped insisting on them now.

Ha ha, we get all that plus “we are experiencing an unprecedented number of call”, then we hear about their triage system, then that calls may be monitored. Oh and at the beginning we are told if it’s an emergency we are to hang up and dial 999. At the end of all that, yesterday I then got told I was 14th in a queue. Why don’t they START by telling you where you are in the queue?

Only in the last year have we had to put up with a recorded message which is irritating, but short, none of the nonsense most people have to put up with! We are NEVER put in a queue, someone answers within a few rings - neither have we ever had the 8am wait ... beggars belief the stuff most people have to put up with, to still not get an appointment!

However, in the almost 18 years that I have been with my surgery, I have never felt so let down by them in my hour of need - NOT my GP who is wonderful. Up until recently I have been able to go in for injections of pain relief, anti-nausea injections, and get home visits (I am medically very complicated), to keep me out of hospital, but after my daughter died in November, as my GP was not in that day, some Locum insisted that I go in as he was very concerned about my MH - he did little really but give me some phone numbers/online links (I would never pick up the phone anyway) and referred me to the surgery's MH nurse, and the Social Prescriber - well 6 months on I am still waiting, and things aren't getting any better for me, and will be bringing it up at the Patient Participation Group next week, such a shame as they are really letting the side down ....

He went to the surgery to collect some medication for his wife, and whilst there asked to book an appointment. He was told that he could only do that by calling in. He literally had to go outside and call into the surgery, only to watch the same receptionist pick up the phone to book his appointment ... he went back in and complained!

I’ve told the tale before of how my husband had had a letter telling him to make an appointment at the asthma clinic. He went round to Reception after he’d had his flu jab at the GP’s. He could see the receptionist through the glass door, but was told firmly over the intercom that he couldn’t go in, and couldn’t make an appointment over the intercom, only by phone. Even when he explained that he didn’t have his mobile with him, he was waved away to go home and spend half an hour on the phone getting through to the same receptionist.

We have to book online, trouble is it’s always switched off with a message to log on again next day. Try again next day, same message. On and on it goes. Our surgery was excellent but not any more,

Unfortunately. I can recognise so many of these incidents! Our practice has been dreadful throughout the pandemic and any hopes we had of a post Covid improvement have been dashed. We also suffer from the dread recorded message - I think parts of it have been bought off the shelf as it states "one of our agents will be with you shortly". Agents? I'm not calling the bank, an insurance company or a catalogue! The other phrase that really, really annoys me is "please be prepared to answer questions in order for our trained care navigators to direct you ........" What on earth is a care navigator? What's wrong with receptionist or staff? Grrr

“Care Navigator”, that’s a new one on me! I hope our surgery doesn’t hear that one or they will be using it. 🤣

Recently I took my Dad for a routine blood test and asked the nurse to look at something else while we were there. (His carers had asked me to mention it).

The nurse and her colleague were quite happy to look, and said he needed to see a GP.
Easy for them to say...

Well, finally, after many false starts, and setting an alarm on my phone at the designated time to ring for a non-urgent appointment, and reassuring Dad that I hadn't forgotten, I managed to book an appointment... six weeks later 🤦

The lovely young GP-in-training we saw duly prescribed some cream and asked to see Dad in two weeks time.
Easy for him to say...

I said I would do my best, and explained the rigmarole involved in actually booking that appointment in the first place 😬

"Oh. Well would you like me to book you in now?" he offered.
So, lo and behold, he did just that 😃

(I'm kind of still waiting for the call to say "that's not allowed" and I have to join the normal telephone scramble queue... 🤣)

Seriously though, it's not acceptable.
When I was a GP receptionist (over 40 years ago) it was always impressed on us, by the senior partner, that GPs were legally obliged to see a patient within 24 hours if they requested.
If a patient insisted we always had to allow them to come and wait until the end of surgery and they would be seen then.
If they needed a follow-up appointment we always booked it on their way out.

Reception staff these days must waste so much time explaining and administering this ridiculous system.
It's not of their doing and I do feel sorry for them, there can't be much job satisfaction in it these days 😕

I had a similar situation (years ago) of seeing the GP - then trying to book a follow up at reception. There was a (long) queue and, having waited in it, I was told to book by internet or phone.

I stood my ground, got my mobile out - and phoned - while apologising to those behind me. It was quite bizarre, speaking to the person in front of me - on my mobile.

Still, it worked and the people queueing were very good humoured about it. I think the reception staff believe the system is crazy, too!

OMG! It's appalling and doesn't help anyone
I haven't tried to make an appointment at the surgery but when I phone ,(after 10am if not urgent) the duty doctor will call back the same day
If I want to talk to a named doctor and it's non urgent, there's a wait of 10days or so. I haven't seen a doctor face to face for over 2 years.

our surgery had a new person at the desk, she was not what you call people friendly, i called for an appointment at the doctors request, she said go online, i said no and told her to explain to the doctor why i was not making an appointment, i am almost 60 and refuse to be told by a silly little girl with no people skills that i need to go online rather than her tapping a few keys on her computer. i have been asked by other places to go online, i just tell i don't have a computer or a mobile.

Rather than taking it out on the receptionist, who was just doing her job, you need to speak to the practice manager.

Your experience sounds ridiculous Nandalot our surgery will book you in if you pop in for an appointment common sense still prevails fortunately. Not everyone has access to the Internet and even if they have it they still may be unable to navigate online bookings.
The last time I called our surgery I was given a phone appointment that morning and saw the Dr by lunchtime. Must admit they were probably surprised to hear from me I go very rarely it had been around 10 years since my previous appointment.

Something, I dont know what exactly[not sure it is just a case of money], has been put before caring about people.
I dont think it is just in relation to health.

My surgery is pretty good, book by telephone and if necessary, get a callback same day from the doctor(I totally agree about the long long message before you get put through to the receptionist!! 🤷‍♀️)
However, I do like to see my own doctor and have an appointment with him in five weeks time, it’s a non-urgent appointment
If I had wanted to see someone on the day I would have received a phone call and then if necessary I could’ve seen the same day Doctor so all in all I’m pretty please with my surgery in North Devon..

Ours has just changed to internet booking, and it is a million times better than the previous system where everyone phoned at 8.00 (when many people are on the way to work) for the appointment raffle. The bookings are triaged and the receptionist either texts or calls you back. There is, apparently, something in place for those who can't use the internet, but the assumption is that if you can, you will, which seems fair enough to me.

I'm sure that there were complaints when systems moved to making appointments instead of just turning up and sitting in the waiting room. Change can be difficult, but sometimes it is for the best. The triage system will weed out those who don't need an appointment to free up time for those who do, and not having possibly infectious people in the waiting room will be good for those with compromised immune systems.

I agree that making people phone in in front of the receptionist is ridiculous though. If the receptionist is making the appointment it makes no difference whether it is in person or over the phone. I suppose they are trying to discourage those who would try to override the telephone queue by walking to the surgery if they live nearby, and taking the advantage over those who are too far away or too ill to do the same. Some discretion would make sense though - I would struggle to ask someone standing in front of me to use a phone, particularly if I knew they were there for an unconnected reason.