Dr's phone calls when you work

A drop in at some point either early or late, where if you are there within the timeframe, your seen.
Econsult available all the time, granted it wont be looked at until 9am or whenever, but still can fill one out whenever.
Dont take on so many patients, just because a new estate is built does not mean the only surgery in the village HAS to take on the entire population.

If its true that all the surgeries have tried different systems, I am amazed that they all tried the exact same systems within weeks of each other.

It's annoying. But you're not the only person who needs to speak to your gp, so you have to be slotted in. You could try your local urgent care if you have one after work. Or, like I said, your pharmacy. But I'd say if something needs your GPS attention that day, you probably should take a day off any way.

If you wake up with a rash you think requires medical attention, you take a day off to visit/call the dr. Or go to a pharmacy, the same as anyone else who isn't a teacher and.who can't take a call in work. It's annoying as a lot of people will loose a days pay. But if you're poorly, your health has to come first.

I am a teacher too, and we are not allowed to use our phones in school! It’s a ridiculous situation. So stressful.

Surely, if its none urgent, like an annual check up, teachers can arrange this during their holidays? Teachers have more opportunity than most. And if its urgent, would your head teacher not allow you time off?
If I want a routine appointment, or non urgent, I message and ask.for a date I can attend. They might call, if I miss that, they message with the date and time. If the Dr needs to chat, they message with a time. I say yay or nay and they call. If miss it (if theyr1e running late and im working etc), they call again, generally a few hours later.
Overall, I'd rather our system than one we pay vast amounts to use.

If it's anything like my doctors new system, if you can't book online and try to go in on person, all the receptionist will do is fill in the form for you. They absolutely will not book you an appointment no matter if urgent or routine. Everything must go via the online form only.

My doctors only do one type of request now. An online form. It's irrelevant if it's urgent or not. They will decide the urgency of when they call you back. You CANNOT book anything in advance unless you've spoken to a doctor and it's an ongoing issue. I have tried writing in the form that this is not urgent and can you please call me on a Wednesday as I'm off all day. I don't mind waiting for a few weeks. And then I'll get a text saying someone will call you on Friday. And that's it. No time. Ignored my request for a specific day.
Obviously if I had an actual urgent problem I'd likely be off sick anyway so it wouldn't be an issue. But how am i meant to ever speak to a doctor for a non urgent issue? It's ridiculous to lose an entire day's pay when I'm happy to wait as long as it takes if I can just either get a call on a day I'm off or at least a rough time for the call. If they can at least tell me it'll be between 10 and 11 I can rearrange those patients to a different time. Rather than cancelling the entire day.
A while back my doctors used to be phone at 8am on the day and someone would call you that day. So I would wait for my day off and call then. But I can't do that now. And you cannot specify a day even if it's not urgent. You cannot book on the phone. The recorded message on the phone says anyone who cannot book online themselves can call.... but the receptionist will fill out the online form for them. They will not book there and then. Absolutely every issue must go via the online form.

Could you not go in in person to book it?

@Mukey well that seems obvious, if you work in a role where you absolutely can't take a phone call through the work day, and you're requesting an urgent same day call then you'll need to take a days leave.

Exactly. This can still only work for those in office type jobs. What about my job @SleepyRich ? Hygienist? Firstly i can't wear a watch due to cross infection and secondly I can't just down tools half way through an appointment and leave the surgery. It just cannot happen no matter how understanding my boss is.
As it stands my only way to see a doctor is to take an entire day off sick short notice. Inconveniencing an entire day's worth of my patients who have also arranged a day off work etc to come and see me. (And because I'm self employed I lose a whole days pay as well).

It would be really sensible for an option where you texted an appointment window/they put you at the end of the day etc - I would like to think most surgeries would try to accommodate this.

One thing that can make the current situation work is a smart watch. Allowed by employers everywhere and it can alert you to incoming call discretely - you just have to step out to take the call. Ultimately if your employer is sensible they can't be too against this - everyone knows it's not possible to demand a GP call at a set time, but also you can't neglect your health by not seeking assessment. The alternative would be taking a sick day to be able to take the call.

No. As who would look after the class while you took the call. And you obviously wouldn't speak about personal medical matters in front of children.

Several schools I've worked at would rip you to shreds for getting calls. One wouldn't even tell a colleague her child was ill and their school had rang.
And people wonder why teachers leave.

Hahaha. Lunch hour. Lunch 30 mins but more like 20 mins.

I'm in school so I've been off for the holidays. I have had a medical review today with the doctor. The last possible day it could be as its just not possible in term time to ring at 8am to join the queueing system for an appointment where you have no idea what time the doctor will ring you back.
I have been trying to make this appointment for the last 6 weeks.

Every routine appointment needs meticulous planning and I hope to God I never actually get ill.

If they are going to charge for certain things, most of us might as well go private.

I've seen private drs surgeries near me charging like £40 for a consult. At the time of my choosing even if that's 8pm. If the NHS gp is going to charge anything near that then I'll be going private for as much as I can.

@Makingchocolatecake I have to go through that rigmarole for a routine non-urgent appointment. There is no way on the e-consult form to differentiate between the two!

edited for spelling mistake!

My surgery is rubbish as well. Call at 8am and wait, if by some chance you’re lucky and someone answers the phone you’ll be told a GP will ring between 9-6. I do work from home but much of my day is taken up with teams calls and we have to have cameras on and be 100% present. If I had an idea of time, I could plan my day around it. I can’t keep an entire working day free for a 5 minute phone call.

I live on the East Sussex coast and all calls to my GP go to a call centre in Manchester!

Parcels go to a pickup point and the gas man at least gives you a time window.

I don't use companies that won't give a narrower time window and explain that I work. Most either arrange for on my day off or give a slot. But GPs aren't open weekends either.

So you physically cannot go on your day off and can't just not go to work until they ring you, especially when they won't even say if it will be today or tomorrow. What do you do, take the whole week?

You can take time off for medical appointments but I think its taking the piss to take 2 days off for the sake of a 15 minute phone call that could come at any time.

Well that issue applies to everyone in every job doesn’t it? If you work all day, how do you wait for the boiler man to come, or the parcel to arrive, or go to parents evening, or see a solicitor etc. It’s not just GPs that work those same hours. Anyway, all of my friends who aren’t doctors are able to take time off work for medical appointments , rather than using annual leave.

Today I had a BT engineer come round. I was given a window of 11am - 5pm. I had to basically be in all day. No one ever questions that sort of thing. You’d never get a BT engineer coming at 8pm on a Tuesday because that’s when you got home.

There seems to be an expectation that General Practice (which is NOT A&E) should be fully 100% flexible, and offer appointments to suit everyone, regardless of what their preferred hours are. Why is that?