Dr's phone calls when you work

This is a dreadful way to treat people. Totally unreasonable. GPs shouldn’t be able to operate like this. Why we put up with it as a country I do not know but we shouldn’t.

Ours is also great. We’re so lucky. Phone up pretty much any time, usually no wait to speak to receptionist who can deal with things like repeat prescriptions, routine appointments etc. Or request a doctor phones you back. Normally they do within an hour. Deal with issue over phone or make appointment for you to come in.

BUT I live in a rural area with a low population. I’ve lived in a city before and it was a different story!

Clearly we have not enough doctors and too many people. I don’t know what can be done, but the current system is failing many. My friend is fortunate to be able to afford to get a private GP as it was just impossible to even get through to her GP when she had a terrible chest infection with a history of pneumonia. Presumably the next step would be A&E, possibly hospital admission as she got progressively worse, rather than an immediate antibiotics and steroid prescription on day 1 sorting her out!

Mine is great. Fill in an ask my GP form any time from 7:30 onwards. You can specify how you want them to contact you, i.e phone/email/f2f appointment and your availability for a phone call. Last time I completed one at 7:30 saying phonecall anytime as I was off sick, and they rang me within an hour.

Sad that it's such a postcode lottery

I am aware of that, yes. I'm not an idiot, in spite of your implying that I am.

And no, because the surgeries open two hours after I leave for work. And if you go in to speak to someone, they tell you to call to book.

But are you aware that you are not the only patient?

Also, can you go into your surgery and speak to someone at reception?

@Hateam we used to have a big book on the desk. It didn’t magically mean there were gaps though.
But tell me, if 500 people have got in before you, the next gap might not be for several weeks. How will you fix that problem?

I try to schedule my GP appointments on days where I wfh. Fortunately, I’m quite flexible with my job so can fit an appointment if needs be as I only live a 10 minute walk away from the surgery and can just use my lunch break. However if I didn’t wfh, it would be very difficult.

And having to ring at 0830 when I start work and then multiple options making you jump through hoops and holding for ages

However I can get appointments

I hate when they cancel an appointment that has been booked weeks in advance to meet the limited availability of the patient (DH working day is 9am to 8pm with variable break times and durations plus often a couple of hours on a Saturday morning) and then don’t have any alternatives to offer. In this scenario, it was for a blood test and, despite trying to get an appointment up to 5 weeks in advance, they had nothing to offer until the Dr put him on a Saturday morning list; 2 days before the appointment they sent a text saying your appointment has been cancelled please reschedule. Went in with his schedule for the following 5 weeks and they had nothing available when he had a long enough break to go there, wait, be seen and get home before he was due back at work. So, a month after he should have had the blood tests, he doesn’t even have an appointment - guess we’ll wait for the GP or diabetic nurse to ring and moan that he hasn’t had the required blood tests for them to monitor his condition (despite not giving any information when they told him he is T2 diabetic just to take the meds they had prescribed and someone would be in touch - which took from February to July!)

I think my receptionist would eat me alive! She's rather self righteous and would tell them to call back later😳

I read the last 2, I'm not scrolling back through looking for others I have other things to do.

What do you think then? People who work shouldn't get health care? Should take days off sick, potentially lose their jobs because they have an ear infection or something? Go days without washing in case their phone rings while they shower?

We physically cannot be available 24/7 for days on end. A new system needs to be established. As another pp said, it needs multiple access points. Not just one, ring at 8am every day and pray they phone back at a time you can answer.

Even if they say they'll call between 10 and 12, a 2 hour time window would work.

What was wrong with the old system? Where you ring up and make an appointment in advance for non urgent and keep a couple of slots per day for same day emergencies.

If its that the surgery is serving too many people then they need to stop taking on patients that they don't have resources for. We need more doctors and more surgeries. I don't have a suggestion on how to achieve that because it isn't my job. Its the job of the people running this country. Take it to them.

I will get seen however I can, my priority is my own health. Not going to feel bad about that.

How can you expect people to take days on end off work to wait for a phone call?

I'm a teacher, I'd ask the TA to step in whilst I take the call, have done it before when DC's school have phoned.

Who will read the online forms? Do you want them read by an administrator with limited medical knowledge? Or a GP, who would therefore not be able to see patients, because they’d be reading forms?

In the first instance, an administrator. I've been on hold for 30 minutes today because part of my repeat prescription has vanished from the ordering system. I don't need a doctor, necessarily - if I could have filled in a form, that would have wasted less of my time.

What if you specify you want a call at 2pm, and 50 other people also want a call at 2pm? What if the person whose call was at 1.45pm has recently been diagnosed with cancer, and is distraught, can’t stop crying - should the GP cut them off mid sentence, because they have to call you at 2pm?

Well clearly you wouldn't say "2pm or bust". As it happens, I'm free all day today but this time next week, I'll be free between 10 and 11 and then 12.30 til 2, and after 3.45. Any of those times would work.

My original question wasn’t “what do YOU want”. My question to everyone was “how would you set up a system that worked for everyone”

It has to have multiple access points. My practice has one - the phone. It simply doesn't work effectively.

Our surgery introduced a”Total Triage” system earlier this year and, whenever it comes to filling in the form online, I send feedback that it’s been relatively well designed if you have an urgent need for an appointment but not if you need referral to other services, have a chronic condition or something they’ve not considered such as possible neurodiversity in children. Then you have to choose the closest option and hope someone actually reads the free text box!

Earlier this year I had a recurrent issue with a chest drain site from over a year ago which kept opening up and randomly and looked dusky under the skin - turned out to be retained purse string suture material; there was no option for post surgical complications which was the logical choice; the nearest option was bleeding or rashes which was nothing like it.

They have been told numerous times that there should be the option of filling in a form or calling up and booking an appointment but they claim no one ever gives any negative feedback - despite the local Facebook groups being full of people complaining about the system!

@MrsHamlet
Who will read the online forms? Do you want them read by an administrator with limited medical knowledge? Or a GP, who would therefore not be able to see patients, because they’d be reading forms ?
What if you specify you want a call at 2pm, and 50 other people also want a call at 2pm? What if the person whose call was at 1.45pm has recently been diagnosed with cancer, and is distraught, can’t stop crying - should the GP cut them off mid sentence, because they have to call you at 2pm?

My original question wasn’t “what do YOU want”. My question to everyone was “how would you set up a system that worked for everyone”.

@Balloonhearts can you read my posts on this thread please? You might learn something.

I'd like an online triage system, please, so that I can fill it in at a time convenient to me.
I'd like to be able to specify when I'm available to take a call.
I'd like "late night" ie after 5pm appointments to be available.

and that’s the problem. Unless the demand (ie population) reduces, or supply (number of doctors) increases, there is no system that works for everyone.

Tell them really nicely not to worry, it's not their fault the system doesn't work and that you will just attend A&E and explain that they won't see you because you can't be free to answer every second of the day for several days.

An appointment is miraculously found. Also works saying that you will call 111 and tell them the same.

There’s research on what systems work best for different populations, and some experts who you can call in to work out how to improve things for a specific surgery, like these people https://www.pcc-cic.org.uk/practice-support/

Not all practices will have the money or the headspace to want to do this, of course.

I said that to her and I think she wrote to complain to the GP, no idea what happened after that.
Their initial solution was that she goes in person to make an appointment and waits there for a triage slot some time later in the day, which they thought was very generous.
Surgery said they’d never had any complaints before from people who couldn’t use a phone. Apparently they expect people in this situation to get their daughters to take the call for them, or a trusted neighbour. But no one should be expected to divulge confidential medical information to a relative or neighbour just because they can’t use a phone!
Unfortunately too many people accept conditions like this unquestioningly, particularly if they are old. Guess the surgery don’t have any people in their 20s or 30s who are deaf and whose daughters may be only 7 years old… 😡

Mine is so odd, I am lucky as I can take a call during work time but it is nigh on impossible to use the online system as it only recognises very simple things like, rash, acne etc. If it is anything more complex like my log term condition has fallen up etc the computer says no. It is a way of making people go private and I have a few private GPs opening near me, presumably staffed by the GPs who were trained by the NHS