Dr's phone calls when you work

OK, everyone who is not happy (most posters) - imagine you are now the practice manager, and it is entirely up to you how you manage appointments. Tell me what you’d do.
I’m not being provocative, I’m genuinely interested.
Bear in my you have 1 GP for each 2300 patients, and they range from newborns to 100 year olds, working people and not working people, healthy people and terminally ill people, and so on.
What system would you establish that meets everyone’s needs?

Strangely, people have different circumstances to you and your surgery.

It's ran for the convenience of the medics, not the patients.

Tip: when you log onto the NHS app, under 'appointments' it will often show you the time slot you've been booked into with the clinician. They won't actively tell you as it might be earlier or later and they prefer the flexibility, but it'll be on there. Whenever they say it'll be some time today now I just go online and can see it's at 10am or 2pm or whatever so at least I have a rough idea.

If you were in my class, I'd sit you next to a TA.

😂😂😂

You would need to fill out a consent form and get your partners agreement that they gave permission for you to discuss medical matters on their behalf.
We have this in place .

Patients would need to give consent for this. That's a whole new level of pita!

It's not effective for anyone regardless of age or employment status.
Missed call because of numerous scenarios back to the beginning.
The very nature of a medical call is also something that most of us would rather not have to do in a public situation.

Just ask a family member or friend to make the appointment.

Funnily enough I don't especially want to get my mum - who lives hundreds of miles away - or my best friend to call and discuss my worryingly lumpy breast with the receptionist at my surgery. And not everyone has a partner.

😂😂😂 you'll look petty af doing that.

How do you think people cope if they need to pee at 8am and they're working? wet themselves?

Just ask a family member or friend to make the appointment.

I have anxiety, I don't phone up anyone ever. My GP has an online booking system because it's not 1991, but before they did my partner called.

For us the website opens at 6am. I enter in details and request an email response. This is always ignored and the doctor will ring me which I don't answer (driving or at work), they don't email (so I don't know why it's an option) but if I log back onto the website there will be a note saying they rang, couldn't get hold or me and this inquiry will be closed if I don't respond within an hour or two. At this point I often find that I CAN have an online chat with the doctor/nurse/whoever and get to where I need to be. But sometimes the call has been closed.

Annoyingly the website 'closes' when too many people have logged on it and it closes between 4pm and 6am so I can't put in a non urgent request for info when it occurs to me in the middle of the night.

Mine allows us to list all the times you're not available for phone calls.

Our GP's lines don't open until 8:30. Ridiculous. Not that you can get through ... and you'll be 37th in the queue at 8:30.25....

I have this issue too. One time when I did an econsult I had a massive rant about it and said I didn't appreciate being lectured by reception staff when I genuinely can't pick up the phone. They've changed the system now so you can add a time it's best for them to call.

I often wonder how GPs and health are staff themselves get appts as they must be in the same situation!

My GP is a ring at 8 and by the time you get through all appointments are gone. They do have e-consult where they call back usually within a few days, but I'm also a teacher so often miss the call and have to start the whole process again. I just wish you could still book appointments in advance. I have two kids, so I dread anyone needing an appointment.

At my surgery you can only put an e consult in at certain times (funnily enough also after 8am M-F) and once they've received a certain number they won't take anymore.

The actual medical staff at my practice are great but trying to get to see them is a nightmare.

I have an option of text or phone call

I teach too. Phone lines open at 8am (no online booking system) so I can usually speak to a receptionist before 8.30. If I can’t I email the cover team and ask to be covered P1 - it’s basically got to the point where we staff say we need cover P1 or we take the whole day off. My surgery does note I’m a teacher and I am then given a phone consult for after school. I realised I’m lucky. I have colleagues who end up going to out of hours clinics on their weekends as they can never get an appointment.

Teacher here too OP. My doctor is ace but never is on time- often 90m behind so I have to ask for after school.

Mine used to be call at half 8 and you'd have to keep trying until you connected- it was impossible when trying to do school runs at the same time- luckily they've now changed to an online booking system and it's great- you can request a face to face appointmetn or if it's something simple a doctor comes back on the app- I managed to arrange blood tests I needed in 10 minutes.
It leaves the phone lines free for people who arent' able to book online.

YANBU

I work with the public and in the past my line manager has offered to cover me at say '10.30am' when the call is due.

However, the call is often over an hour late and sometimes she's in a meeting by then.

I also sat next to a woman on a crowded train, who kept telling the doctor she couldn't answer personal questions!

Our form can be completed from 6am
We can put times where we aren't available and we get a message which allows us to pick a time for an appointment or given a time for a phone call. They have always been accommodating of times I have said I couldn't do. It's much better than the old system of calling at 8 with our previous surgery I phoned at 8.00.45 and already all the spots in the phone queue by the time there was spots in the engaged queue there were no appointments. I have filled in our form at 10am with my daughter and had an appointment that afternoon.
My old GP surgery operated a stay and wait system where you only got an appointment if you spent the morning or afternoon sat for 2+h in the GP surgery. It was a campus surgery but didn't have a separate process for students and people that were in employment. It was so infuriating!

@ResisterOfTwaddleRex I’ve been a GP for over 25 years, and trust me, there is no complacency and presumption of superiority in the NHS. It is basically a service that has struggled (for as long as I can remember) to meet demand on a limited budget.

As a GP I have lost count of the number of appointment regimes we have tried, in an attempt to meet demand. We’ve had all pre-bookable appts, all “on day” appts, mixture of appts, telephone triage, mix of phone and face-to-face appts, early morning appts, late evening appts, weekend appts, mix of routine/urgent appts, duty doctor emergency appts and so on. Literally every possible permutation and combination has been tried. And you know what - in nearly 3 decades we still haven’t managed to keep everyone happy. We’ve built an extension and employed more doctors but it’s still not enough. We offer more appts now than we ever did, and still people are having to wait longer than they want. Meanwhile, housing estates are popping in our area, new care homes opening - the population is rising and we simply can’t keep up.

It’s nothing to do with flexibility or lack of it. It’s basic maths. Supply and demand. Try pouring 2 pints of water into a 1 pint jug. That’s what the NHS is up against.

I remember being at school in the morning and bleeding in my first pregnancy. Obviously no point ringing a doctor but didn’t know what to do then and trying to get through. I remember the stress of the phones not opening until 8:30 and the kids come in at 8:45. Managed to make an appointment just in time - having to explain on the phone what was happening when adults and breakfast club kids always popping in and out of the classroom!
Then missing the call as they could only call at a random time and I was with my class. I miscarried that night anyway so all pointless in the end and the doctor couldn’t have done anything but I remember being SO stressed at not just being able to book a time slot easily.