To not understand how SystmConnect gives more GP appointments if they’re having to triage appointment requests on top of seeing patients

Another positive view of the new system from me. The questions can be a bit annoying if your issue isn't anything that fits the right box to tick. But otherwise I have found it much easier to get a response.

I hated the previous "ring at 8 and sit in a queue for 40.mins." It was difficult to manage with school runs and work for us, and totally unfair on anyone who absolutely can't make calls from work like nurses or bus drivers.

My surgery has AskmyGP

The system itself is fine, but for example up until recently they were telling adults with suspected ear infections to go to a pharmacy when pharmacies aren't in fact permitted to see this - pharmacies can only diagnose/prescribe for ear infection in under 18s.

I found this out the hard way and wound up at out of hours due to incredible pain after trying four pharmacies and eventually being told that the funding for pharmacy first didn't cover ear infections in adults and so no matter how many pharmacies I drove round none of them would see me.

My GP practice did then amend what they say on askMyGP, I didn't complain but the person I saw at Minor Injuries asked my GP practice and made clear he was not impressed.

My surgery has AskMyGp and I love it. No more struggles to get through on a line that's permanently engaged, I just type out what the issue is (you can add photos too) and they respond accordingly. As others have said you can request face to face or call back or whatever. We have never had a problem being seen when we need to be - although that's obviously just us being lucky there's a good surgery at the end of the process.

Yes, you get given options before you fill the form out.

The advice they give might well direct you to see a pharmacist or A&E or whatever, but only based on the information you submit on the form to be reviewed by a human who is giving you their clinical opinion.

Like any system it depends on the surgery at the other end really. These can be really decent platforms that are head and shoulders above phoning at 8 hoping to get an appointment after waiting on hold for an hour and having to give an outline to the receptionist; but if the surgery at the other end has inadequate staffing to properly deal with the forms and/or offer decent level of appointments then yeah it sucks.

This is the info from eConsult on my GP website. So it does say you might be redirected or it may send it to the surgery.

Honestly I want all your GP surgeries, mine is totally shit.

Ok, I concede I may have misunderstood the steps my husband went through, but the fact remains he had a real difficulty getting a f2f appointment.

I still think it is a dreadful system. Perhaps made more dreadful by my surgery.

It works very well for us. The thing that I've noticed most is that the GPs are never running late these days, presumably because there is less need for F2F appointments and many things can be done via phone/messaging apps.

But that's untrue. E Consult doesn't redirect you based on anything you've written - it just collects info for a human to read, assess and act on.

It's not 111 online, that's totally unrelated to your GP practice.

I think the system may be more effective but as someone who works in secondaryI have noticed decline in the quality of referrals and lack of continuity of care. A lot doctors have not seen the patient or had any meaningful or constructive contact before making the referrals.

I've just done this for a potentially dodgy mole. I thought it was great! I asked Dr Google which features are diagnostic so I'd know the relevant info, provided that along with a photo, got a text back telling me no immediate concern but follow up if changes. Massive timesaver for both GP and me.

On my doctors system, you can say how you'd prefer to be seen to (phone/ email/ in person) and there's space to explain

It saves time because there are lots of things a GP can respond to in 2 mins rather than use a 10 min appointment time. My son had a few odd spots across his back, sent GP a pic and they diagnosed a very common viral infection that clears up on its own. I reckon it took them a couple of minutes at most. Before I would have taken a 10 min appointment and also had to take child out of school for it and I would miss work. I think this system is so much better. When it’s been something more serious, I’ve had a call to book a same day appointment

Honestly it is such a faff that you just want to give up. You have to answer the questions in the (in)correct manner to even be with a chance of getting a f2f appointment.

I don't understand the love that anyone has for it.

If your issue requires seeing one then you’ll still be able to see one. But if you want to see one and your issue doesn’t actually require an appointment then you won’t. If there are access issues that mean a phone call / text message / email aren’t accessible to you and only face to face communication is accessible to you then you’ll be able to explain that and arrange some adjustments

If there are no receptionists who is going to register new patients.
Send old records back, sort out insurance claims, prescription requests and a thousand other things.

I am not familiar with GP practices but in our specialist service we have two clinicians who have allocated hours throughout the week to do trianges. Triaging reduces the number of inappropriate referrals which, in turn, helps with caseload. As in my example above, triage at the surgery redirected me to a pharmacist who was able to help me the same day, hence I wasn't seen by a GP unnecessarily and they had more time to deal with patients who needed to be seen or, indeed, triaged.

If this is similar to eConsult it works the following ways:

1. It makes you answer a hundred questions and tells you to go to the pharmacy (even if you have already done that)

1. You lose the will to live halfway through the 100 questions so you give up.

1. You can't be bothered to answer 100 questions so just don't bother and either get more sick or turn up at A&E.

Basically it makes it absolutely impossible to see anyone, even for ongoing issues or worrying symptoms.

I just don't bother.

Usually, an appointment would be 10 min and that's the only way to get through to the doctor. Now, often my issues are simple and can be dealt with thrive a quick message which probably takes 1-2 minutes max. So 5 appointments in 10 minutes for simple cases, always more time for admin and more complex cases

Our surgery uses an online system like this and its been great.

They respond incredibly fast and i can always get a face to face appointment for me/the kids same day when i need one.