To think that (GP related)

AmIHumanOrAmIAYeti · 2025-07-25T17:39:24+00:00

if there are 5 surgeries in the area (fairly remote with patchy phone signal) and my appointment can be at any of them (closest 5 mins drive, furthest 30) and all appointments are during working hours, the least they can do is have WiFi so that I can work during the inevitable delay in being seen?

DarkForces · 27/07/2025 10:21

I suspect there's no money to provide public WiFi and they're worried about letting people tap into their private ones as GPs are personally liable for data breaches so could lose every penny if things go wrong due to a choice they've made to let people use it.

Original poster

AmIHumanOrAmIAYeti · 27/07/2025 10:12

MissMoneyFairy · 27/07/2025 10:06

Surely if the surgery have e consult and computerised records they must have WiFi. Can you buy a data bundle and just use your phone.

For the millionth time, THERE IS NO MOBILE SIGNAL AT ALL IN THAT SURGERY.

OP posts:

MissMoneyFairy · 27/07/2025 10:06

Surely if the surgery have e consult and computerised records they must have WiFi. Can you buy a data bundle and just use your phone.

Cutleryclaire · 27/07/2025 10:03

I always take my laptop and work while waiting for appointments, it makes them overrunning a lot less stressful.

But mumsnet is a race to the bottom when it comes to flexible work or wfh, despite it being proven as a great thing for women in general.

Original poster

AmIHumanOrAmIAYeti · 27/07/2025 10:00

I’m in rural-mid Wales. Nearest private GP is at least 90 minutes drive away.

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Original poster

AmIHumanOrAmIAYeti · 27/07/2025 09:56

babasaclover · 27/07/2025 09:41

You are being ridiculous expecting magazines and to be entertained in an NHS doctors surgery - they are on their knees - they won’t be installing WiFi for your convenience.

we have 1 go surgery, you have a choice of 5 - you’re already winning the gp lottery

It’s 5 buildings. Not 5 fully staffed surgeries. Each one is open for 2 days a week.

And when you have symptoms which could indicate something very serious, an 11 week wait to see a GP doesn’t feel much like a lottery win.

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RosesAndHellebores · 27/07/2025 09:43

CakeIsNotAvailable · 27/07/2025 09:15

From your update I'm guessing you're in NI. Can you self-fund a face-to-face private GP appointment? I'm a private GP (elsewhere) and in my clinic you'd have been seen within a day or two of making your initial contact with us, and you'd have had free WiFi and coffee while you waited in our waiting room. Our appointments do still occasionally run late though.

In my part of Surrey, some of the NHS GP services are so woeful that there can be a 10 day wait for an appointment with a private GP. At least, however, the appointments are 20 minutes but the times/clinics are very limited and not necessarily convenient. The private GPs, however, do look up from the computer when you enter the room!

Fortunately I can get an on-line digital consultation through AXA and if further treatment is needed they can get you into a specialist swiftly. Not much good for a chest infection that needs ABs though.

babasaclover · 27/07/2025 09:41

You are being ridiculous expecting magazines and to be entertained in an NHS doctors surgery - they are on their knees - they won’t be installing WiFi for your convenience.

we have 1 go surgery, you have a choice of 5 - you’re already winning the gp lottery

Thunderdcc · 27/07/2025 09:41

AmIHumanOrAmIAYeti · 27/07/2025 08:32

As per the OP, they only offer appts during working hours.

(I have just checked that I didn’t write the OP in Martian to be sure given so many people have missed such simple statements.)

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My favourite post was the one that quoted you saying you were self employed, telling you to book holiday.

I think you are unlucky with your GP (and presumably there is no other option given the rural-ness and chain of 5 surgeries). And as such you're obviously not going to get wifi because that really isn't consistent with the rest of their approach.

I think your only option is to move house and find a new surgery tbh 😅

RosesAndHellebores · 27/07/2025 09:37

Aspanielstolemysanity · 27/07/2025 09:33

I use a mix of public and private. I have had plenty of late private appointments. If the doctor needs more time with a patient they are still going to take it!

I agree, but ime it happens less often, and you are kept informed of the delays and there is an apology.

Also, and relevant to the thread, our local private hospital has good wifi!

Aspanielstolemysanity · 27/07/2025 09:33

I use a mix of public and private. I have had plenty of late private appointments. If the doctor needs more time with a patient they are still going to take it!

Simonjt · 27/07/2025 09:20

RosesAndHellebores · 26/07/2025 22:04

@AmIHumanOrAmIAYeti I agree with you. I find it interesting that there is zero tolerance if a patient is two minutes late but we are supposed to suck up delays of up to an hour. If we had to pay them directly, it wouldn't happen.

It's as much about attitude as busyness.

I used to use a private GP at times, delays were common, the GP isn’t going to cut the consultation short or leave the patient alone while waiting for an ambulance!

KassandraOfSparta · 27/07/2025 09:18

Or Scotland. It does make me laugh when people in other parts of the UK say things like "just get an appointment outside working hours" or "use the NHS wi-fi" or "use the NHS app" or "get a video call with your GP" when my surgery offers none of that.

And I'm in suburban Glasgow, not a secluded Highland glen.

CakeIsNotAvailable · 27/07/2025 09:15

From your update I'm guessing you're in NI. Can you self-fund a face-to-face private GP appointment? I'm a private GP (elsewhere) and in my clinic you'd have been seen within a day or two of making your initial contact with us, and you'd have had free WiFi and coffee while you waited in our waiting room. Our appointments do still occasionally run late though.

Original poster

AmIHumanOrAmIAYeti · 27/07/2025 08:40

Isitreallysohard · 27/07/2025 08:22

OP thinks she should get WiFi when she goes to see a Dr. I'd rather that money is spent on hip replacements. She needs to suck it up. HTH.

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I pay a fortune for private healthcare in order to protect myself from being unable to work. Occasionally I have to use an NHS GP appt to get the appropriate referral. If I needed a hip replacement, my private insurer would cover that saving the NHS enough money to pay for the GP surgery to provide WiFi for patients for the best part of a decade, I’d expect.

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Original poster

AmIHumanOrAmIAYeti · 27/07/2025 08:34

WonderingWanda · 27/07/2025 07:39

You're lucky to be able to get an in person appointment with a time. We have to do the online consultation then if its deemed worthy we get a phone call (2 weeks later) with no specified time just 'Mon am'. I then have to ring the receptionist and explain that as a teacher I can't just have my phone on and leave my class.....so then they will put a note on to say after 3.30.....but that could still be any time. I could be cooking dinner, at sports practice with the kids etc. It's such a ridiculous system.

Please read my posts.

It took an e-consult, an incorrect phone appt and 11 weeks to get to the in person appt.

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Original poster

AmIHumanOrAmIAYeti · 27/07/2025 08:32

W11df10w3r · 27/07/2025 07:39

Make an appointment outside of work hours like those of us who work in schools have to.

As per the OP, they only offer appts during working hours.

(I have just checked that I didn’t write the OP in Martian to be sure given so many people have missed such simple statements.)

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Original poster

AmIHumanOrAmIAYeti · 27/07/2025 08:29

Aspanielstolemysanity · 27/07/2025 03:48

Bring a book to read? Or if you want to be product, being an industry journal or some paperwork. Or just use the time to sit back and think about some element of your work.

I have a chronic condition, needing lots of appointments is a bit source of stress. But I wouldn't really see it as appropriate to have my work laptop out in a doctor's waiting room anyway due to data protection/commercial sensitivity

I didn’t have my laptop. I would have been very happy to be able to catch up with emails on my phone. I didn’t expect a full office to be provided!

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Isitreallysohard · 27/07/2025 08:29

AmIHumanOrAmIAYeti · 27/07/2025 08:27

No other inconvenience? They make it as hard as possible to access appts. Can’t just phone for an appt unless it’s an emergency, have to do an e-consult and wait 48 hours for permission to ring for an appt. Then wait 4 weeks for a phone appt (which they insist is right even when you know it isn’t - eg trying to give my deaf father a phone appt when he needed to be seen for a hernia) with a 4 hour potential window (so you can’t risk taking calls or being distracted for half a day) only for the GP to say you should have been given an in person appt and to ring tomorrow where they tell you (after an hour’s wait and being number 45 in the queue) that you’ll have to wait another 7 weeks for that (and then the scenario that lead to my OP). All so that I can use the private healthcare that I daren’t not have because “urgent” in the part of the UK that I live means very likely 5-7 years of waiting.

I can think of other words than “great”, to be honest.

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Move to America, it's private there and a much higher standard. I bet they have WiFi too 🙂

Original poster

AmIHumanOrAmIAYeti · 27/07/2025 08:27

Barnbrack · 27/07/2025 03:43

Isn't it great you can access that care, free at the point of use, with no other inconvenience than a requirement to travel to the appointment and set aside the time to attend it?

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No other inconvenience? They make it as hard as possible to access appts. Can’t just phone for an appt unless it’s an emergency, have to do an e-consult and wait 48 hours for permission to ring for an appt. Then wait 4 weeks for a phone appt (which they insist is right even when you know it isn’t - eg trying to give my deaf father a phone appt when he needed to be seen for a hernia) with a 4 hour potential window (so you can’t risk taking calls or being distracted for half a day) only for the GP to say you should have been given an in person appt and to ring tomorrow where they tell you (after an hour’s wait and being number 45 in the queue) that you’ll have to wait another 7 weeks for that (and then the scenario that lead to my OP). All so that I can use the private healthcare that I daren’t not have because “urgent” in the part of the UK that I live means very likely 5-7 years of waiting.

I can think of other words than “great”, to be honest.

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Isitreallysohard · 27/07/2025 08:22

RosesAndHellebores · 27/07/2025 08:21

With respect, I think you need to reread the words you have written and think about what they mean. I hope you don't make assumptions in your role as you have made on this thread.

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OP thinks she should get WiFi when she goes to see a Dr. I'd rather that money is spent on hip replacements. She needs to suck it up. HTH.

RosesAndHellebores · 27/07/2025 08:21

Isitreallysohard · 27/07/2025 08:17

With respect, I think you're being overly sensitive and blowing things out of proportion and I think entirely missing the point of what I was talking about (which I have now forgotten too). Of course not everyone is useless, but unfortunately in the world a few useless people ruin it for everyone else just doing their best. That's a fact. Good day 🙂

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With respect, I think you need to reread the words you have written and think about what they mean. I hope you don't make assumptions in your role as you have made on this thread.

Original poster

AmIHumanOrAmIAYeti · 27/07/2025 08:20

Maddy70 · 27/07/2025 00:50

Hotspot from your phone like an adult would do

THERE IS NO MOBILE SIGNAL TO HOTSPOT FROM.

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Isitreallysohard · 27/07/2025 08:17

RosesAndHellebores · 27/07/2025 08:13

There are obviously different reasons for being late. Some more understandable than others but there should always be an apology.

@Isitreallysohard I am as reliable, polite and intelligent a patient whether I attend a private or a public hospital. The issue is that in the private hospital I am treated with respect. In the public hospital it is variable on a scale of being treated like Sh1t, being treated with contempt, being treated without respect up to being treated well. The issue does not necessarily lie with the patient and you have summed that up by calling us useless.

Edited

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With respect, I think you're being overly sensitive and blowing things out of proportion and I think entirely missing the point of what I was talking about (which I have now forgotten too). Of course not everyone is useless, but unfortunately in the world a few useless people ruin it for everyone else just doing their best. That's a fact. Good day 🙂

RosesAndHellebores · 27/07/2025 08:13

ReplacementBusService · 27/07/2025 07:38

What are doctors supposed to do if one of their patients has a medical emergency or something complex going on? Tell that person sorry, you need to piss off now because I have to be on time for the next patient at all costs? Please let us all know if you come up with a good solution that involves every single patient having their needs met and the doctor always running on time, because nobody in the world has yet managed this.

That's an aside. Yes OP, perhaps a GP surgery could have some WiFi, and/or not be running a full hour late for the first patient without giving some sort of indication that there's a delay. The private GP service sounds fairly pointless too.

Show quote history

There are obviously different reasons for being late. Some more understandable than others but there should always be an apology.

@Isitreallysohard I am as reliable, polite and intelligent a patient whether I attend a private or a public hospital. The issue is that in the private hospital I am treated with respect. In the public hospital it is variable on a scale of being treated like Sh1t, being treated with contempt, being treated without respect up to being treated well. The issue does not necessarily lie with the patient and you have summed that up by calling us useless.