GP didn’t call me because their “workday has ended”

I basically no longer have a doctor. The phone lines for appointments are open from 8 to 8.30 and are always engaged . The last time I tried I couldn't get through. They don't allow in person booking.

This is why people need to pay to see their GP.

In Australia I pay to see my GP. I can get a Medicare Urgent Care GP for a free walk-in appointment over the weekend or late at night. The Medicare GP’s are free. You don’t have to wait long. The government did this because there are too many people showing up to hospitals for minor things - but also because we have had rapid immigration and our hospitals can’t cope.

We also have private emergency hospitals which I have used many times in the past.

If I have a UTI I can see a pharmacist for a consult and get antibiotics. Pharmacists can also write medical certificates. I don’t have to see a GP first. Some nurses can also prescribe antibiotics and the contraceptive pill.

The NHS needs a massive overhaul. I once asked a person from the UK if the NHS model was sustainable for the future and he absolutely screamed at me. Apparently British people don’t want to have to pay to see a GP.

Unfortunately not everyone can just add another hour to their working day.
If kids need picked up they need picked up. Before afterschool shut.

Questions is why did they have more people booked in than they had time for.
Why are those people not priority for the morning

I agree, and I think if you’ve had a job where you really can’t just leave, you have less sympathy for the GP in this situation. I’ve done one of those jobs. It was basically out of my hands what time I finished, it was all I could do to sneak a phone call to DH to make sure he could pick up if it turned into a late one. Think court-based. If I hadn’t had DH to rely on, I’d have had to identify someone else and make arrangements with them. Failing that, come to some different working arrangements. The responsibility in some jobs is too great to just go home.

I can think of one profession in which employees are expected to put in at the very least around 2/3 hours overtime every day and also to work at weekends and over holidays!
So pleased I left 😀

I genuinely don't know what the point in GP surgeries are any more. It's bloody impossible to see anyone.
Everyone I know, including myself, has several awful stories of trying for weeks just to get an answer on the phone, never mind to be seen or spoken to.

I remember in France I had an XRay done during the appt at GP surgery!

Meanwhile here GPs are sitting there googling your symptoms with you 😵‍💫

I’d be dropping the Practice manager an email and say you’re putting in a formal complaint.

You should automatically have your appointment rescheduled for a time that suits, not told to start the 8.00am appointment lottery again.

I think if GP surgeries got billed for people using A and E when their GP wouldn’t see them, appointments would soon be found.

Not true.

Haven't been too impressed with doctors today. My mum had some tests done in late october. She was wondering what was happening and in January she got to know that the results have arrived in early November but she was instructed to wait till the doctor contacts her. She called the doctor today to ask about the results and was told off for not being patient enough (pun intended).

Sorry, a bit off topic. But yeah, doctor not contacting and expecting to redo the whole thing tomorrow really sucks.

Oh and I felt bad as I was at a same day appointment in November. Already running 40 mins late. I went in and was sent for same day surgery for potential sepsis

I wasn’t even allowed to go home and get a charger or anything. The Drs spent an hour assessing me and arranging my admission for my emergency surgery

as I was going out people were giving the receptionist a really bad time. I felt so bad people shouldn’t do this. It really was life threatening timing for me. Stuff happens

I agree with @CactusSwoonedEnding they simply can’t give the 8 people who didn’t get a call today appointments tomorrow as they don’t know who needs to be triaged for what tomorrow

i'm sure if you put on the triage form what happened today it will be taken into consideration or try 111

i would be annoyed they didn’t let you know sooner though

No. Because tomorrow the triage system will have received 20 new cases that are more urgent than yours. It's not a "time served" queue. You having been bumped off the list today is unfortunate but wasn't a deliberate act of malice. Each patient is scheduled for 10 minutes but sometimes it takes longer if there's a complex history, or the patient has multiple interlocking issues. Or there could have been a serious emergency at the surgery that took the dr away from the phone for an hour. No one was sitting with their feet up thinking "I can't be arsed to call @angelinlothian today"

They need you to complete the form again in the morning because they need to know your symptoms at the time, not yesterday's symptoms, in order to correctly triage you. If you are deteriorating then your urgency will increase.

I don’t mean a donut eating GP should have been available, just that the patients who would not be seen/phoned should be communicated with and appointments booked for the next day without them having to start the process again. It should be like snakes and ladders or Monopoly.

At last ! Surely this should be the automatic contingency plan in case of emergencies ?

I’m getting boring even to myself now. I appreciate emergencies happen but why do previously assessed patients in need of a same day appointment then get shunted back to the end of the queue ?

Contingency plans tend to need slack in the system. The NHS is short of slack in the system. I rather doubt that there are any practices with a trained GP sitting in a staff room eating doughnuts all day, just in case an emergency happens. They'd have their own full list of patients.

This was communicated badly, and the practice should have rebooked for tomorrow, but if there was an emergency, there won't have been a spare person to do the appointments.

I understand this but as I have said to previous posters, where is the contingency plan for people who have been assessed as needing same day appointments ?

Crikey, all the Vet bashing in the media at the moment, but if you called our surgery at 7.20 when we closed at 7.30 and your pet needed seeing, a vet and two nurses would stay until you arrived and treat it. There are some jobs that just aren’t 9 to 5 , there will always be occasions where you don’t finish on time , it’s the nature of the job.

I would have to make some sort of complaint. I think they should be saying very sorry we couldnt call you but have booked this time tomorrow please confirm this new time is convenient. So far my own gp are brilliant..you book online and get call backs or face to face appoints next day.

Thanks for your response.As I said to a previous poster, surely there should be a contingency plan in place to deal with the appointment patients waiting to be seen/contacted ?

Thanks for your response.As I said to a previous poster, that doesn’t seem very good if the emergency patient needs equipment which the surgery doesn’t have but also surely there should be a contingency plan in place to deal with the appointment patients waiting to be seen/contacted ?

Thanks for your response.That doesn’t seem very good if the emergency patient needs equipment which the surgery doesn’t have but also surely there should be a contingency plan in place to deal with the appointment patients waiting to be seen/contacted ?

Sign of the times

OMG! Do you actually mean that you have to call in again to book a call? This is unbelievable! I'm so sorry. And I know what it's like - all the while you're trying to keep yourself in a position that you can take the call. I hope that you manage to speak to your GP tomorrow.