To be annoyed at the GP receptionist for being arsey about this?

Not for everyone though, it’s only a certain age group
i can only get them from the GP as I need 5 days worth or more

Had a phone appointment for elderly disabled mother, anytime between 8am and 7pm. Dr rang 3 times within the space of 4 minutes while I was helping mum in the toilet, i looked on her online account and it said because i'd missed the call i had to restart with another econsult. Saying that, other doctors at the surgery have been much more understanding!

Thank goodness the required ABs are now available from the pharmacy.

You are conflating issues here.

If i had an acute UTI and called in the morning and I was told I could only be seen at 2pm I’d notify work to say that I was unwell and would definitely be unavailable from 1:30pm as i had a 2pm appointment.

The key word is appointment - ie a set, pre-agreed time.

GP missing the appointment due to emergencies is something we can all understand.

Receptionist (note: NOT GP) marking her as “did not attend” in this scenario is unacceptable.

She was available at the appointed time for her scheduled appointment.

THEY were late. For valid reasons but OP did nothing wrong here.

Ok so it’s not workable to keep the patient updated - impractical.

But then why did the receptionist mark her as “did not attend”? How do you justify this?

What is the point of setting an appointment time if I am actually supposed to keep my WHOLE day free?

I am really interested in how you can justify this.

Can you seriously not think of any jobs where it would be a problem to just pause and take a phone call?

Disagree sorry.

If i have made a f2f appt with a GP, this is more likely to mean that i have been able to get an appt either on my day off, or i have authorisation in advance to be away from work, with the expectation that they might run a bit late.

As a patient is also physically at the surgery, there is no risk of them being wrongly accused of being the cause of a ‘missed appt’ as was op by the receptionist.

If i have booked a telephone appt, i am not going to waste a whole day off work. I am going to go into work and get some authorised time for a phone call. As i am in work, i can’t sit there all day and not speak to customers in case the phone rings.

I also have to say that i don’t think any of my f2f GP appts have been as much an hour late. Whereas phone appointments have sometimes been well over an hour late.

Op is also lucky that she seemed to receive a call later in the evening from the GP. Many GP surgeries don’t open that late and therefore op would have been stuck without her medication. She also had to argue to get a call back.

When GP appointments in person run late you wouldn’t generally leave. I treat phone appointments the same and expect a possible up to 45minute delay. Some appointments take the GP longer as we know so I always keep it in mind.

Consultants have a much smaller patient load.

I am with you OP. What if you are a techer or a bus driver? You cant be hanging around on the phone for hours either side of a reasonable lunch break. I hate the attittude of 'do as i say not as I do' that some GP surgeries have. And it's not the GPs, its the practice managemnet. It would have cost them virtually nothing to text you and say the GP list was running late.

How would that work? There is no way the receptionists at my local surgery would have time to keep texting me updates on when the GP is likely to call me.

However, if I told them that I get a very short break and that I can only answer the phone between 13.10 to 13.30, they would absolutely do their best to get the GP to accommodate that.

In an ideal world, OP would get a call at 13.10, but it's not an ideal world so she has to look for ways to get around this in future.

I'm interested in what people thought before telephone appointments. Take for example waking up with a uti not bad enough to stay of work yet the only way to get the necessary antibiotic was to call the surgery in the morning for an appointment. The only appointment available on the day could be for 2pm.If your work was in a different area to the surgery this would inevitably mean at least a half day off work if not the whole day depending on travel time etc.Was this also seen as a massive inconvenience to the patient, or simply part of the system involving a GP appointment 🤔

I don't think this is NHS vs private.
I think it's GPs (and others) vs consultants.
I've recently finished treatment that went on over a couple of years and involved several phone appointments with a consultant - these were always on time or at most a couple of mins late.

I read an article that stated Scotland are introducing non urgent drop in GP surgeries similar to countries like Spain. This would be extra to the regular surgeries available as they already practice. An excellent idea & not before time.

I can't believe that the technology isn't out there to manage this electronically.
On line parents evenings have happened in many schools since COVID.
Parents can book a slot at a time that suits them and after the first go, most parents really like it.
The teacher can also double or triple lock slots if a longer conversation is needed.
Why can't the NHS do the same? Doctors would be in sole charge of their appoinyments

This. 100%.
If there are any GPs on the tjread perhaps they could hop on and explain why GP time must be respected but patient time is not and appears to have no consequence.

Oh my gosh i completely agree! My GP gives windows of either 8-1 or 1-6 as the times they might call. I work, and have in person meetings that would be considered rude to leave. I cannot simply sit staring at my phone all afternoon! But if I miss the call back, I get such a lecture and told I should be ready to answer at any moment. I would not expect to take an afternoon off work to sit in the GP surgery all afternoon, so it really isn't a fair alternative.

YANBU. The implication is that doctors don’t call anyone with their own pressing schedules. I’m having the same - they said they’d call yesterday but gave me no time window at all. I missed both calls by seconds and I was doing my best to drop what I was doing and answer. It’s not possible for me to be ready and available for a private call for the entirety of 8-6pm. You actually had an appointment so they could’ve easily messaged you to say it was going to run late!

I am with you Op, this is a completely frustrating experience and a symptom of the holy cow that is the NHS.

In contrast, I recently had private treatment, through health insurance, and had a telephone appointment with my Consultant scheduled for 14.50, which happened, bang on the nose of 14.50

It’s a busy specialty and he no doubt had a lot of patients, both NHS and private, but when the private hospital establishes some performance standards, it seems they are adhered to. Or maybe it’s just a clearer line between service user and £££.

I get that GPs are extremely busy, and have massive expectations put on them by the NHS, but the patients they inconvenience are often under similar time pressures, and it’s about time that was recognised.

I'm sick of how poor GP services are. There's not a week goes past where my GP practice isn't sending a group text out, telling all their patients not to contact the surgery for one reason or another (and the situation has worsened significantly since covid). There's a real culture clash between primary and acute health care, can you imagine where we'd be if hospital doctors took the same attitude to their patients? Closing for lunch. Closing for staff training. Closing for long weekends.

All GP's should be open 7 days, late night. Work in shifts!

I contact my own GP practice once in a blue moon and every time it's an annoying, obstacle laden endurance test to be seen. And I detest discussing personal matters with their admin staff, that should never have been allowed to become such an accepted culture.
I'm actually seriously considering making an official complaint about my GP practice to the governing body, because the 'service' they provide is diabolical.

Yanbu. Every time I've had this. It's rude. I'm lucky I'm in a job now I can put the phone next to me but it would have been impossible in previous job. If your told you phone between different times it should be between those times or the receptionist phones between those times to explain gp is running late.

Unfortunately, I think too many people are unable to think outside of their own bubble and mobile phones have made people think that everyone should be accessible at all times. I used to work in a school and had a letting manager have a go at me for not answering my phone on a weekday morning. She was humbled when I explained that I was a teacher and returning her (multiple missed) calls at lunchtime. It was different when the appointments were face to face as you were actually sat there, not trying to shoehorn it into your already busy life.

Time away from work can be managed. Its the uncertain time that is the problem. If I have a f2f I'll organise cover for the whole afternoon or morning and then just relieve the cover person if im back on time, but I really cant justify that for a phonecall and I cant get someone to cover without prior notice. What people are expecting is a service that works in the context of the modern working world, not one that assumes everyone is sitting at home or behind a desk.

But she did. She booked a break that allowed for a 20 minute overrun. GPs should manage their time more honestly and recognise that many people can't just take time off work with a wide window of leeway for the appointment running late.

But the reality is that doctor’s schedules ALWAYS run late and if you have the kind of job where you can’t step away for a quick private call then you probably need to book time off for the appointment, as annoying as that is.