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Original poster

At what point do you think we will beable to see a GP again?

94 replies

TheNightWatch · 27/07/2021 11:20

Honestly Ive worked all the way through this as have all the doctors at work and people in many other industries so why cant I see a bloody GP? I just dont get it? Im on hold for minutes every day to be told appointments for the day are full.

I know three people who have recently died of cancer that was literally only just diagnosed. There was no chance of treatment. All in their late 50’s. Im not saying they wouldve survived but at least they wouldve had a shot at some treatment. My elderly parents without computers or free phone data what chance have they had to see a real live person?

When this is over will there be some kind of enquiry? Why are some people just not back to a full service like vets for example for difference does it make to them if we want to go in and comfort our pet?

OP posts:

SpindleWhorl · 27/07/2021 15:22

The trouble I'm facing in thinking about switching surgeries is that the next nearest (and travellable to) surgery is in the same CCG area / postcode. I don't want a frying pan / fire situation iyswim. It's not like you get to 'test purchase' a GP surgery.

Ideas welcome, though.

RuthW · 27/07/2021 15:30

Now. We have never stopped seeing patients.

Darklane · 27/07/2021 15:52

I’m glad some of you are able to access GP appointments & are happy with the service you are getting but it certainly is not the same for all of us.
Our surgery is similar to those that others have posted about. The doors are locked & have been since the start of the first lockdown last year. You ring for a phone appointment & are very lucky if you are anything less than “ you are number eighteen in the queue”. Very, very often you never get to be number one, the phone cuts out long before that.
If you do manage to get a phone appointment they never specify when. It’s supposed to be the same day but isn’t always but you’re never notified of this. I’m on medication that requires an annual review & repeat prescription every two months. It’s over two years since I had a review, just can’t get one. I should be able to order my repeat prescription online but for some reason, even the receptionist can’t understand why, I can’t so have to endure the endless phone wait to get through or go to the surgery to speak through an intercom to the receptionist who won’t come to the locked door. Last time I went to do that there were two people waiting outside in the rain, an elderly lady & a young mother with a baby in her arms. They had appointments to see the nurse but the waiting room was closed so had been told via the intercom to wait outside & would be let in, one at a time, when the nurse was free.
It’s all very well saying change surgeries but ours is in a small, fairly remote village. The only two others within reasonable reach in bigger villages both have closed lists as they are full. Even if they were accepting new patients there is no public transport so the many villagers who do not have cars would still struggle.

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General health

MondeoFan · 27/07/2021 15:54

I have not been able to see a gp and neither has my daughter who desperately needed to see one about 5 months ago.
I call my surgery and am on hold for an hour. They keep the front door locked as they don't want people going there

Original poster

TheNightWatch · 27/07/2021 15:57

Its a bloody joke all the medical staff at my hospital have worked all the way through its made no difference to our work load.

OP posts:

badlydrawnbear · 27/07/2021 16:44

I saw my GP yesterday! Arguably, he didn’t need to physically see me, it was a mental health concern but I can’t talk on the phone so it had gone unaddressed for a long time. I was very surprised that a face to face appointment was an option, and there didn’t seem to be a criteria for being eligible for one and I didn’t have to justify why I needed it to face to face.

Jampot1 · 27/07/2021 17:22

I saw my GP yesterday, not for an appointment…. the surgery is closed and shuttered, but at the local garden centre and I recognised them because they weren’t wearing a mask!

Whataroyalannoyance · 27/07/2021 17:23

Some Surgeries have been great, mine not good at all. I called the Drs 4 days running for an appointment, on every occasion I was told no available appointments , no phone appointments left, no nurse appointments left. Eventually ended up spending 9 hrs in a and e.
My mum developed a blood clot on her lung. In hospital for 72 hours and told to make an appointment with her Dr the following week. No appointments available and she ended up in a and e.
None of the other practices are able to take new patients atm so we can't move to another

CurlyhairedAssassin · 27/07/2021 17:31

I think those of us whose GP practices are seeing people will find it gradually dropping off. Boris's strategy has failed - the NHS HAS been overwhelmed, by everything non-COVID. Makes you wonder, actually, if that was his strategy all along.......

MaMelon · 27/07/2021 17:50

I’ve been seeing my GP - I live in Scotland so a completely devolved NHS. Boris has nothing to do with our health service.

CakeandGo · 27/07/2021 17:56

At our surgery you have to pass through a Spanish Inquisition style interrogation by the receptionists. They try and fob you off with a telephone appointment every time.
I had to accept a telephone appointment for a suspicious mole just to get into the system. Then the GP asked me to upload a photo rather then see me. Based on the photo they did a referral. No one physically saw the mole until I got an appointment with a consultant at the hospital, who took one look at it and said it was fine
I’d love to know when GPs will be back to ‘normal’ but unfortunately ours has always been shit. The reason I haven’t moved is because sometimes the grass isn’t greener and it’s better the devil you know.

SpindleWhorl · 27/07/2021 17:56

@Whataroyalannoyance

Some Surgeries have been great, mine not good at all. I called the Drs 4 days running for an appointment, on every occasion I was told no available appointments , no phone appointments left, no nurse appointments left. Eventually ended up spending 9 hrs in a and e. My mum developed a blood clot on her lung. In hospital for 72 hours and told to make an appointment with her Dr the following week. No appointments available and she ended up in a and e. None of the other practices are able to take new patients atm so we can't move to another

This is pretty much what we've got here.

Adequate primary care doesn't exist, but they're still getting paid by the patient registered; and secondary care is picking up up the slack of severely and critically ill patients.

They all sit on each other's health boards and it's just not working.

Our GP practice has disintegrated. It was once the best in the city, I would say. Heartbreaking.

Passthecontrol · 27/07/2021 17:57

Saw my Gp today in Scotland also. Getting the appointment wasn't the easiest but got there eventually, after 20 mins on hold and being thrown off the econsult 3 times, then called back 24 hours later to be given an appointment a few days later! I was the only patient in the surgery so they must be like gold dust.

insancerre · 27/07/2021 18:00

Dd saw the gp about an hour again
She made the appointment yesterday
She’s on antibiotics and steroids now
Our gp just works on his own

TheFairyCaravan · 27/07/2021 18:09

I’ve seen my GP all through the pandemic. At one point I saw him 3 times in one week. I’ve been quite unwell of late so he’s even phoned me off the cuff, when I’ve not been expecting it, to check how I am.

I tore my rotator cuff last Summer and was having physio over the phone. She said i needed a steroid injection but I wouldn’t find anyone to do it. I mentioned it to my GP when he was doing a medication review and he booked me in for the next day.

BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz · 27/07/2021 18:13

I've had better service throughout the pandemic, because our surgery has a very good e-consult service.

Each time I have logged an issue, they have responded within 24 hours with a solution. Bloods appointment/prescription sent to my nearest pharmacy/ immediate call to go in to see the nurse etc.

Much much easier than having to call at a designated time, attempt to get something face to face, have to rush through the issue in the 3mins allotted time slot.

It's not for everyone, but if your surgery has an e-consult option on their website, try and make use of it.

SpindleWhorl · 27/07/2021 18:17

It's not for everyone, but if your surgery has an e-consult option on their website, try and make use of it.

It doesn't work.

It tells you to ring 111 or 999 as soon as you start inputting data beyond personal details. Every.Single.Time.

There's an email address that's not monitored, and a phone line that's frequently out of order or on a one hour wait and when it's answered it cuts off. The door is locked.

Major urban practice.

I'm thinking about sending them a postcard in the Royal Mail.

ahoyshipmates · 27/07/2021 18:19

Our gp is technically open for face to face consultations but they won't actually let you have one
Same here. It's ridiculous. You have to spend 10 minutes persuading the receptionist to allow you a telephone consultation with a GP.

Ohshitiveturnedintomymother · 27/07/2021 18:22

@ahoyshipmates

Our gp is technically open for face to face consultations but they won't actually let you have one Same here. It's ridiculous. You have to spend 10 minutes persuading the receptionist to allow you a telephone consultation with a GP.

Snap! They are open but they really aren’t!

SpindleWhorl · 27/07/2021 18:23

Yes, 'open but closed' and being paid per head while diverting to secondary care.

Neondisco · 27/07/2021 18:25

You seem to imply GPs haven't been working in your op.

You can see a gp they're just doing telephone triage.

SpindleWhorl · 27/07/2021 18:28

Oh and the one locum who did ring me after I put in an admin request (ie circumvented the system) had apparently never heard of NICE guidelines on the thing they rang me about.

Which was fun.

Plus, they keep unitary ending repeat prescription arrangements without arranging reviews or giving patients the means to arrange reviews.

This was a practice I've previously taken boxes of chocolates and cards into in gratitude. Now, I doubt it's even safe.

SpindleWhorl · 27/07/2021 18:30

You can see a gp they're just doing telephone triage.

I'm afraid some aren't even doing that adequately. If they were, there would be no complaints would there.

Goldi321 · 27/07/2021 18:33

GP trainee here, I’ve worked both in the hospital on acute medicine (lots of Covid!) and in primary care during this pandemic. Primary care is madness at the moment. In my practice we are all doing 12hr+ days, seeing patients F2F but triaging this on the phone first.
The demand is crazy, we will never be able to meet it at this current rate. The reason why you can’t get an appointment is not because we are sat twiddling our thumbs, we are working our arses off squeezing more and more patients into the day. From a new person coming into this it appears unsustainable and I, and many of my cohort, do not see this as a lifelong career because of this.

Neondisco · 27/07/2021 18:33

Also I don't know what you are talking about re no chance of cancer treatment. I personally know people having cancer treatment. Very early in treatment was delayed for those with very compromised immune systems.

You sound like you're just making stuff up.

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