So sorry for NHS staff

[6demandingchildren]

Tried calling my GP practice this morning to get a telephone appointment, Mondays is the worst time to call as you can never get through but I was lucky only this time I was met with a different welcome message, it basically said that its not the receptionists fault if their are no available appointments and please do not take your frustrations out on the staff.
Anyway once the receptionist answered (this was around 10am) all the appointments for the day had gone and she asked what was wrong, I have only got pins and needles in my face so nothing major and she advised me to call back tomorrow morning or phone 111.
No wonder these poor people are so stressed out.

[quote Sweetnhappy1]@Maassi General Practice is not an emergency service. General Practice has never been an emergency service. When practices have had routine early morning/late evening/weekend appointments in the past, patients don't show up. The 'commuter' clinics get booked up by the elderly.[/quote]
Then why are actual emergency services doing the role of general primary care.

GP's should be an ESSENTIAL 24hr service as I said previously. I didn't say an emergency service, you said that. Please read carefully

@Maassi

GP's should be an ESSENTIAL 24hr service as I said previously. I didn't say an emergency service, you said that. Please read carefully

Since when are they not... What happened to the OOHs GP service?

I am all for 24-7 urgent care clinics (GP-led) if they are adequately funded and staffed. But where will the funding/staff come from?

@Maassi people don't want to come in for their routine diabetes check up at 2am. Or to get their blood pressure review at 4am. Or their contraceptive check. Or childhood immunisations. Or sick notes. Or mental health reviews. Etc etc. We can't book blood tests in the middle of the night, there's no-one to courier them to the lab. People also don't want to come in for this stuff at weekends, it's been tried.

Some of the stuff that appears in A&E doesn't need to be there and also doesn't need a GP. Our practice is back to offering f2f or telephone appointments, one of the same day appointments I had today was a child who has had a cough since yesterday. No fever. Eating, drinking and playing normally. Just wanted to be checked 'just in case'. Also no Covid test done yet. Our receptionists have had patients not like the appointment time they are offered so they say they'll go to A&E instead. Lots of similar examples. When I did my A&E job (all GPs have done A&E as juniors) I remember someone coming in at 4am with an earache which started a few hours before. They said they decided to come in rather than wait to call the GP because 'it would be quicker'. Most ear ache doesn't need to be treated.

Agreed with everyone saying that a "part time" GP isn't what people think. I'm a GP trainee, currently working full time but I plan on going part time (still likely >36 hours/week on 60% LTFT) after I have my baby. I've so far worked 4 years full time in the NHS.
For those saying there should be a mandatory period of full time working before going part time for financial reasons, I don't think people realise how much of our own money we have to spend just to be able to do our job. As a junior doctor this year I paid £400 for my GMC membership for the year. In other specialties trainees have to pay their own indemnity (in my specialty I'm lucky that it's paid for by the training school). I've also had to pay over £500 for my (mandatory) RCGP subscription to be able to access my (mandatory) portfolio. All this plus exams (for GP totalling >£1600 - that's if you pass them first time - and that's very cheap as far as specialty exams go!). We pay tuition fees like everyone else for the majority of university.

The trouble is that a lot of essential public sector jobs these days seem to rely on people being willing to do thankless jobs in increasingly difficult circumstances. It's an untenable system. It's the same in Education. I know there are some members of government who want the NHS run down so we are forced to privatise but I'm not sure what their game is with eduation. Perhaps they just want a dumbed-down population who die earlier.

@Dhcfisssifjrsnxfjds

Working until 11pm is standard in high demand roles - why do GPs think that they should be working 9-6pm or less than full time and anything more leaves them ‘exhausted’ - I genuinely do not understand given that most of the professional world works on 60-80 hours weeks at a minimum. Hundreds of high stakes decisions every day (the ‘life and death’ argument is not a trump card, much of what GPs do is procedure driven and mechanical)

Most of what GPs do is definitely not "procedure driven and mechanical". If it was it wouldn't take 10+ years to train!

Haven’t read every post. Our practice does not have a 'ring at 8am only system' and we can ring anytime. The other practice in town is the same.
Receptionists are helpful, understanding and we’re Ok with giving our details. We've both had face to face appointments with Drs and nurses over the past two years. The phone triage system works as we can book a telephone appointment to talk to a doctor who decides whether to see me. It’s obvious that many posters are nowhere near as fortunate. If I was in that position I'd be contacting the local health authority. In London 49 GP practices were sold last year to an American health care company and much of the NHS relies on private companies already, our GP practice no longer does ear syringing and in the whole of the County no Dentist will take on NHS patients. Politically the situation has been allowed to deteriorate for that reason.

[quote Sweetnhappy1]@Maassi people don't want to come in for their routine diabetes check up at 2am. Or to get their blood pressure review at 4am. Or their contraceptive check. Or childhood immunisations. Or sick notes. Or mental health reviews. Etc etc. We can't book blood tests in the middle of the night, there's no-one to courier them to the lab. People also don't want to come in for this stuff at weekends, it's been tried.

Some of the stuff that appears in A&E doesn't need to be there and also doesn't need a GP. Our practice is back to offering f2f or telephone appointments, one of the same day appointments I had today was a child who has had a cough since yesterday. No fever. Eating, drinking and playing normally. Just wanted to be checked 'just in case'. Also no Covid test done yet. Our receptionists have had patients not like the appointment time they are offered so they say they'll go to A&E instead. Lots of similar examples. When I did my A&E job (all GPs have done A&E as juniors) I remember someone coming in at 4am with an earache which started a few hours before. They said they decided to come in rather than wait to call the GP because 'it would be quicker'. Most ear ache doesn't need to be treated.[/quote]
When was it tried and failed to have weekend appointments? People are desperate for appointments at times that fit it with work. It is completely useless for anyone working to have appointments between 9-5pm.

@ bubblepond You misquote me, read carefully.

Many many people work shifts and would love the chance to be able to see a GP at 3am!

@Dhcfisssifjrsnxfjds loads of surgeries are offering weekend clinics already

One good thing my GP has done is to install a robo call system that keeps your place in the queue for the 1-2 hours it takes to get to the front of the queue. That has made a massive difference because at least you can carry on working and then step out of a meeting when the callback comes (but it is still 2-3 weeks for a phone appointment and then a further 2-3 weeks for FTF, double the pre-covid time frames)

[quote ohfourfoxache]@Dhcfisssifjrsnxfjds loads of surgeries are offering weekend clinics already[/quote]
Sweetnhappy1 said ‘ People also don't want to come in for this stuff at weekends, it's been tried.’ which gave the impression that is no longer offered across the board. Never been offered in the places I have lived.

And don’t forget, one of the crucial parts of the last GP contract was that GPs didn’t have to do out of hours care - which is how it started with smaller providers covering huge swathes of care

That was nearly 2 decades ago now….

@Dhcfisssifjrsnxfjds it is both in areas where I live and work (separate)

[quote ohfourfoxache]@Dhcfisssifjrsnxfjds it is both in areas where I live and work (separate)[/quote]
Whenever we have needed to access urgent GP care on the weekend we have been sent to a hospital based GP services - but I think there may now be GP hubs but this is not widely publicised because I have never been told about it and any appointments on this service are not available via the NHS app or Patient Access.

You’re right, it’s all Hub work

And it’s not well publicised because it’s “better” to GP bash!

FWIW Hubs started to emerge when I was doing my first degree, ~2005, so they aren’t a new concept by any means

@ohfourfoxache

You’re right, it’s all Hub work

And it’s not well publicised because it’s “better” to GP bash!

FWIW Hubs started to emerge when I was doing my first degree, ~2005, so they aren’t a new concept by any means

So why on earth do GP practices not tell people about them?

@Dhcfisssifjrsnxfjds and @Maassi

www.theguardian.com/society/2018/oct/01/one-in-four-evening-and-weekend-gp-appointments-unused

[quote Sweetnhappy1]**@Dhcfisssifjrsnxfjds* and @Maassi*

www.theguardian.com/society/2018/oct/01/one-in-four-evening-and-weekend-gp-appointments-unused[/quote]
I don’t think anyone knows they exist. My practice is part of a hub, and have my previous ones, but I have never been offered a weekend appointment in 15 years (and this is having made it clear I would take any appointment). It makes no sense at all.

My gp practice is part of a hub but I have just gone back to their website and it says appointments are available from 9-5.30 Monday to Friday. Is there some reason why they would not make reference to their hub work? It is a funding issue or something else? I cannot believe that for years I could have been booking weekend appointments rather than taking time off work (or maybe those weekend appointments are booked solid who knows)

@madroid

For everyone moaning on this thread that the NHS does not meet their expectations - PLEASE remember at the next election.

The Tories do not care about the NHS or waiting lists. If you want decent healthcare we must have a labour govt.

Jesus from a labour run NHS Wales, you don't want a labour run one either!! Not sure what the solution is, independent from the government maybe.

It's absolutely abysmal here. Most a and e departments are "failing". Hospital waiting lists are double that of England, maternity services are "failing". Cancer diagnosis and treatment is off target massively. I mean when covid hit we suddenly realised we only had like 600 ICU beds across the whole of Wales!

m.youtube.com/watch?v=b630S_vwwYs

This tells you everything you need to know about why the NHS is fucked