Just been bollocked for not using out of hours GP

[SunlightThroughTrees]

I’ve just called up to get a GP appointment, the usual 8am scramble to get one. Opening question was “what’s the emergency?”, which is new. I explained that I’d had swollen tonsils for several days, which are getting increasingly painful and I now have white gunk on them.

She interrupted me whilst I was saying what was wrong (very concisely) and then twice told me I should have used the out of hours GP service. The reason I didn’t go to the GP on the first few days of symptoms was I was waiting to see if it was viral tonsillitis that would get better on its own after a few days ie following the guidance on the NHS website.

She has given me an appointment begrudgingly but ended the call by again telling me that I should have used out of hours and sounded very pissed off at me. I get that appointments are scarce but I can’t see what I’ve done wrong here. The out of hours appointments are presumably scarce too and to be honest I think of that as more of an ‘emergency’ service to use sparingly than my GP surgery on a weekday.

I can work all the weekends you want, but then will be less available staffing less clinics Monday to Friday which are historically much more popular days. Weekend appointments have a much higher incidence of non attendance and are less well used, even when available.
We also do not have access to supportive services such as path lab deliveries or child heath at weekend.
Plus the cost of heating and lighting the building two extra days a week means more out of the same pot as patient care.
Many staff work in primary care for the family friendly hours, even so, we struggle to recruit as it is. Change that, and many would be off. If unsocial hours were the norm they might as work in an acute setting on Agenda for Change terms and conditions with better pay and holidays.

I also want GPs open at the weekend

It doesn't mean that the GPs and Receptionists who work during the week will work the weekends too - nobody is suggesting that people work 7 days a week.

However, something needs to change as people clearly aren't receiving care.

My GP opens until 8pm on a Thursday for smears, asthma clinics etc. I can go after work and find this very useful. Smears and asthma check ups are about the only appointments I can get!

@SunlightThroughTrees leave feedback on care opinion, let the CQC see how shit your care has been so far.

I did this with mine and they were given extra training. They're much less flustered and much nicer as a result. And the nasty ones have disappeared completely (they had many poor Google reviews too!)

I've been to the doctors this morning and the Receptionists were giggling behind their desks and answering the phone nicely. It was quite nice to hear tbh

I’d have done the same as you OP.

My understanding of the out of hours service is that it’s to be used when your problem is too urgent to wait until the GP surgery opening hours, and not serious enough for A&E. I’m surprised that you were told off for waiting a few days.

I hope you’re feeling better soon.

It’s all very well saying this but most of us wait over a weekend because first and foremost we hope our ailments will get better by themselves. We don’t want to call the out of hours services or go to A & E because we feel we are not ill enough to need them and do not want to waste their time if someone else needs them more urgently than us. If we still feel terrible on Monday morning, then of course we will ring the gp surgery as that is what they are there for. Last winter, I started a kidney infection on a Friday evening but tried to treat it myself with painkillers. It got worse so I made an appointment with my gp on the Monday to be told that I was very unwell and should have had an emergency appointment and could still end up in hospital (thankfully the antibiotics worked). Even when I was in the waiting room, I was wondering if I was poorly enough to see a doctor and did not want to waste his time. I think there are many people who think in this way. Most of us regard visiting the doctor as a last resort. Incidentally, we appointment problem is compounded at my surgery by the fact that we can no longer book non-urgent appointments in advance and have to ring at 8 am along with the urgent appointments. Ridiculous.

@CamilasGabagool if there are 3 part time and 1 full time receptionists employed how would that work if surgeries were open 7 days a week?

Nobody is suggesting that the staff levels remain the same.

People deserve basic care and empathy.

And tbh the NHS need to stop agreeing to people working such part time hours. One receptionist at ours works ONE day a week!! I mean come on, ffs.

....and THIS IS PRECISELY this appalling government's plan !!

Run the NHS into the ground until you give up and pay for a service you are already paying for through your taxes.

Then do a 'review' that says 'If you want a health service we can't afford then you are going to have to start paying for basics'.

When in fact if you taxed the super rich, tax dodging non Dom's... large corporations, etc there would be more than enough for a decent health service.

It's about choice. This government has always protected the super rich. It's their whole focus. The super rich will never complain about the NHS because they have alternative choices.

I don’t think you’ve done anything wrong OP.

Tonsillitis is the work of the devil. You have my upmost sympathy.

If that's the government's plan then it's working 😔

The NHS will slowly be dissolved.

I'm assuming that private medical Receptionists undertake more training than NHS ones? I had to see a Nuffield doctor recently (because my consultant was 40 weeks behind!) and the Receptionists were really nice, calm and professional.

Violinis then patients need re educating and to change their mindset about out of hours care.
And good luck recruiting more GP's and nurses to staff these weekends. Again, paid for (including weekend increments) out of the same patient care pot.

I rang GP OOH yesterday at 1700, still waiting on a call back. In the meantime I've spoken to the GP this morning and now have to go for urgent blood tests this afternoon

Mine used to say press 1 for appointments but now now comes under the option of "anything else"

If the Torys are the issue then why do my nursing friends vote for them?

I don't get it and genuinely wish I did

TheFreaksShallInheritTheEarth · Today 08:14
Since when have GP appointments been for emergencies only? The NHS is a fucking shambles“

ours have, for years. For “routine” appointments we have to book two weeks in advance. Same day appointments are supposedly for “emergencies”.

of course, that doesn’t help people who just don’t know whether it’s an emergency or not or something that isn’t an emergency but is pretty painful or worrying or making them unable to work.

tbf, though, we usually get an appointment if we’re prepared to wait out the “you are currently number 27 in the queue”.

@CamilasGabagool she is entitled to work whatever hours she can or wants. I work 25 hours over 2.5 days but cover colleagues on holiday and sick leave. The pressure and workload is unbelievable. There have been 4 Receptionists for years. I'll be very surprised if anything changes.

@TroysMammy case in point.

Nothing changes if nothing changes. And that is exactly why the NHS is failing.

Thanks for confirming x

I think it's reasonable for the general public to know that sore throats and coughs/colds almost never need to see a doctor, unless you are very unwell e.g. dehydrated, hands and feet very cold, very high fever which won't come down.

It's the sort of thing that didn't previously come to us because of the extended family. Clearly it's different with very small babies, who are hard to assess, and there are some people on certain meds who will be advised to report any sore throat. But in general sore throat/cough/runny nose with no red flags is appropriate for pharmacist and OTC management for 10 - 14 days and will usually settle in that time.

So, given that we don't have enough staff to safely staff GP surgeries for 5 days, are you suggesting that spreading those same staff more thinly over 7 days will improve things? You're not Jeremy Hunt by any chance are you?

Ah fgs it's a shame your reading comprehension is piss poor!

We're talking about people working one day a week 🤣 no wonder staff are spread so thinly

But as PP said..

she is entitled to work whatever hours she can or wants

But the OP is being told off for not rushing to the GP with what was a sore throat that then got worse.

I think it’s a line people like to trot out about people going to the Drs for a cold etc to cover up the chronic underfunding by government. Even if there is the odd one, It can’t be that much of an issue as they’d never get passed the receptionist in the first place.

yes I did say that it was odd that the receptionist said that. The OP was right not to go to OOH over the weekend, and would probably have been right not to go to the GP today.

@CamilasGabagool - someone working one day a week wouldn’t bother me in a receptionist role. It’s not like people need to speak to that particular receptionist to get their appts etc. It also won’t cost her employer anymore hiring more people for fewer days than hiring 1 person for 5 days a week. Its just logistically a bit of a headache for whoever makes the rota.

so people who work for the NHS shouldn't be allowed to have flexible careers, to have more than one job, to do different things in their week, to care for kids or elderly relatives?