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.

Of course we need more doctors. But until the govt stops thinking we are the enemy and adopting a 'the beatings will continue until morale improves' approach, we won't be getting them any time quick, in fact less year on year

agree - but no point expanding med school when something like 20% are leaving medicine two years post medical school and a lot more are leaving the NHS for medicine elsewhere. pointless to run the taps harder when you've forgotten to put the plug in.

funnily enough, if you take intelligent highly educated healthcare professionals with lots of transferable skills, and treat them like something you'd wipe off the bottom of your shoe, they leave and do other things. in large numbers. Who'd have thought it?

But that's not the fault of the patient. OP's request was perfectly reasonable. If they can't get her in to see someone then that's one thing but that should have been explained to her politely, she shouldn't have been given out to for attempting to using the service for its exact purpose.

The Receptionists are terrifying at ours. They're so horrid that most people use e-consult to avoid phoning in and talking to the stroppy ladies.

<picks up phone>
YES?
Yes can I help you? (They talk over you)
And why do you think you need a doctor?
Fine OK
Let me have a look....
No appointments for 4 weeks I'm afraid.
Bye
<slams phone down>

If you go via econsult you get an appointment next day.

I don't know why getting medical attention is so terrifying. It's like they're all Mrs Trunchbulls and we're all Maltilda.

Yet you go in for an appointment and the waiting room is usually almost empty. 4 patients max.

Our doctors surgery has 11 doctors. Tis huge.

We're damned if we do, and we're damned if we don't.

Care and empathy is lacking and that is very very sad.

I was very clear that I thought the receptionist was wrong. Whether OP was right to seek a GP appt after what sounds like a few days of a sore throat might be debatable - some allied professionals over-prescribe antibiotics so if given she may have just bought herself thrush and diarrhoea in exchange for a minimal reduction in her symptoms.

I don't know how many more ways to say it. OP can't know if she needs antibiotics or not. She needs someone who has that expertise to examine her, or at least discuss her symptoms over the phone, and make that decision. It's not an unreasonable ask.

This evening I've had a bout of excruciating pain in my stomach and projectile vomiting. I've had this roughly every month for the past two years. It is so agonising I can't breath, and is the worst pain I have ever experienced. And I've had a baby, had gallstones down my pancreatic duct and have broken my back.
I've been waiting for a referral appointment for a year. It took 3 doctors, and a year before one even examined me. Quite frankly the NHS is a broken system.
And I say that as a student nurse!! 😂

Off topic, but exactly the same in teaching.

My GP surgery is lovely, but they are very stingey with appointments. I get the feeling that they are focusing on ongoing issues and non urgent appointments rather than short term illnesses. So a few times now I've used 111 instead and it's been great. They can arrange out of hours emergency appointments and even a&e appointments round here.
If I think Ive a condition that needs monitoring I'll call the gp if I'm suddenly unwell and need to see someone quickly I'd 111.

I'm planning on complaining to the CQC about our surgery. Appointments are difficult to get, I can't ring as I'm a teacher and I'll be on hold for at least 20 minutes which is not easy to manage in work. I've been happy to use the online service to contact GP - that was working really well, then they stopped letting you use it at weekends, then then turned it off at 2pm on a Friday. They reduced it and reduced so now we can only use it between 6-8 am or 6-7 am on Wednesdays. GPs seem to be still not seeing patients face to face and using COVID as a reason still. While the rest of us just have to get on with it

Asked them how to make a complaint. They just sent me a flippant 'sorry you've had a bad experience' from a receptionist. I asked again and no answer.

I’m sure that’s b true but there may well be good reasons.

My husband and son2 work weekends: I don’t have anyone else to leave my disabled sons with so I’d be there trekking about with two highly anxious autistic young men who I can’t leave alone- inappropriate. DH is freelance so cali g him home means no pay and perhaps a lost client.

Maybe they’re neurodiverse or anxious and can’t cope with new premises, especially is already feeling I’ll and overwhelmed; perhaps they lack access to decent public transport over weekends- our Sunday buses are useless.

l’m someone who almost died from pancreatitis because I couldn’t find time to see a GP alongside caring and also struggles to ask for help due to neurodiversity; if I pick up a phone to speak to a GP it’s a major event and an achievement.

Our GP run a Saturday clinic, it’s run with 6 other surgeries in the same town, you might not be seen in the same surgery you normally attend as they move it around every week but they can write prescriptions and make referrals as normal.

The only way to get an appointment with our surgery is online via askmyGP. They don’t take any appointment requests over the phone, it’s only open between 8-10am and then they ring you anytime that day, I had a call once at 7pm regarding some blood tests.
Its worked ok the few times I’ve used it recently but in the last 4 times I’ve used it we’ve only once had a F2F appointment.

A family member of mine works in a GP surgery, more admin but can occasionally answer the phones. She has 0 medical training, or training on how to handle patients beyond what she should/shouldn't say to not get sued. Luckily she's a naturally caring and compassionate person.

She has had someone come in actually having a heart attack, his 3rd that morning, because he thought he would be seen faster there. Of course they rang an ambulance but it was 30mins before a GP even came to see him as they were tied up doing blood tests and the like so apparently couldn't leave! She was left outside along with him while he asked her to pass things on to his family should the worst happen, until someone could finally come and look him over properly and it was very upsetting and scary!

Tonsillitis is not something you should go to out of hours GP for it’s not an emergency, if I told my local out of hours service that I have tonsillitis they would’ve told me to wait until Monday it’s definitely not an emergency and out of hours for people who definitely cannot wait until Monday

To be fair tonsillitis can be an emergency. I was hospitalised twice for IV antibiotics before they whipped them out.

I was with one of those fun GPs who get you to call every morning at 8. Sit on hold to be told all appointments are gone. Call again tomorrow. You either got sick enough to need emergency care or it self resolved.

This was 20 years ago so not a new thing either.

If we had to pay for basic GP visits, and vets were allowed to prescribe for humans, our local practice would go bust and the vets would thrive. We're all just mammals hey?

Striking difference between how a sick cat and a sick child have been treated in this household. Not just the level of treatment and follow up but the attitude, from phoning reception onwards.

I mean yay for the cat, but it's not nice to see your child treated in such an offhand manner.

Are you actually joking? A heart attack is not something a GP can manage? Unless you think we shoot magic healing rays from our hands? WTF

Charlie Fairhead can manage it. Clearly we're all just not trying hard enough.

Zap.

@OrlandointheWilderness I had no idea it was possible to get the contraceptive pill online privately. Please can you share details? I'd happily pay to avoid the GP too but didn't know it was possible. How do you know they're legitimate? Thank you in advance.

Of course! I use Superdrug or Lloyds or health express. A doctor reviews your request and it is posted. You answer questions and provide a BP reading (luckily I'm a student nurse! 😂). Obviously it relies on honesty.

Of course a GP can't manage a heart attack my point was that the system is so broken the poor man went there thinking he would at least see a medical professional sooner than at A&E and was left with a random admin assistant while anyone with any remote medical training was nowhere to be found. He obviously went to the wrong place but surely someone with medical training might have been better able to care for him in the mean time.

I hate trying to get an appt at our London GP - recently tried to arrange an appt for DS for the extra polio booster he needs (being in London) and was told by a receptionist that he doesn’t need it and the next one he should have is his pre school one.
Well no actually that’s factually incorrect. A quick google of “polio” and “London” would tell you that in addition to the fact we’ve received a letter from the NHS and indeed two messages from the GP surgery themselves about it.
When I stated the latter I was told I had been sent the messages “in error”.

I was and am so cross over this, I changed surgeries and funnily enough now have an appt for him which he is actually required to have.

I despair, I really do. It’s so so wrong - they tell people inaccurate and dangerous information. I’m sure there are others who have been told this misinformation who may not be as informed about things as I am and would take it at face value thus putting their child at risk.

Dreadful.

we don’t have an out of hour in my town, you need to call 111 to arrange an appointment at the hospital which is in a different town. 2buses if you don’t drive. And there is no buses after 9pm either so you would need to fork out for a taxi which would cost you £50/£60 there and back

You’re a sensitive soul aren’t you Op

you regard this a bollocking?! 😂