On hold for doctors. WTAF?

[RadioactiveWear]

Jesus.

I rarely use a doctor, thankfully.
It’s a Wed late morning, and I’ve been on hold for 45 mins in a queue to ask for an appointment.

WTF?

I'm sorry to focus on this bit, but how did she get a GP to visit?
I wish her a speedy recovery.

OP this was a norm at my GP for years and still is at mum's.

To all those taking offence about the use of "third world", here is how things have just happened to me in a first world/EU country.

Called 2 hospitals to book appointments with a pulmonologist and a gastroenterologist. Both appointments are in the next 3 weeks. Didn't take me more than 5 mins in total to get them both booked.

its new in that if previously you had an urgent need you would ring on the day. My surgery has stopped doing ANY pre-booked appointments whereas b4 you'd be able to ring at a less busy time of the day to get an advance appointment or you could book online and see appointments available that month. Now you have both urgent and non-urgent people funnelled into the 8am system.....so those people who REALLY do need to see a GP asap get stuck with the same problem as those of us ringing up to book blood tests, medication reviews, smear tests etc....which is utterly stupid from a workload prioritisation perspective.

We have to phone first thing and wait in a queue for ages. Then get cut off. If you try to get an appointment at any other time you are told to phone back in the morning.
Online form takes so long to complete you have to start trying as soon as it is open or you miss the cut off time.

Our doctor has started a ring back service. They take note where you are in the queue and give you a call back when it's your turn. Only used it the once and worked out great, I don't know why all doctors surgery's don't have the same thing in place.

Like living in a third world country? Really OP 🙈
@RadioactiveWear

I once waited 40 min on phone to cancel an appointment! (Because child had recovered while waiting days to see doctor)

I have lived in a third world country before and it was better than this.

I live in a third world country and seeing a GP is as easy as going to your neighbour hood health Centre, registering at reception, waiting a wee while then being seen by any one of at least 6 or so Drs on duty that day. Then there are the Nurses, the Dentist, the Radiographer, the Pharmacists and on particular days of the month the specialist clinics such as Diabetes.

I think what people don’t understand is that what’s available in the UK with regards to health cares bears no resemblance to many a third world country. And we don’t even have to pay into it apart from about 50p for registration if they have to issue you a new registration card.

We have no way to cancel an appointment (if you get one) when the surgery is closed. I tried. No option on the phone to press a button to cancel, nothing at all. Even online there is nothing that allows it, e.mails take months for a response.

Do you pay for your healthcare there?

@FeistyOneIAm I can’t believe you have to go in to see a Dr face to face for a sick note. Ours has an email address on their website so you can email in with a request for a sick note. They then either ring you to discuss or text it to you /leave it at reception. Crazy to have to use an appointment.

My GP sent me a reminder that I'm late with booking my cervical screen. I went online to book it the same day, the site said they'd respond with an appointment within 3 working days. That was 2w ago and I am yet to hear from them. Online system has no track record of my request (though I do have an email confirming my request) and I don't have an hour+ to wait on the phone...

This was reported by a mutual friend who actually said 'a GP'. Sorry for the misunderstanding. Her surgery weren't interested, even mid-morning.

That seems crackers! To remove online bookings during covid!

@BitOutOfPractice you can't even book an actual face to face appointment anymore, you can only get a telephone appointment during which the doctor decides if you need to be seen in person, only then will you be offered an in person appointment, they are extremely short staffed, underfunded and really struggling so I don't blame them at all, all the doctors, nurses and receptionists are lovely and do what they can but something needs to change

It was to prevent patients booking in and turning up with Covid. A whole practice having to isolate as the staff come down with Covid one by one (as one in our area did) means even less appointments!

They actually deal with more patients by doing the majority as telephone conversations, the problem, as ever, is getting through to book one.

I was made to change doctors when we moved house (only a few miles away) I really didn't want to as my GPS was v good, responsive and you could get sorted v quickly. The old surgery there was an app, you literally just wrote what the issue was on there, if it was urgent (it's the doctor reading it not the receptionist) they rang you right away and sorted out either an appointment or a prescription. So efficient. I got mastitis shortly after giving birth and I messaged, they replied 10 min later saying could they call, we spoke he asked did I want an appointment I said no I'm too ill I know what it is, he sent the prescription to the chemist amazing.

New surgery my 4 year old has had a couple of issues which resulted in trips to a+e, each time I tried to get a GP appointment first (after sitting in a phone queue) only to be told no appointments, when I said I thought it needed to be seen ASAP they said try tomorrow. When I did and my message was actually passed onto a doctor they rang me immediately and said come in now (before the surgery was officially open) and we were sent to a+e. I think it's dangerous having such a stupid system where the receptionist who has 0 medical training is the gatekeeper to accessing healthcare. They are told to say you have to ring back tomorrow, no matter what, a person could have something a doctor would pick up on and would mean the person could access help sooner, instead "sorry no" is all you get. I sat listening to the receptionist last time I was in there and every call went the same, you can either a. Ring back at 8am for an appointment (but you might not get one if they are all gone), b. Book an appointment in 8 weeks time or c. Go to a+e. Every single person told the same. If I'd rang my old GPS about something serious with a child under 5 I'd have been invited to come in and wait at the end of the surgery to be seen. My current GPs is useless, it actually puts you off even trying to contact them, maybe that's the idea here??

same everywhere no point calling off peak as you call it all the appts are gone

call at 8 and wait in the queue

Actually having lived in Sub-Saharan African for a significant amount of time, as a Westerner the health care system is a hell of lot easier to access than a GP's surgery in the UK. You just need to have money.

@Libre2 that's the same in the UK, though. If you've got the money to go private everything's faster.

It's chance, I've called at 1pm and got a same day many times.

Nothing to do with how much funding there is.
They could save a fortune just by operating a different way. The NHS waste so much money

They could do online bookings. No staff needed to monitor those bookings.

With the NHS they do things because they have always been done that way. Without any thought to the waste.

Until you are patient for months on end you don’t see the stupid things they do and when questioned it is because that is the way they have always done it

I tried that and got told to ring at 8am the next day!

@emituofo I'm going to assume you lived in the 'third world' while you benefitted from your 'first world' salary or connections.