This again! Becoming almost impossible to make a GP appointment. Surgeries system restricted even further...

[PunishmentRoundupWithJoon]

Just a rant.

When my GP surgery introduced the online system for making appointments (and it's not even that, it's a system whereby you give your details and then you're triaged - someone may call you or you may receive a text) it was at least available 24/7, and at weekends. It was then changed to a cut off time of 8pm. So if you were planning to do the online consult once you'd finally sat down after the kids were in bed - forget it.

Tried to make an appointment yesterday to find they've now narrowed it even further with a cut off point of 12 noon. So patients only have four hours (8-12am) of this service.

They really are committed to making it as difficult as possible to make an appointment, aren't they? And god knows what you're supposed to do if you don't have access to the internet!

I realise this has been done to death but just had to rant about it. I used to think my surgery was one of the 'good' ones, even after the online system was introduced but now, not so much. Not that it will make a blind bit of difference but will be emailing the practice manager (who won't give a shit, I'm sure) but as someone with medical issues that mean mornings are rarely seen and if they are, I'm unable to function, I'm quite worried about these further restrictions.

How do they justify it? Or do they even try to?

No, the receptionist just parroted the times. I explained the situation, that this system is now going to be inaccessible to me (and others too) and she finally took some details and said that someone would ring me back in 48 hours to fill in the form for me. However, she couldn't guarantee they would ring after 12 noon, so if I miss the call, I'm back at square one!

You know where to place the blame for this, right?
Big black door, often on the news, has a number 10 on it?

It’s far more likely caused by an inability to hire staff (thank you Tory government) than the staff all ordering a domino’s and Playing snap all afternoon. You’d be better off contacting your local MP….

Our GP, during Covid, took down our online appointment system which worked well.
You now have to ring at 8am to be put in a queuing system to speak to reception to arrange a call back from the GP sometime during the day. You can't reserve appointments for the next day.
If you don't ring dead on 8am, you don't get in the queue and have to ring back next day.
I know a lot of our elderly community struggle to get appointments.

We were in a similar situation where we couldn't get access to a doctor, took over a week to get repeat scripts and even then it wasn't always accurate. After the most recent episode I decided enough was enough and made the move to another surgery. We were told by staff at the original surgery that it was pretty much the same everywhere and were we sure.
Well, it's like chalk and cheese. I phoned the surgery for an item, the dr electronically transferred it to a pharmacy and it was ready for collection less than 2hrs later. I've had 3 teleconsults and prescriptions dispensed in a timely manner. I've not yet written to the practice manager cos I'm still fuming but I'm not even sure it will do any good or make any difference.
All I will say is change if you can. Don't be afraid that your new dr will not know your stuff. They are pretty good at joining up the dots

Surely if you need to do it, then you can take 10 mins of your day to fill in the form? It's really not hard. It's better than having to just wait on the phone in a queue of 60 other people and then they hang up when you get to number 3...

Are you in Chelmsford by any chance? My GP surgery has done this but you can submit the request at anytime. It seems to working well for us but I understand it might not be for everyone

It depends when that 10 mins is! My surgery only does online consults between 9am and 11am. I'm at work then. I'm chairing / leading meetings / workshops and being very actively involved with some very senior/important people with a very major deadline that we cannot miss or the consequences are very severe. Quite often I don't have the time to even have a wee between 7am and 3pm. So no, I can't just take 10 mins out of my day between 9am and 11am.

Yeh, this! Unfortunately the system is shit because it’s chronically underfunded and shit on from all angles. There aren’t enough doctors and they’re all leaving. There aren’t enough appointments.

Sorry, it’s utterly shit. I’m a GP but have no say in how the practice is run. We are utterly drowning though. My work days are 12-13 hours minimum with extra on the days I don’t work (I have a toddler). Please contact your MP, blame the government and choose your vote wisely at the next election. Systems like this are awful but they are just trying to keep afloat in a deluge.

Ours is similar but has deteriorated further - it’s not open every day unless they have the staff to monitor it. I tried last week and thought I was doing something wrong so phoned but they said it wasn’t operational that day. By that time I’d missed any available appointments via phone.

Google concierge doctor in my area. You may find your GP.

We're heading towards a two tier service. If employers want to retain staff private health care isn't expensive when done as a company.

I thought that they had by law to be available. Here our doctors close the surgery on one afternoon a week. A throw back to the old early closing day for businesses in the town but was told by someone who was doing their GP training at one of the practices that there was a doctor present in that particular afternoon for emergencies as the OOH didn't start until 5pm as they had to by law have a doctor available.

Ours is contact via the app for triage via message or if really lucky a call back. Between hours of 7 and 9am but if it "reaches capacity" it can shut everyone out earlier.
Usually the message back is "go and speak to the Pharmacist".
If you call them you do not get triaged just told no appointments and go to the Pharmacist.

And in case you didn't know, the government cut med school placments for 2022 intake by 25%.
One reason I can think of they might have done this is because the Tories know they've lost the next election, by the time we get to the election after that, the Tories will be able to point at Labour and say new doctor numbers have fallen under Labour.

Our surgery only allows you to fill out the eConsult form between certain hours. If you can't do it during those hours - tough. I don't recall exactly the hours, though they are not quite as restrictive as the OP's surgery , maybe 7am-3pm. And it doesn't take 10 minutes, it takes at least 20. Especially if you have to go back and tweak your answers so that they will accept the request and not reject it because 'chest pain/breathing difficulties -> A&E'. The chest pain is because the meds you prescribed last week have triggered my oesophagitis so I need a scrip for the omeprazole you refused to prescribe, despite knowing that I get oesophagitis, and told me to send a message next week if I found I needed it/ the difficulty breathing is because my asthma meds need tweaking, etc.

I would like to understand why a form-filling eConsult should not be available 24/7. The only reason I can think of is to reduce the number of requests to a level manageable without recruiting more staff.

Our practice stopped doing the drop in clinic when COVID and haven't reintroduced it. Very frustrating as the system is to call at 8 and play appt scramble. Unable to book an appt for anything apart from 'on the day' which is stupid e.g if you need a review. At least with the drop in clinic you could say to work I'm out from 8-12 and would be seen that day.

Prescriptions are also a mess as it's now 5 working days for any prescription requests even if it is sent electronically via the midwife or hospital adding another 3 days for the pharmacy to process it. Not the first time my DH has went to the MW admin office or the hospital to pick up a prescription and then physically go to the pharmacy when they will dispense on the spot 🙄 🤦‍♀️

At least I can get on with other jobs while waiting in a phone queue for 20m. Usually that's dressing and walking to work. I can't do that while filling in the eConsult form.

The practice manager and the GPs will care. I’m currently off recovering from cancer and my practice manager had to deal with complaints over me becoming unavailable. I vividly remember in the midst of hellish chemo seeing the local FB posts light up with what a joke our practice had become because there weren’t enough GPs. It has gone from a job I adored and took pride in to a job I can’t do safely. The number of patients needing our help with dwindling staff and resources has made it dangerous. This nation has underfunded and under-appreciated GP for so long that the few left holding the fort are ready to jump. The risk we carry, the incredible variety we have thrown at us every day and the unresourced transfer of work from hospitals is no longer sustainable. I’m so happy to be in remission but I lie awake at night trying to figure out how I get out of going back without letting down my incredible colleagues. The general public have no idea how bad things are and how much we actually do. As a patient I’ve seen it from both sides and I am gutted at what has been done to the profession and our patients.

Also, we’ve done so much to try to manage access. Every time we tweak it it’s a sign of desperation on our part. The demand outstrips supply every day and it just feels out of control. Patients are unhappy, we are unhappy and there is no one high up who seems remotely inclined to help us.

Current situation at our local surgery:

• Online booking system disabled, even for routine things like regular blood tests or prescription reviews.
• Same day appointment, you'd better be amongst the first in the phone queue on the dot of 8am.
• Other appointments, ring when you like but it's 2 weeks for a phone appointment or 4 weeks for a face-to-face. If you do get an appointment, the waiting rooms are deserted.

It looks like they're also scaling back on the ability to order repeat prescriptions online. How that's going to help anyone I have no idea. Or it may be our surgery trying to push us all onto the NHS app and away from the expensive website app they'd bought in to several of years ago.

Had to fill out an online registration form for a friend Filled out every field except one but form wouldnt submit because i couldnt fill in the landline no for his next of kin who no longer has a landline

Not saying the current state of affairs is in any way adequate, but look at this graph and it becomes clearer that it's not GPs/practices not working hard enough.

I would like to understand why a form-filling eConsult should not be available 24/7. The only reason I can think of is to reduce the number of requests to a level manageable without recruiting more staff.

I agree it should be available, ours was when it launched but then we got a communication from the surgery saying that it shouldn't be used for emergency requests as it isn't monitored ooo.

Then we got a further communication saying that it was going to be restricted to the working week because it was still being used incorrectly for urgent requests ooo.

So I can only assume that at least one person completed it at a weekend/overnight for something that they needed urgent medical attention for (even though it had big red warnings all over it not to)