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.

Our surgery is great, always get same day appointment if necessary, or they arrange for GP to phone you same day. What İ don't understand is why such variation around the country. My MİL in a busy town had NO GP at all for the last year, just locums, and impossible to get appointments. Apparently they could not find a GP to work there - so I guess it depends on staffing levels?

@Oblomov23 It's not permanent. I'm working on something that is time critical and the consequences of not meeting that timeline are severe. Certainly at a national level (non-UK, a different country), possibly at a global level. I'm not saying that to make me sound like the big I am, I'm one of many involved, but just trying to explain why taking 10 mins 9am-11am because that's when is convenient for my GP surgery isn't an option for me. I wouldn't even be trying to contact my GP if my issue wasn't serious.

This.

Our access closes once all the "requests" have reached "capacity". So say in theory on Tuesdays they accept requests from 8am to 9am - in reality at 8:16 the quota has been filled so that's that for the day. I am at work at that time most days.

On top of that they are unavailable most Fridays due to staffing issues - emergencies only.

I have no idea what people without the Internet do.

If you dropped dead they'd find a replacement. The sky wouldn't fall in (attribute Chicken Licken)

The other thing they tend to do at my surgery is change repeat medication without letting you know beforehand. I went online to order a monthly repeat prescription a few days ago, only to find they'd changed it to three monthly.

Not having 10 mins in a fixed window of time to econsult is a long way from dropping dead @justasking111 🙄

Apologies as I haven't RTFT but I'm a GP receptionist at a medium sized practice and this morning when the phone lines opened at 8am we had no GP appointments, either by phone or face to face. We had appointments with our paramedic and advanced nurse practitioner, but not with a GP. We are supposed to signpost patients to other services such as opticians for eye problems, the "winter hub" at a health centre a couple of miles away, the urgent care centre attached to A&E, etc.
One thing we are cracking down on is patients who don't turn up for appointment. We had more than 100 missed appointments in May, nearly four per cent of all appointments. Of course a few of those patients would have been in hospital or had other genuine reasons but the majority simply "forgot." They will be sent several warning letters, finally invited in for a meeting with a GP and ultimately kicked off the books.
I got an appointment with my own GP at another surgery this afternoon after ringing mid-morning worried about a lump in my breast (luckily turned out to be just a cyst), so if it's something potentially serious like that there are often urgent slots available.
I know it's really frustrating but please don't take it out on the poor receptionists. It is a national crisis, we try our best, are poorly paid and out up with a lot of abuse!

Ps we are trying to encourage patients to contact us online but of course older people often can't. The online service closes at busy times when a certain number of queries are reached and reopens when some have been dealt with.

Sorry, just to add we aren't medically trained but have to triage as best we can - there is no set list of questions, it's mostly common sense e.g. Hayfever can wait a few days, whereas chest pain is 999 unless it's something like chest pain from a cough in which case it would be the ANP or paramedic. Babies and the elderly are prioritised. It can be a hard call to make and we're very aware a mistake could cost a life.

@Papergirl1968
One thing we are cracking down on is patients who don't turn up for appointment. We had more than 100 missed appointments in May, nearly four per cent of all appointments

And I've spent four days now trying to get through on the phone to cancel an appointment.
Can't message, as messages are through PATCHS which are open for 10 minutes once a day. This is always really two minutes.
This must be happening all over the bloody country 🤬

I know how frustrating it is, @EasyPeelersAreNotSatsumas I wish I had some solutions.

I cancel by email luckily

Had a lovely receptionist recently, my back had been particularly bad had arranged a phone call back in two weeks time. Back went into spasms during the night was in agony. OH insisted I phoned surgery. Took nearly an hour to get through but as soon as the receptionist triaged me I had an appointment in two hours. GP watched me walking down the corridor. I said I'd been seeing a chiropractor and osteopath for six months and yet here we are. He put me on nerve blockers which did work for the spasms.

Consultant arranged, scan done it's not great news but that receptionist did triage and get the ball rolling bless her.

This with bells on.

Thank you to the Tory government for this shitshow.

Our GP is shocking for getting normal appointments. Only way appears to be calling at 8am for an emergency appointment if you can get one, telephone appointments are currently about 3 weeks in advance, then could be a couple more weeks if you need a face to face.

My 15yo DS has just dislocated his knee cap for the 2nd time, it popped back in relatively quickly this time (last time was several hours before someone could put it back in so was an ambulance job) so we thought we would not waste A&E time. Called GP to get appt so we can get physio referral but can only get a phone call appt in a few weeks then they will refer to physio after that. I called physio dept, physio called back within an hour and they said I can self refer but as it is a recurrent injury then best way is to get GP to refer. I explained our crappy GP situation to them and the physio said she will refer him herself (no idea how they are able to bypass the proper procedure) and got a text minutes later to say the referrel has been made. It's ridiculous the GPs are not able to do their job properly.

The system is shocking. It 100% puts people off from trying to make appts and this genuinely must mean that some serious conditions are missed.

Not in Wales we can't. Our health board £122 million went missing last year. Been in special measures for 8 years. Our hospitals are understaffed, dirty, 7 chief executives in 13 years, health minister sacked the board because they complained that they were consistently lied to by management.

All under labour, not conservatives, not plaid.

I work alongside GP surgeries who have paramedics etc, such a great model and definitely the way forward as there is so much that a paramedic or nurse practitioner can help with. I really wish my own practice I am registered with had paramedic appts etc, would have been perfect for my son as he doesn't need to see a GP, he needed to know that his knee cap dislocation was back in place ok and a physio referral. To have to wait 3 weeks for a phone call that I hopefully don't miss as it will be some time before 1pm on that day is disgusting TBH. The receptionist was lovely about it all and looked totally embarrassed about not even being able to give me an idea of days/weeks of when the appointment would be. We happened to be at the surgery the day after the accident as DS required an ECG after CAMHS referrel so I was lucky I could actually chat to receptionist to chase it up.

I sent a complaint email to my practice manager this morning and received a phonecall back within 10 minutes.
To be fair to the guy , he explained about the staffing difficulties and said they would take on board my sensible suggestions when making change to the website.

So glad to see this thread! Been fuming for days! Had a heart attack in February. Not seen a GP since. There is only the 8am scramble option and twice I've got to the end of the queue to find there are no appointments left. Grr. So my cardiologist wrote to my GP on 2nd June to ask for 2 new medications for me. One appeared on the prescription, one didn't. Trying to find out why one hasn't been prescribed yet is like some kind of farce. In the end I posted a handwritten letter through the door. Got a text to say that yes, the cardiologist had written and if I wanted to proceed with the other medication I needed to make a "routine" appointment. Which can only be done via the 8am lottery. So I can't access medication a cardiologist has said I need without going through some ridiculous hoop. Thinking of changing surgeries. It's madness.

I managed to complete an E consult form today. Wanted an appt to discuss 2 hernias that have grown larger and become more uncomfortable since surgery 10 years ago.
Got this as a result. Nothing else.

Well yes exactly - if they have contacted you - not if they have tried and failed to contact you. So if you can’t submit that E consult because the system has shut down due to being at capacity then you haven’t contacted the doctor (some grey area for those who have existing conditions that the Gp knows needs a follow up)

in short the system incentivises GPs to see fewer patients to a good standard not to see more patients to a lower standard. So the GP practice is going to limit itself to the number of patient consults/contacts it can safely manage with the resource/time it has. There is no incentive to squeeze extras in or try and rush through more patients in the time they have, infact it’s disincentivised - each consult will be judged as if it happened in perfect conditions, there is no defence of “well I did miss asking about x/y/z because I only had five mins to see Mrs Jones because I was trying to see more patients that day”

ideally we would have more GPs so that everyone that needs to can be seen to a good standard but we don’t - so we either have:

1. some patients being seen to a good standard and some not being seen at all OR
2. More patients being seen but all to a less good standard

The cardiologist could of course prescribe the medication themselves as they are contracted and able to do but instead they fob it off to the GP and the GP gets the blame…..

That's awful.

There is an elderly lady who my parents keep an eye on. She doesn't even have a mobile phone never mind the internet.

Did your cardiologist give you a prescription for the drug? And if not, why on earth are you cross with the GP and not the cardiologist? NHS hospital contracts clearly state that it's up to the consultant to give the first script - that would have allowed a month for the letter to be done and it to have appeared on your repeat.

"Did your cardiologist give you a prescription for the drug? And if not, why on earth are you cross with the GP and not the cardiologist? NHS hospital contracts clearly state that it's up to the consultant to give the first script - that would have allowed a month for the letter to be done and it to have appeared on your repeat."

No my cardiologist didn't give me a script. He wrote to the GP 3 weeks ago asking that the GP prescribe 2 medications: 1 was prescribed by GP, 1 wasn't. I just want the 2nd prescribed or to know why it's not been. It is the GP who has not prescribed the medication, hence my irritation. I've not seen the cardiologist in person either. To get a simple answer, I need to join an 8am lottery. I don't need an appointment, just information.

Ours is phone or go online at 8am to leave details and someone will triage it and call back to speak that day, or send a text with details of another day they will ring or to tell you to make appointment for bloods etc.

Both online and phones close by 8.15 as they have reached capacity.