To get a GP call today it took me......

[debbs77]

Call the GP to be told there are no appointments left but to try the pharmacy, "sounds like a UTI and they can help"

Go to pharmacy.....can't help.

Ring for afternoon GP appointment, nope none left, but can send you the link for Push Doctor to book a video consultation? No appointments til monday 3pm.

Try a different pharmacy, can help but don't have the antibiotics I need. Recommends another pharmacy. Go there. He says it is an upper UTI and he can't give strong enough antibiotics for that.

Ring another pharmacy to see if that was just that one pharmacist but no, he can't either. Suggests 111 to get a clinician to call me.

Ring 111. He books.....wait for it.....for MY GP TO CALL ME.

Couldn't write this stuff.

In the meantime, my wee is a funky yellow colour, and my daughter walked in (adult daughter) and says "blimey your eyes look yellow". Good timing as the GP rang just after so I told him that too.

Being booked in next week for an appointment for an abdominal scan and maybe blood tests.

No pain tonight currently thankfully xx

Nurse here- I'm shocked that your GP didn't see you with yellow eyes and darker urine.
It's not strictly for a&e but you do need to be seen asap.
If your symptoms worsen then you need to go to a walk in centre or a&e.
Once you're sorted then you need to put in a complaint

Disorganisation at practice level is spectacular.

I changed Dr's recently. The old practice now has 34,000 patients, two main branches and three small ones. Reception staff are paid minimum wage and are, on the whole, vile. The practice is now refusing to refer to anywhere but the local district hospital and telling people there are no options and it's the CCG's decision. It's garbage, my MP wrote to the CCG and said it wasn't true.

One of the senior partners is also GP to the local public school and a director of a local private hospital where patients are filtered for NHS treatment. Other partners do private clinics at local hospitals.

The new practice, normal sized, is a zillion times better and their staff are polite and helpful.

My old GP said he can't get any partners for the practise the doctors only want to work as locums/self-employed for tax purposes and because they don't want to do the paper work and have the responsibility of running the practise or doing anti-social hours. Now all the doctors seem to work from home doing phone appointments only 90% of the time.

I am on the patient partnership group at my GPs surgery. We meet a few times a year. Last week we met to discuss appointments. We were told that one of the biggest issues nationally is the reduction in the number of GPs.
Because of a change in the pension rules, lots of older GPs have retired early, and there just aren’t the number of new GPs coming through to replace them.
Our surgery has lost 2 GPs this way, and can only get 1 part time replacement. They are introducing a new system whereby anyone who wants an appointment will go online and complete a short form, which will be triaged initially by an appointments manager, then filtered to the relevant person. You can request a face to face appointment with a range of HCPs or a telephone call back. People who have a condition that can be dealt with by a pharmacist will be directed there.
Let’s see how well it works!!!

Absolutely this. All this is definitely deliberate to get people clamouring to sell the NHS off even more. Next thing we know, we'll be just like America.

Yes, I also definitely think that the collapse of the NHS is so that American health care is able to filter off the lucrative parts of healthcare. I think that it should be compulsory that MPs and their families use the NHS.

I pay for private health care and consider it an essential. I'm far from well off, earn minimum wage, drive a 15 year old rust bucket and haven't had the heating on all winter. I do appreciate I'm still in a better position than many, and I have no pre existing health conditions which makes it relatively affordable.

All tales of GPs aside, if you suddenly have yellow eyes you need to be seen this weekend. Sudden onset jaundice is an emergency and the doctor shouldn't be making you wait. The same thing happened to my DH, eyes yellow, funky coloured urine and he was told the same as you but the GP was wrong and he should've been seen same day for blood tests.

I have recently taken out private health care insurance, as I no longer trust that the NHS health care system is viable. After having private surgery last year, it really did highlight how underfunded and inadequate the NHS services really are, yes it is expensive, and I'm thankful that I can do this, especially as I'm getting older, for me, it's having peace of mind,and no, we are not rich, by any stretch of the imagination, but I'd rather have that than, holidays, cars etc.

Just to agree with the others commenting on yellow eyes and dark urine you need seeing before the planned GP appointment, please consider the walk in centre or A&E

It's so frustrating and sad to hear of people taking out private health care because of the state the NHS is in. I don't blame anyone at all for that though and have even considered it myself despite the fact that I wholeheartedly believe in and support the NHS.

It is a definite ploy by the Government to introduce private health care. Driving the service down forces people to make the choice to go private which then gives great stats on the number of people who "want" private health care.

We can see it happening before our eyes and are powerless to stop it. And you can bet we will look at the scary system in the US for a model rather than looking closer to home for alternatives.

I am beginning to feel anxious about getting older. ☹️

Op, I hope you're getting the help you need. I'm just adding my commiserations as your account of your experience is so familiar to me. I really want my mum to visit but she has health conditions that spontaneously at times need the right care at the right moment to save her life and I don't trust my local provision.

Not fit for purpose. I've got an ongoing back issue. I've been discharged, offered no treatment options, now got a complaint going with pals to try and be seen.

My GP is excellent, getting to see him is difficult. It's a small practice with one other Dr and if one is off and they can't get a locum they go into crisis mode.

You phone at 8.30 for an appointment. I have been holding for 50 minutes sometimes. It's annoying there is no queue announcement.

The Dr will ring you back and will see you / signpost as needed.

My GP was so good last year with helping push for a sooner appointment with a hospital dept for my son. He commented it was hard enough for him as a Dr to get through and actually speak to someone.

At our hospital consultation I was advised to go to a&e and play up the child's symptoms or pay to go private otherwise I'd have to wait a year for an "urgent" scan.

We ended up going private, had the scan done within a fortnight which meant we could start treatment at our next consultant appointment. I am so scared to think about what would have happened to my child if he'd have had to wait a year.

thats good that you are being offered a scan next week

My GP is openly rationing care now. They sent an email that they are only treating to a safe limit. They even shut the e consult forms very often. It's a nightmare.

what are the change in pension rules? out of interest.
retire and work less after retirement?

Thank you. I've woken in pain and was going to go to the walk in clinic. It says on their site that to avoid the extra triage wait to book via 111. They now have a GP calling me this morning in the next 2 hours.

My children all had a sickness bug this week (5 home puking was a joy!) So I thought I just had that to start with. Then passed from pillar to post yesterday.

Just had a call from a GP who will see me to assess me today

oh that is a relief, hope you get the treatment and care you need

I had a UTI when I was in work a few months ago, blood in my urine and in a lot of pain. I was 2 hours from home so unable to drop a sample down and they would be closed by the time I got home at 7pm.

Phoned the surgery, and when I eventually got past the gatekeeper (receptionist) and persuaded her to get the GP to phone me
(Which she was adamant he wouldn't do anything without seeing me) he asked my symptoms and if I'd had one before, then left a prescription at reception for my son to pick up for me. I started antibiotics that night.

That is good news, I hope you are soon on the mend.

Sorry u are in pain but at least it will get you seen.
You will be sorted soon dont worry.
I had dark wee pale poo and yellow eyes and i had an acute liver infection that came on v suddenly. I was at the gp at 10 am and in a hospital by 6pm after urgent bloods. Im v glad u will be seen today they should sort you fast.

I don’t think this is the government’s fault. The fact that GP surgeries vary is evidence of that. GPs manage themselves and the change to some is definitely since Lockdown. The recorded messages are sometimes on the hostile side. A lot of GPs only want to work part time ( and can’t blame them), but it does mean people can’t be seen

E-consult works really well, and should be rolled out by all GP's. Practices within the NHS are varied, we can all see that. Some GP's run really well, others don't, with the SAME budgets. So it isn't money. It's management.

What was the stat this week, that only a handful of NHS trusts contribute to 75% of long waits?

There are opportunities available to improve. The pharmacy first model, a pharmacist last night on TV, with 24/7 auto robotic dispensing (the Netherlands have had this for years), and minor triage and treatments, funded by NHS, a one stop shop for elderly complex patients, from GP's to bloods to social services, funded by NHS.

Of course more money will help, more professionals, but systems also have to change and become more efficient.

I had to ring the doctor for my dad yesterday as he's worried about prostate symptoms. Took me 195 redials before I got through.

Yes. 195.

He got an appointment, was with the doctor for less than 3 minutes who didn't so much as touch him. Told him to go for bloods next week and to take a urine sample with him. So if he already has an infection, he's been told to live with it for 6 more days.

I'm so cross about it.