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

oh good for you, good luck op @debbs77

My cat gets much better access to healthcare than me. Vet provides 24 hour service and free phone advice at anytime day or night. Always get an appointment when needed. Can see the vet she knows and knows her.
Poor NHS is on it’s knees after 14 years of tory rule. Sadly things are so bad that even a change of government will still needs years before we see real improvement.

@blackcats7 Indeed. My little rescue cat is going to the vet tomorrow to have XRays and some teeth extracted (she had calici virus as a kitten. The locum vet saw her about three weeks ago, the head vet last Monday because I wanted a 2nd opinion.

The quote is £660. The service is fab because money changes hands at the point of delivery and vets aren't state run.

I know which service I prefer.

UPDATE

I had emergency gall bladder removal surgery yesterday and it was a big success.

I really can't fault the experience with the hospital. Four hours saturday afternoon for blood tests.

Four hours sunday morning for a scan.

In at 8am Monday for surgery and out in the afternoon.

Removed a 5mm stone from my bile duct plus obviously my gall bladder.

Encouraged to 'shimmy' coming out of surgery to release the gas which helped tremendously. Not in any pain today. Just very slow.

The hospital were amazing. The GP surgery was the issue, especially the receptionist deciding to triage!

Thankfully I have a wonderful brood of children all looking after each other (eldest is 20 and a driver which helps massively!). So I've stayed overnight with my youngest daughter's Dad (we don't live together) and been well looked after. Couldn't risk a 3 year old who co-sleep climbing all over me. Plus I was very week all night to today.

So glad to hear you are on the mend!
The GP..... I do not really know what to say....

I definitely think when you are up to it, it warrants a letter into the practice manager, if for nothing more than to avoid this again with someone else. The fact you needed emergency surgery that urgently and you couldnt even get a GP to see you is shocking.

I hope you are recovering well and getting much needed rest

I agree with the letter. We went through similar, DH was triaged by the receptionist, told he wasn't an emergency until he called back and told the receptionist that the British Live Trust nurses had said he needed a same day appointment. Treatment by the GP was poor as well even when his bloods came back seriously out of range still no urgent action was taken until I questioned his treatment (he was too unwell by this point). DH went on to be diagnosed with bile duct cancer.

I am very glad your son’s finger got sorted, but your gp system isolates and discriminates against people who don’t have access to email, or aren’t confident with writing, or don’t speak or write English well. We do need a health system that takes account of everyone’s needs and abilities, including the many people who are already at a disadvantage in society. The old system of going to the surgery, or making a phone call was much easier for many.

in my gp’s surgery for example there is a dedicated phlebotomist, the system used to be that if the gp wanted you to have a blood test , they printed off the request, you took it downstairs and had the blood test immediately or came back the next day if it was a fasting one. Now you get the same request form, the gp texts you a code, you log on to a central provider, input the code and your details, find the facility local to you that has a space on their appointments list, book the appointment and turn up and hand over the original request form……….fine for me I can do it, but then I have access to a mobile, decent internet at home, and I am a good reader.

It doesn't, because you can also still ring for an appointment like in the olden days (a system that discriminates against people who are unable to speak on the phone, like my son with selective mutism....). It's just most people don't as email is easier.

In 2003 it was estimated that about 7,000,000 people in the UK don’t have access to the internet. That’s a lot of people.

The old system wasn’t perfect, I take your point about phone calls not being accessible to all, but it was a lot simpler.

7,000,000!

Where my Dad lives, his surgery are excellent. In fact, him moving has likely saved his life. Turned out he has blood clots, and gets weekly blood tests, warfarin adjustments etc. Gets test results the same day.

When he was scanned they found evidence of a previous blood clot that had actually dissipated (I think). At his old GP he could never get an appointment.

I'll definitely be writing to the practice manager.

I'll also be sending a thank you card to the wonderful out of hours GP that I saw on saturday. She rang the ward directly to get me seen

2003 was 21 years ago. There were no smart phones. Broadband wasn't a thing.

It's hardly relevant to today's problems.

It's like the people who didn't want to get a telephone in the 1960s. At some point you just have to join the modern world, if you can.

Sorry, I mistyped, that statistic was from 2023.