At our GP practice EVERYTHING has to be communicated through the NHS app. TBF, the triage system for getting an appointment works well, as does ordering repeat prescriptions that are already on my repeats list. But everything else is so difficult. Recent experiences through the app include:
) Receiving a message at 4pm through the app telling me to check my blood pressure on my own blood pressure monitor at home (I don’t have one) at 9am and 6pm for four days beginning the very next day and my not being able to respond to this (by means of a sending a new message) due to messaging being shut down for the rest of the day. Sure I can pop into my local pharmacist and do this in the morning but there’s nothing open nearby at 6pm and I don’t drive at nights to get 5 miles across town to a late night one.
2) Getting them to correctly prescribe eyedrops that my hospital consultant has prescribed and that GP needs to continue with, despite the consultant having already emailed GP directly, not to mention my uploading photos of said prescription. On one occasion they switched the antibiotic single unit drops with the steroid multibottle drops, meaning that I was given two and a half days worth of steroid single unit drops and now have antibiotic multiuser bottle drops that I only needed for a month clogging up my fridge.
3). Not confirming whether or not they have referred me for an updated DEXA scan. I am due a five year anniversary one now and have messaged to request the referral. I’ve no idea whether the referral has actually been made.
It feels completely hopeless.
I regard written communication as one of my great strengths and have a degree in English, so I really don’t believe that I am the problem here!
Are others experiencing this too? I know that I would not have this problem if I dropped in and sorted this out in person, but they strongly discourage this.