Dr surgery offering appointments during school run?

[MuffinMouse]

The last three times I have tried to make a GP appointment I have been offered 3:00, 3:10 or 3:20. Primary schools here finish at 3:15. I am always asked by the receptionist if I can get someone else to collect my children, which I have previously done - but it seems unreasonable to ask. I got around it once by phoning up much later (11:30am) and got offered a 4pm. Leaving it till late morning on the off chance is a risk, as I have been told before that all appointments have gone.

It seems they won't prebook, or fill cetain slots until other times for appointments have gone. You have to phone from 8:30 to get a look in on decent times - and as a mum I leave for school with two little ones at 8:30 to get them there in time for 8:50! It seems a bit unfair.

If you need an appointment the same day then I think YABALittleBitU to expect much in the way of accommodation time wise.

I do think Drs surgeries and other service providers generally ought to be set up to be as accommodating as possible to the people they serve. But there are always going to be constraints that make it hard to be all things to all people.

Maybe you should look for a surgery that has a system that suits you better.

Look, we are talking a 5 minute telephone call at a slightly inconvenient time. Let's keep things in perspective. And with the OP being pregnant at the moment I dare make another far-out assumption that she has a Dh or DP who could take some responsibility for helping her out?

Are you sure you meant me? :)

Can all of you pick up other people's children from school? At our school we have a card with the child's photo on it and the names of people who are allowed to pick the child up. No card, no name = no child.

I work part-time in the Public Sector - there's no way I am going to give them more reasons to get rid of me. I am expected to go to appointments in non-working hours. Which is v reasonable.

You can only get an appointment on the same day. School run times are unpopular times for lots of patients - for children and mums who bring them, and do the school run. The surgery refuses to offer anything else until these have gone.

I often (not always) get the unpopular appointments. So must other people in my situation.

Walking with two young children in the city centre and on the phone - in icy conditions....

I meant thanks to Bonsoir and Valhalla.

If you phone at busy times to get a decent slot - you have to be prepared to stay on the phone for 20mins. It's a busy city centre practice....

YANBU.

Things you could do to help yourself though, that you may not have thought of:

Drive to school early one day to arrive at the gates/park up at 8:30 and ring from your car. The kids can wait in the car whilst you stand outside the car if they are prone to noisyness.

Actually, that's all I can think of! Hmmm maybe try that!

Actually I will try that Tatty.

Probably have to practive getting the kids out of the house earlier...but might be worth a try.

Cristina, I'm perfectly calm thank you. :)

Where I am concerned, "no-one" means no-one when my children were small and I had to do the school run. Still don't as it happens, just that now my DC are older and don't need me to take them into school. My parents and I have lived at least 70 miles from each other for more than 20 years, my friends, many of whom also live a considerable distance away, are all working people who are not in a position to escort my children.

Surely I'm not alone in those, or similar, circumstances?

Also, its all very well saying about the surgery not organising their lives around you etc etc but sometimes a little bit of juggling can make all the difference.

I used to commute into London from a town about an hour and a half away. If I rang up at half 8 when the doctors surgery opened, that was the best I could do in terms of effort on my part. I then would be perhaps offered an appointment at 11am and I'd always say "do you not have something earlier?"

Simply because by even staying home until 8:30 to ring I'd already be half an hour late to work if they had nothing (law firm, so started at half 9am). If I then had to wait around till 11am for an appointment, by the time I was on my way to work it would be half 12 or later.

You shouldn't have to take a half day's holiday from work just to get some steroid cream for your flaky bits!

Whilst you have no more right to be there and you are no more important than the next person, the more leeway the people who book the appointments can give, the better. Much easier now I dont work but I used to just avoid going to the doctor for things where I really should have been seen, but it was just too damn difficult.

if you have no family support locally, can you cultivate support networks involving the other parents at school? dh and I have done plenty of "favours" for other parents when they've been in a tight spot and I now have a list of people we could call on if we were stuck ourselves. Lots of parents at our school do likewise.

You are not alone Vallhala. I sympathise.

Lots of mums just get on with it. We have to, we are expected to. Others, depend on us, who can't look after themselves. We can't look after others if our health lets us down.

Having a DP or lots of friends to stand in when you need them would be great. But isn't the reality for lots of mums trying to work/be everything to everyone. No whinge intended. Just a fact for many.

I have just accepted that I can't see a Dr today. I will try again tomorrow. And the next day. I have the option of phoning a hospital ward - but have respected the huge demands on them. So will wait.

I recognise the huge demands on many systems, services and people.

Lecturing just gives more burdens. That's why a bit of acknowledgement at the PITA of it and a practical suggestion is always welcome. Smugness isn't.

The thing is if some surgeries can get things so right (my doctors for example) why can't others ( a neighbouring surgery is awful for getting appointments)

Don't any of your surgeries have on-line booking? That's an enormous help - you can pick the slot, and the specific doctor, you want without feeling you're hacking off the receptionist.

MuffinMouse - being a AIBU thread I thought you were being unreasonable and said so. Not smug at all, in fact I sympathise with a lot of your situation, I just think it can be overcome. I would not put off seeing a doctor if it's pregnancy-related. Please phone the ward if you have any concerns, that's why you were given open access. It won't help staying at home and worrying.

We have to ring at exactly 8 am for an appointment, whether urgent or not. Absolute madness for patients and I would have thought for staff.

We all end up with our fingers hovvered over the keypad at exactly 8 am like someone trying to get Take That tickets or something. A moment too soon and the phone isn't answered. A moment too late and no chance of an appointment this week.

Luckily even with a family of five we rarely need to see anyone (and when we do our GP is fantastic) so it's a rare issue.

Online booking does that really exist anywhere. Not even sure our local hospital has it?? Sounds wonderful though.

Our doctor's has a turn up and wait system, even for routine blood tests. It drives me mad. Turn up at 8am and there'll be 20 people waiting for the doors to open. They don't actually see anyone until 8.30.

There's this automatic presumption that if you're seeing the doctor you must be ill and off work but thousands of people have chronic conditions that require regular appointments. The concept that people actually work (or have other commitments)and need to fit appointments around that seems an alien one at my surgery.

Yabu

Yes! At ours, I promise. Google your surgery and see if there's a facility available. You have to set it up in advance by filling in a form at reception, they send you a registration code and you're away. You can order repeat prescriptions too, the lot. Is good.

There def isn;t at my surgerty. They have a very simple website - I went onto it to email a thank-you letter after the practice nurse went above and beyond the call of duty with ds. Not sure if they received the email though.

magicmummy, the last thing I, as someone who has her own children 24/7, want is to do favours caring for other people's DC in order to be able to get to the doctor's surgery!

Pay a childminder, yes, take my DDs out of school early, fine, get in late, I'll do that too... but do the mums at the school gate sharing childcare thing, no thanks!

I do realise that I'm going to be told, "Well don't complain then!". For the record, I didn't - I took my girls in late or picked them up early and took them to the GP with me.

I still think that the system whereby you can't see a GP the same day unless you call at 8.30 am and then have to take whatever you're told you must take is seriously flawed though.

In my case the last appointment to be offered in the morning is 11am. The first bus out of my village to the one which has the GP's surgery in it is at 11.30am.

As I said, the scheme is seriously flawed.

Old surgery used to have online repeat prescription service and booking. Even had a touchscreen which you booked in on at reception. No need to speak to a receptionist at all.

If I need to phone the surgery at 8.30 - ie during school run - I use my mobile. And if the only appointment I can get clashes with school run, then I take the child out of school early.

It's a pain that sometimes I can only get blood test appointments mid-morning, but, quite reasonably, the first slots are reserved for fasting tests. Which is also a pain because fasting tests clash with the school run. So the dc are either hideously early, or I drop them off at a nearby classmate's house, or they're late.

You just have to cope.

So YABU.

so the least desirable slots are the ones most likely to be available? Well I never.