To think my GP Surgery should stop taking new patients?

[VioletVaccine]

Obviously I know everyone needs access to a Doctor. But, our doctor surgery is absolutely jam packed every single day.
It takes 3 weeks to get a general doctor's appointment, and up to 5 weeks to see your named GP. I'm not exaggerating!

I phoned for an appt for DD1 on Monday for a possible ear infection, they booked her in for March 28th. I said its a bit more urgent than that, reception said "Well if she is suffering, you'll have to attend the Walk in Centre".
Fair enough if that's necessary, but outside the surgery doors, there's a big banner that says, "We welcome new NHS Patients".

AIBU to think, if a surgery is that over-run you need to wait a month to see a Doctor, it's wrong to keep taking in more patients?

Why should people need to attend a Walk-in Centre for 4 hours because they can't see their own doctor for a month, while the surgery they are registered with are encouraging new patients to register?

Just out of interest what actually happens when a GPs surgery physically cannot offer any more? Our surgery is in a very inappropriate tall thin house - it's over four or five storeys with no lift. The waiting room is about 10x10. There are usually people sitting on the stairs while they wait for their appointments. They can't appoint more GPs (even if they could find them) as they don't have any rooms for them.

What is the legal situation then or do they just keep on taking on new patients until the wait for an appointment is 10 years and the crowd outside is spilling onto the road?

All for a bottle of medicine that our doctor could have known she needed in a 5 minute appointment. It's just frustrating

So instead if posting here, email the practice manager.

VioletVaccine

My DH works f/t, 2 other children aside from DD with an ear infection, and no family. I can't tell you what a nightmare it was waiting 4.5 bloody hours in a boiling hot packed waiting room, with poorly DD and also trying to entertain a bored 8yo and disabled DS, because my GP surgery is packed to the rafters.

And what situation would people be put in if they couldn't register as patients at all? Can they access a walk-in centre?

But everyone else has the same right to be treated as your DD. If you don't like the system at you're current practice then move to a different one. But due to funding issues and government policies all GPs have these issues to some degree. I'm surprised they don't give on the day appointments though, every surgery I've ever had (five in 10 years as I've moved) has done that, if you call first thing in the morning you'll be seen that day.

It's crap to say if you don't like it, move. Much better to raise the concern formally with the surgery. They need patient input.

By all means raise it with the practice but doing something about how it affects you in your situation is much more proactive

Don't email the manager. Email your MP. we have restricted our list to 10 new patients a week only as we can't cope with more new patients at a time. They take time. We have also restricted it to people who have moved into the area and not people who are just wanting to change GPs who live in thhat GPs catchment area.
Employing new GPs 1. There are none. 2. We don't get any more money to take on new GPs so can't afford to do that.
What we don't need now is people moaning at us about it. We don't have time to reply and it is taking staff away from the jobs they need to do.
In Scotland GPs used to get 11% of the healthcare budget now it is 7.4% all the money is going into waiting list initiatives which is fine but it is papering over the cracks and not dealing with the real problem.

Don't email the manager. Email your MP

this

I never thought to message our MP. This genuinely hasn't tried to be a snipe at our Health services, I know they are strained to breaking point. I'll have a look online and see if there's anything that can be done.

The more people who complain to the MPs the better. Once we're(GPs) gone we will be missed and people will actually realise how much work we do and what a difficult job it is.

Closing your list is a major deal. Often, it's not allowed. It would reduce your funding- typical way of if you admit you're struggling, you get money taken away, so you struggle more...

Many practices can't recruit doctors, even if they want to around here, so just getting more doctors is not possible.

www.pulsetoday.co.uk/your-practice/practice-topics/practice-income/one-in-three-gp-requests-to-close-practice-lists-blocked-by-nhs-england/20005988.fullarticle

The NHS is falling apart.

On purpose.

LOL at the pps who think that practices should just "employ more doctors". I work in an area that used to get 100s of applicants for each GP job advertised. Now one appointable applicant is considered an excellent outcome - most adverts (each of which costs about £3,000) attract no responses.

If anyone out there is cloning GPs, feel free to PM me

And it's only going to get worse with the new Junior Contract as no one applies to GP training, and goes abroad.

Good luck, everyone!

Just to say my GP surgery is brilliant. Excellent doctors. My Mum's GP too is wonderful. I know we are lucky to have the NHS.

We do need to educate the public not to go rushing to the GP for everything though. Many appointments are wasted.

Sorry - that post sounds smug - it was meant to say that I appreciate what the GPs do for us. I also can see the service is at breaking point; cuts, recruitment, impossible targets etc.

I moved to a new area last November. I went to my nearest local GP surgery and asked to register. The receptionist gave us the forms and then told us they were an extremely busy surgery and the next available appointments were in the new year. When I enquired further, it was actually mid January. This was 10th/11th November. So 8 weeks for an appointment.

It did the trick and scared us off and we registered at a surgery a little further away.

Another reason to be glad not to be living in the UK. I ring my surgery and can get an appt tomorrow, with the dr and time of my choice. Same day if urgent, without fail.

How do you put up with such terrible services?

I definitely agree!! But the action isn't immediate, it can take 4-6 weeks to actually stop taking on patients so in the meantime, they'll have to accept new patients!

A X-post...

Doctors have a separate budget to hospitals, I believe it's the CCG who find GP surgeries now! So if the practice runs out of money, there isn't a lot they can do..

GP surgeries are funded by £75.77 per patient for all 'core' medical services.

They get extra for ticking boxes for chronic disease management- asthma checks, diabetes clinics etc, but not as much as they used to.

They also get small pots for other services- contraception, picking up dementia earlier, minor injuries, minor operations etc. This varies by area.

GP surgeries are usually small businesses, with the GPs as the partners. More and more now are being run by private companies. Everyone struggles to recruit and retain GPs.

When the NHS is fully privatised, you will not get a year of GP care for £75.77, you just won't. Countries where access is easier don't provide all the appointments you want for £75.77/year.

Can I ask how much you pay for that service Ziggy?

And as I said in another thread
GPs pay their owns electricity, gas, postage, cleaning, decorating, window cleaning, gardening, security, telephone costs, staff wages, staff national insurance staff pensions, their own employees and employers national insurance. Some of us have to pay for the urine dipsticks out of our own pocket too. These costs have gone up so much over the last 10 years.

We even pay for the payroll software and the accounting software to do our wages and finances, oh and our accountants bills so that we pay the correct amount of tax and pension contributions.

And we pay for our own indemnity insurance which varies between different companies and where you work. GPs who want to do out of hours work as well as daytime can be paying £10-12000 per year to cover this.

So at the end of the day no one wants to work as a partner any more which is sad as its a great job with a lot of job satisfaction if we are allowed to get on with it.

And next year in scotland we are going to have to have regular "cluster" meetings to discuss services yet again taking us away from doing the real job.

I do love my job. I've been in my practice since 1991 and know a lot of the patients really well. But sometimes it is impossible to cope with the relentless workload and unreasonable demands on our time. That's not the patients either.

Nothing, creampie. I pay nothing.

Urm... well, someone pays something!

How much is your primary care service funded per head, ZiggyFartdust. Free at the point of use, while important, does not mean you pay nothing. Somebody pays something!