AIBU to expect to be able to email my GP

[billysboy]

I am having a bit of a time with my 80yo Dad atm and I am amazed that the NHS does not seem to communicate patient to doctor via email choosing instead snail mail which I would have thought is no more secure and certainly not as quick for booking of appointments and results

I want to email my Dads GP outlining the situation so that I can be sure that nothing is lost in translation from the receptionist to the doctor and or back again

I have been told I can write in but no email available WTF ! its 2018

billysboy
If it would just be sending a pdf of the paper letter by email then that might be someone at the surgery who can change outgoing communication preferences.

That seems reasonable enough.

In the US most of our clinicians have secure email systems that you can email on. They respond within a matter of 6-8 hours, almost always!

I imagine they do get a lot of emails, but it probably also cuts out a lot of unnecessary appointments. I know I've messaged about whether to bring a child in, and they said "nope, we know that one, it's the virus going around, keep him home and he'll be well in a week."

In the US most of our clinicians have secure email systems that you can email on. They respond within a matter of 6-8 hours, almost always!
Yes but that is a private healthcare system and not a taxpayer funded state healthcare like the NHS.

Many of us (I guess) would not want to trade our system for private health just so we can have doctors sending emails instead of clinical work.

OK last Thursday Dad had a sigmoidoscopy and we were given a report and diagrams directly afterwards
I dropped a copy of this off to the reception at the GPs surgery at lunchtime Thursday as they had previously not got reports through prior to GP appointments
Long story short the GP had to attend a home visit with Dad today and kindly called me back afterwards this evening GP had not seen the report as admin had not loaded it up yet
I told her what it said but would have been useful to have emailed it over so she could have seen diagrams etc

Goon the practice website,they will have am email address but it depends whether they use it for correspondence or just with other NHS services.

Not so funny story and trying to get patients to use the correct service

A couple of years ago my friend complained to her MP that her dad's GP's receptionist was really rude and didn't book an appointment.

What happened? Her dad rang the practice with chest pains so the receptionist told him to hang up and dial 999. He kept asking for the GP so after telling him a couple of times to ring 999, she hung up on him and called the ambulance herself.

Given the shortage of GPs and the number of people who would email instead of going to a pharmacist over a minor ailment (or calling the non-emergency number), I can see why a GP would not want to have this. Even if spam could be filtered out.

I do think that appointments should be able to be booked via the internet though. With the caveat that this facility is withdrawn if misused or an appointment is missed.

Though if Jeremy Hunt had a financial interest in email or internet appointments via a software company, maybe it would have happened by now.

op
More of an annoying admin failure than a reason for GPs to take direct emails in my opinion.

YABU. GPs simply do not have the time for patients to have direct access.

Can you imagine the emails....

Dear GP my toenail is a bit sore, I've had a cold for 2 days, ive been taking antibiotucs for 2 days and I'm not better.

All could be answered by a pharmacist... And what about the one important email that goes into Junk email with chest pains? Too many issues I'm afraid