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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To think that doctors sit and wait system is a joke.

118 replies

CAK111512 · 03/09/2019 09:10

My son is quite poorly and needs to see a doctor. He has autism and cannot tell me whats hurting or in pain.

Doctors reception opens at 8.30. I actually manage to get through at 8.33 but all the appointments were gone but they could offer me the sit and wait appointments.

All the appointments gone by 8.33??

I asked How long she’d think it would be and said she couldn’t say but if my son was in distress they could offer another room for him. Which I am grateful for but to think it’s a joke that you can’t get a proper app at 8.33??

They are building more and more houses where I live and it’s becoming such a pressure on our local resources!

OP posts:

Sleepyblueocean · 03/09/2019 16:14

I have already stated that emergencies go first.

Sleepyblueocean · 03/09/2019 16:17

He is not kicking off by the way. That is the wrong way to describe a profoundly disabled child or adult in great distress. He is not choosing to do it. It's a reaction caused by being very frightened.

Ravenblack · 03/09/2019 16:23

I'm sorry, I was responding to the OP's first post and made the mistake of not reading further down the thread. (The thread was only a few posts in, so I didn't read more than the first post!)

I read it as she was totally unable to get an appointment, even if she gets through a minute or 2 after the phones open, and there is no option to book routine appointments, or go and wait.

I see further down the thread, the OP said there is a sit and wait system, where you will often be seen one to one a half hours after booking in, which isn't too bad. I have waited 45 minutes on occasions when I had a pre-booked 'routine appointment.'

So I take back what I said, and of course I wouldn't go to A & E rather than wait an hour to an hour and a half in the doctors. As I said, I was under the impression the OP couldn't get into the doctors all ALL.

My mistake.

TabbyMumz · 03/09/2019 16:30

Sleepy....the phrase "kicking off" does not infer it's by choice, it's an act. I also have a profoundly disabled family member and if he gets distressed about something and is writhing on the floor or shouting or similar, I would say he's "kicking off" . Because that's what he's doing. I also think it would be good if he went first, but appreciate probably the majority of people in that waiting room are ill and would like to be seen pronto. Lots of people these days have a condition where they think reasonable adjustments should be made, but it isn't always possible unfortunately.

Idontwanttotalk · 03/09/2019 16:34

"Not being able to pre book appointments in advance is bizarre. Never heard of that before."
You can't pre-book at mine either. You have to phone at 8 a.m. and phone lines will usually be engaged. When you do get through (maybe at 8. 03 a.m.) all the appointments are gone for that day. However, if you are a genuine emergency they will find an appointment with a doctor. Otherwise (and obviously most people are not emergencies) you keep phoning back every day at 8 a.m. until you are one of the lucky ones.

We have a walk-in centre a couple of miles away so, if I desperately needed a GP appointment, I suppose I would go there.

"And they wonder why people go to bloody A & E?"
Just because you cannot see a GP that is not an excuse for going to A & E. They are for accidents and emergencies only.

Dissimilitude · 03/09/2019 16:34

The blunt fact is, and I say this as someone who is married to a GP, whose sister is a GP, and whose largest friends group is composed of doctors, a huge number of people who make GP appointments do so for absolute trivia. I've heard some GPs personally suggest 80% of their appointments in a given day are completely unnecessary on any level.

People's appetite for healthcare is insatiable. People go and see a doctor for the most unbelievable things. People who are lonely. People who want help filling out forms for benefits. People who repeatedly miss hospital appointments then go to the GP to complain they're not getting better. People who think the GP can sort out their housing or job or relationship problems.

And the easier we make it to make appointments, the more appointment slots are wasted by people hoovering them up for utter nonsense.

We refuse to politically countenance any changes to the system that might help. We won't tolerate charges at the point of use, even nominal ones, as per France or Germany or any number of reasonable systems. This is probably the only thing that would help.

What we're left with, because people cannot accurately judge what is suitable versus what is time wasting, is a system which has to ration by inconvenience.

EmperorBallpitine · 03/09/2019 16:36

A lot of this is about funding. A small GP practice in the country will not be getting so much money as one in a big city, so will have less GPs. Most of the GPs I know work very long stressful days, and I have never heard anyone mention that tax break thing ..... Most work the maximum they can. Four days a week is considered the best because its so stressful and demanding, to do the extra day really impacts. My husband will work extra cover if he has to though, the locum shifts come out of the doctors own pay in most places so its not always possible to get in extra staff.

MrsPellegrinoPetrichor · 03/09/2019 16:37

Sit and Wait is fine, you sit and wait and you know you will be seen eventually.

We have no sit and wait at all,we have to ring and IF we can get through before 9am (which we can't EVER) we're told to wait for a call back from a doctor who will then decide if we need to be seen. Doctor rings back if you're lucky at some point but usually says come back the following day.

Because the phone lines are tied up people have to get to the surgery by 8am and ask for an appt and then you cross everything that you're given one at some point during the day.

Seeing the doctor is an all day event and hugely frustrating here.

Kazzyhoward · 03/09/2019 16:37

What we're left with, because people cannot accurately judge what is suitable versus what is time wasting, is a system which has to ration by inconvenience.

And, as usual, it's the "innocent" who suffer, i.e. those who don't waste GP time, don't miss appointments, and only go when necessary.

Livebythecoast · 03/09/2019 16:43

The term 'pre-bookable appointments ' can also refer to if you see your GP and they say I want to see you in a week/month whatever, they will tell you to go out to the receptionist and book it in. A percentage of appointments are taken this way. Obviously this depends on the surgery but this happens at my practice

Idontwanttotalk · 03/09/2019 16:48

"The blunt fact is, and I say this as someone who is married to a GP, whose sister is a GP, and whose largest friends group is composed of doctors, a huge number of people who make GP appointments do so for absolute trivia. I've heard some GPs personally suggest 80% of their appointments in a given day are completely unnecessary on any level."
When the GP sees them they should tell the patient, in no uncertain terms, that they did not require an appointment and point out the circumstances of when they require a GP or a pharmacy or whatever.

If GPs addressed the time wasters it would help us all.

Kazzyhoward · 03/09/2019 16:55

If GPs addressed the time wasters it would help us all.

Indeed, they need to grow a back-bone.

Rowgtfc72 · 03/09/2019 16:58

Our surgery runs an appt only 8-830 am then it's sit and wait.
The longest I've waited is 3 hrs. It means I get a same day appt.
I have friends at other surgeries waiting 3 weeks.

CGTER567 · 03/09/2019 17:09

*If GPs addressed the time wasters it would help us all.

Indeed, they need to grow a back-bone.*

Until the one day the time water is something serious and they sue the GP for not giving an appointment. Or they just go to A+E anyway because the GP won't take them seriously.

jasjas1973 · 03/09/2019 17:17

We ve not funded primary care sufficiently and now the chickens have come home to roost.

As i said on a thread about car of the elderly, we ve proritised tax cuts over public services.

However, i find myself agreeing with the PP on time wasters and the worried well, we need better education and far better prevention strategies.

Ravenblack · 03/09/2019 17:38

@Idontwanttotalk

Just because you cannot see a GP that is not an excuse for going to A & E. They are for accidents and emergencies only.

Seems I'm not the only one who doesn't read the full thread! I did post again after I said that, and only 10 minutes and 2 posts before you posted your comment there! ^

FrangipaniBlue · 03/09/2019 17:42

You must've misunderstood. If you have a heart attack or meningitis or sepsis symptoms your a&e will treat you.

@crustycrab not my nearest one they won't, it's a small hospital and not open 24/7 - anything "life threatening" you'd be sent to the A&E at the bigger hospital in the next town over (that's where ambulances go and emergencies are sent to).

But similarly, if it's not life threatening and you haven't had an accident they won't see you either.

Example - I woke up one morning in agony to the point I couldn't move/get dressed without help from DH. It was a flair up of an old injury that usually requires strong pain killers and prescription anti inflammatories. Couldn't get in my own surgery, couldn't get an emergency GP appt at the local hospital, but the walk in accident centre at the local hospital wouldn't see me either. I was told by my GP receptionist to go to the big A&E in the next town over. Total waste of their time and resources for something non-life threatening. An appt with a GP and a read over my notes was all that was needed but I simply couldn't get one!

ememem84 · 03/09/2019 17:50

I’m so glad that where we are we pay for gp appointments. It costs me £45 every time I go. But I’m guaranteed an appointment the same day (although maybe not with my preferred gp).

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