To be fucked off with the doctors situation

[StopFancyingPeople]

I’m so sick of the fight to get a doctors appointment. It never used to be so difficult and now it’s near on impossible.

I rang at 8am on Monday like you’re meant to. Automated message .... press 1 for appointments ... I press 1. I then get a long automated lecture about Coronovirus and then get told to press 1 again if I still want an appointment and have no symptoms of CV. I press 1. Automated message telling me the lines are very busy and press 1 for a call back. I press 1 and head off to work. They ring back at 9:30 when I’m upto my eyes in it at work and can’t answer the phone.

I try again Tuesday. Same kerfuffle with the automated messages. I request a call back and head off to work. Get a call back at 11am by which point there are no appointments left.

I try again yesterday. Same old shit. No appointments left by the time they ring me back. I lost my shit a little as I feel so Ill. I need to see a fucking doctor. It shouldn’t be this difficult!!! They sympathise and offer me an appointment ... for the end of March!!!!

I’m barely functioning. I’m incredibly fatigued, constant headache, nausea, anxious mess and not sleeping. Yesterday I could barely stay awake whilst driving home. Last night I went to bed do fucking tired that I woke up in a pool of my own piss. I didn’t even wake up for a wee. 2nd night in a row that I’ve wet the bed.

AIBU to call dr again today, make up some shit just to get an emergency same day appointment?! I don’t even feel that I should need to make shit up, I think I genuinely need to see a Dr today.

The annoying thing is, when you do by some miracle of god get to see a GP they then decide you need a blood test. Now god forbid the GP do this test there and then ... noooo .... you’ll have to make another appointment for a nurse to do it and good luck getting that within the next month or so.

It’s ridiculous. The system is fucking failing.

Also, as a nurse I see this from other people’s points of view too. A woman made up an excuse to come to my clinic last week. When she got there she asked me to diagnose something she had as she’d been trying to get a dr appointment for 3 weeks and has all the ducking symptoms of cancer. I could not help her, she needed to see a GP 3 weeks ago.

The WHO has recommended that people over 60 shouldn't attend their GP for routine appointments. This might free up appointments for people who need to see the Doctor as they are ill. We can hope.

@OhTheRoses if you want value for your tax spent on the NHS I'm sure one of my patients would happily swap with you. You could be a 30 year old with MS or have bipolar, or inflammatory bowel disease. Or maybe you'd like to swap with the 40 year old I recently looked after who died of ovarian cancer leaving two young kids. She got loads of home visits, what amazing value for money. The NHS doesn't work like that. We spend our time according to need and an attitude like yours is disgusting.

@waterbottle12 tjat was not the point I was making. Read the posts properly before throwing mud.

To access private care rather than usimg NHS respurces I still need a GP referral for insurance - GP charges £35 for the letter and refuses to put a stamp on it. They won't even let me wrote the chequenfor £35.50 to cover the cost of the stamp. Cheque payable to the GP not the practice.

When dd was ill, taking overdoses GP said there was no point referring to CAMHS because she didn't meet threshold. DD had disclosed to another Dr about the od's and this one didn't look at the notes. DD hadn't disclosed the extent of the self harm to me. I had to find a private consultant psychiatrist and then het a partner to refer.

Shortly after Xmas dh went to GP about a non healing spot on his face. Told to moisturise it becuse it looked like dry skin. He was a private consultant dermatolpgist yesterday. It's a basal cell carcinoma. Non malignant I appreciate but not dry skin either.

Do not tell me I am disgusting or don't understand the concept of vfm. If that's the standard of care we get from the NHS then God help the poor sods without choices and no wonder they go back again and again and again. Probably because too many GPs are practicing at sub-optimal levels and we are all state trained to be grateful because it's "free". It isn't. And yes I know many poor souls who are dependent on health support and it seems they have to advocate and advoate due to bizarre rationing on the one hand and ridiculous practices such as wrotimg prescriptions every two months when one per year would do. And then GP's tell us they are over worked which would not be as significant if they didn't make work and argued from a common sense perspective for the sake of their patients. But no CCGs spew money up the wall on review after review including ones around equality and diversity when the average GP tells me their name is dr waterbottle and assumes they may use my first name. So much for equality eh when there is a paternalistic insistence on subordinating other humans.

As you were.

Apologies for typos. Sitting in sun and using phone.

And then GP's tell us they are over worked which would not be as significant if they didn't make work and argued from a common sense perspective for the sake of their patients.

Why did it take 4 appointments with my surgery to get a referral for a hearing aid?

Why did my son have about a dozen appointments with various GPs and nurses before he finally got referred to podiatry for an ingrown toe nail removal.

Both cases are more appropriate for self-referral direct to the relevant department, but because of the NHS structure, the GP "gatekeepers" have to be involved and would rather faff around with pointless repeated appointments rather than just get on and do the sodding referral, the need for which was apparent from the outset.

My thoughts are with you at this difficult time Roses, having to get a stamp for your private referral letter and all that.
You have absolutely no idea what it's like to work in the NHS currently, and display appalling entitlement and lack of self-awareness, and a profound lack of empathy for NHS staff.
You have made it very clear you occupy a highly-privileged financial position; perhaps spare a thought for the doctors and nurses in these jobs working not only against a background of reduced resource, constant push-back from secondary services (such as CAMHS), and then to cap it all, nightmare patients like you!
I'm with waterbottle.

My thoughts are with you at this difficult time Roses, having to get a stamp for your private referral letter and all that.

The point was the very limited surgery opening hours which meant problems in collecting it. GP surgeries simply aren't set up for working people - you're fine if you are old or unemployed and have all the time in the world. More realistic opening hours would make a massive difference to a lot of people, but there's no benefit to the doctors so they don't (unless there's some kind of incentive going on where they get more dosh from the NHS for offering out of hours appointments which occasionally happens - then the hours return to normal after the inventive ends of course!).

Have any of you actually spoke to your surgery and asked the receptionist what is available out of working hours? Our surgery offers once a month Saturday clinics and evening surgery, this is available across the CCG. You can see a GP at any of the partaking surgeries. There are also regular QDoctor on line surgeries with a GP on a Sunday. Why don't some of you, you know like ask? I cannot imagine our surgery is unusual. Requests for referrals and med reviews are perfectly suited for online appointments. So it's not all for old people and those with all the time in the world. Find out and give the receptionist a chance to explain!

And we are open 8 till 6.30 Monday to Friday. What more do people want!

This happens a lot I have been trying to get my implant changed since August. My work won’t allow me to take time off for non emergency appointments. I start work before the doctors is open and even when I request call backs at certain times they never call. When I tried to make an appointment for when I had time off, I got there and the doctor/ nurse never turned up. My local surgery now no longer do the procedure so I need to wait till my next time off to travel 25 miles on very bad and sometimes non existent public transport to get there.
The surgeries are overwhelmed, underfunded and lack qualified or dedicated stuff. I really wish I could go private but I can’t afford to.

Also my surgery and the others around are open from 8.30- 5.30 the exact time I am at work. Do not offer weekend or later time slots. Some do some don’t it is hard for people who are on a tight schedule.

I can sympathise OP.
Ours has the stupid "phone at 8" method.

1. I have no phone.
2. I dont want a phone.
3. I am driving at 8, school run, different town.
4. When I get to work by 9, all appointments have gone, as they only book for 3 days time and 7 days time.
5. When you do eventually get to see them, they claim you have never been prescribed half the meds you need, even with the empty boxes with name stickers on in front of you!
6. We keep all repeat requests forms for 3 months. But we have (conveniently) lost yours as you have asked an awkward question...

I am an emergency service worker. I am polite to people (ok, I did start to lose it when the receptionist called me a liar, even with evidence in my hand). I know they do a good job (usually). But they wont listen when you tell them "the system" isn't working!

And we are open 8 till 6.30 Monday to Friday. What more do people want!

Not all surgeries open those hours.

I work in a small market town in the back end of nowhere. I don't think we are that unusual in the services we offer.

I needed a follow up appt to get results of some tests I've had. I was advised to get the appt for 2 weeks time to allow the results to be processed. Contact the doctors, first appt available is in 8 weeks. Insane!

www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/update-to-the-gp-contract-agreement-2021-2324-v2.pdf

The GP contract state extended hours have to be provided. This is NHS England

Our surgery offers once a month Saturday clinics and evening surgery, this is available across the CCG. You can see a GP at any of the partaking surgeries.

We have a GP Hub which is open evenings and weekends and is widely advertised as particularly useful for working people. Except, they can't access your notes, can't make referrals, can't access test results, won't change prescriptions or give you sick notes. So essentially they are an out of hours service for acute illness, not an alternative GP service.

And we are open 8 till 6.30 Monday to Friday. What more do people want!

The ability to be able to make an appointment during those hours would be a start.

My surgery is open 8.30 - 6.30 m - f but you can't make an appointment now. For every appointment, including routine ones, you have to phone on the day. You have to ring continuously until you get through and may be told to come now so how can you go to work? What about those who are at work at 8.30 and can't use their phone or those who work a distance away from the surgery and can't get there now? Can they never go to the GP for routine things?

@welliesarefuntowear

As I said, our GP Hub offers the extended hours but they won't do referrals,, can't access notes or test results, won't alter regular prescriptions and won't issue fit notes so what do you do if you need one of those?

I had a blood test in January and got a text from my GP telling me they needed to see me with regards to the results. Appointment given for middle of the day in March, so about 7 weeks after the blood test.

Now, my bloods are always abnormal.but stable. Several times in November and December they've been more abnormal and they've just asked me to have them repeated so I'm assuming that this time there is something that needs dealing with. In which case 7 weeks is too long to wait. Not only that but the time of the appointment means that I would have to take a day off work. Why is that reasonable when I only work until 2pm and only 4 days a week? I could attend any afternoon or all day on a Friday but when I phoned I initially got told that they could not give me an appointment for any other time. How is that right?

@OhTheRoses charging for a referral letter is not allowed. Charging to fill in the insurance form is. If your GP charges for a referral letter then you should formally complain.

I don't mind paying for the letter, I mind being told they won't put a flipping 50p stamp on it when I'm paying them AND saving the NHS money!

That's not an unreasonable gripe. Though I never quite understand why people who are so unhappy with their GPs don't move surgeries. Unless you're very rural you must have options? And you can access private care without a GP referral, if you are self paying.

Also they should be able to email it to you.

Where I live waterbottle in one of the UK's wealthiest postcodes, one large GP has taken over all the small practices, so there isn't an alternative except the one which isn't presently accepting patients.

If you are making an insurance claim, a GP referral is required. To be fair I could I think just go to a GP at the private hospital for that - we can't see the GPs from our own practice there because of "conflict of interest". A very good point.

It's really very poor. We moved from London about five years ago and the drop in standards is dire. TBF the partners are excellent, it's just the services around them.

I wpuld be perfectly happy to pay a fee to see my own dr at a late evening surgery or on a Saturday and I think it's sad the NHS can't work like that. My dentist, optician, bank, physio, etc offers those services. As indeed does my GP at the local private hospital but I have to see a GP there from the next town along!

It could all be run so much more efficiently but it isn't.

I agree that the system is failing and needs a huge overhaul. Standards of care seem to vary wildly between hospitals and everyone seems overstretched, meaning it’s hard for them to do their jobs and hard for us to access the level of care we need efficiently.

Though I never quite understand why people who are so unhappy with their GPs don't move surgeries. Unless you're very rural you must have options?

Nope, in our town, all the GP surgeries are owned by the same partnership which "merged" several small private practices over the past 20 years or so. It's the same in the next town 5 miles away, and now they are proposing to merge the two groups, so we could have one large partnership covering two large towns, with NO alternative competition at all. It's dire. If it wasn't bad enough having to phone when they open, in the hope of an appointment, time after time, their phone system is down, so you have to physically turn up and hope.