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.

You’re not being unreasonable but I guess it filters out the people who are well enough to go to work.

well in this case clearly not since she went to work. And is still working.

... just saying.
Don't then.

One of our local GP's has left the practice to work in A&E. Too much stress as a GP.

Yes it’s awful, but the system is overloaded. Not just too many people, but people expecting GPs to be responsible for too many things that they should be dealing with themselves. I’m a Gp and we are at capacity - we physically cannot offer more appointments, telephone calls etc as we are working flat out. And to the PP who thinks waiting is an excuse for rudeness you’re part of the problem!!

Have been trying recently to get a prescription for DS. He has an ongoing “condition” that the doctors aren’t interested in trying to cure so I have to go through the rigmarole of trying to get a prescription every time he runs out of the medication.

Filled out a repeat prescription form three times and no one ever contacted me when they claimed they would. Endless phone calls explaining the situation over and over.
Have got the medication now but they’ve said they want him to have a review before they’ll give him any more. So in a few weeks I’ll have to try and get an appointment to show them he’s still got the same problem that they’re not interested in trying to cure and the cycle starts again.

To the person suggesting that if I’m well enough to go to work I don’t need an emergency appointment ... I’m a nurse with my own clinic. If I ring in sick it will leave 15 people high and dry and will put massive pressure on the service. These people will not be able to get other appointments as we’re full up for the next two weeks. This means they’ll be pushed onto the district nurses ... who are at crisis point as there are no staff.

It’s not a simple matter of “oh I feel shit, I think I’ll take the day off”. I work until 1pm because I literally can’t function after that currently.

I’ve just tested my urine which is negative

If you call NHS direct, explain your symptoms and they can make you a GP or hospital GP appointment the same day. If you explain you can never get an appointment with your current GP and you've been trying for a week, they will ensure you get a same day appointment and bollock the GP surgery in question.

GP surgeries HAVE to keep a certain amount of time free for appointments that overrun or emergencies via NHS direct. Also it may be worth making a formal complaint to the surgery head directly to state the current process doesn't work (as if it doesn't for you, its likely it doesn't for a lot of other people).

Does your surgery have connected surgeries? We have 4 connected to the one I am registered to and the GPs work across all surgeries. When I call the main branch (the one I'm registered to), on emergency days calling at 8am I've been told I'm 22 in the queue! Immediately I hang up and call another one of the surgeries connected to the main branch and get a much less wait time. You're lucky you have a call back service, we don't!!!

It’s appalling. My surgery is the same and I now only use a private GP which is great, nice surgery, great doctors, blood tests there and then but I resent it hugely especially when I know exactly what’s wrong and just need a prescription such as amoxicillin for an ear infection in one of the kids. It’s ridiculous

@Petronius16 I’m leaving in a few months as I can’t bare it anymore. I’m fairly young so the NHS is losing someone with perhaps another 20years of service left.

It’s actually the patients that are making me leave rather than government cuts. Sorry but most of the general public can be awful

The system is completely falling apart. Last time I needed a same day appointment I was told there weren’t any, but I can make you one for two weeks time.

Do you have a walk in centre nearby? I would take off sick (you sound like you should’t be working anyway!) and turn up there when it opens.

Oh and my surgery does have online booking. You log in, select book an appointment, and it tells you there aren’t any

Same issue with my GP surgery and the councils just given permission for another 2,000 houses to be built just down the road.

Get the Babylon app.

Does your doctors have a option for an online booking system? My doctors surgery has had one for quite a while and it is great. They release appointments for that day online 30 mins before opening the phones.
It is worth asking.

Far too many doctors are now working very part time hours. We have a neighbour who only works one morning per week - just what was the point of the tens of thousands of pounds in training costs, and taking a training place, for one sodding morning? At the end of the day, thanks to Blair, they're paid so much, they don't need to work every day and still earn plenty to live on. Not to mention early retirement due to stupid "tax the rich" tax/pension rules which mean they can be not much worse off by retiring (and setting themselves up as limited company locums for the odd session) than carrying on working proper hours for a few more years.

In our surgery the wait for blood tests is 4-5 weeks unless you can get to the hospital 23 miles away (2 buses or 1 train and bus ride away if you don't drive) which has been difficult to access for last 2 weeks due to floods (loads of road closures and those open are gridlocked).
My DS had an infection at the start of the week (he doesn't live at home). He rang 111 "late at night " and started Antibiotics at 3am. It is the only way to get seen now. No wonder people are clogging up A&E.

When my ds had kidney failure last year he was put on the emergency list, and had to wait eighth months for surgery. That was after them taking eighteen months for diagnosis. Every time you need to see a different specialist he went on a different waiting list.

Even after the operation, he was meant to have a follow up to remove a stent. Some idiot discharged him, and he was back on an eight month waiting list again!!!!

We had to all but camp outside the surgeon office to let him know the situation. Even though then they wouldn't let him change it, even explaining that my ds would die of infection if the stent wasn't removed. The surgeon had to have us brought in as an emergency through a&e.

It's completely madness.

For eight months he was in agony. He lived on paracetamol and ibuprofen. He told us he wanted to die because of the pain and we had him on suicide watch.

Absolute nightmare.

I blame the Tories.

@Purplewithred

GPs are effectively privatised - they are businesses contracted to the nhs.

The set up was done in 1947 when the NHS was created. Drs were opposed to it so this was the compromise. Worked well when there was a public care ethos but you are correct they are just businesses now

I went in the other day for an appointment not having been for two years to be told that as I had moved outside their area, they were taking action to try and manage housing growth and population influxes and as a result I was being delisted and would have to find another GP. Great. Pointed out I fucking moved twenty years ago to 500 metres outside the boundary. !!

There are plenty of things that need a docs appointment that don't require you to be off work surely?
It really pisses me off when people assume any health care contact should be an emergency. We have emergency healthcare. The others are supposed to be non-emergency, that's what they're for. I'm still fuming about the time I called 111 to be told if it wasn't an emergcny to hang up. From a service which advertised itself initially as providing advice on holiday vaccinations.
Clearly the service is in crisis. But the answer isn't to make genuine patients feel guilty for daring to hope they might use it.

We have the same issues, thought I'd cracked it by getting an online booking account but got an NHS England text message the other day to say online bookings have been turned off due to coronavirus. So hopefully won't need the doctors between now and coronavirus situation resolving.

Gosh it costs where I live to see a GP if high income (free for children and low income) but I can always get an appointment same day and can book in whenever I want for advance appointments. People don't waste the doctors time on colds when it costs.

Oh and get well soon op. I'm sure you know better than me but it sounds to me like your symptoms warrant urgent investigation

It’s actually the patients that are making me leave rather than government cuts. Sorry but most of the general public can be awful

I.dont condone rudeness, and I work with the public so know what it is like to be on the receiving end of some of these attitudes, but have you considered what some of these people are going through? I am very likely to be losing my job, not because of the effects of my illness but because of the amount of time I'm having to have off work for appointments. Last week I had 2 appointments, on consecutive days, at a hospital 20 miles from where I live. The 2nd one was completely and utterly pointless. The 1st one partially so - I'd previously been referred for a steroid injection in the back of my shoulder. Got an appointment at a private clinic that the NHS use but they refused to do it as close to.my lung. I explained this to my consultant who referred me in house, assuring me it wasn't a problem. Went to the appointment and they too refused. So, another day off work for nothing.

Had an appointment on the 3rd day at another hospital for a different, but related problem. They just taken over from a hospital that previously ran the service. As patients we've had no say, just had to transfer to the new hospital. Turned out o the nurse led clinic who explained that they have no experience in this treatment, and can't cope with the influx of patients!!!

I need a total knee replacement - clinically, but she been refused on the grounds that I'm too young. Surgeons suggestion was to.take more tramadol as I'm only taking a low dose currently and can take much more!! Great, get me hooked on an addictive drug and then leave me to deal with that.problem when the NHS decides overnight to ban prescriptions of these drugs.

It's no wonder that some patients are just so infuriated.

@kazzyhoward eurgh are you a daily mail reader? Because this sort of ill informed trollop about why the NHS is failing is idiotic. Yes let’s blame fat cat GPS! Makes sense

I work 12-14 hour days. I work 3 days a week, which is part time, but is at least 40 hours a week - so in line with most full time hours. That’s without breaks, I cram a sandwich in my mouth at my desk. Why on earth should I be expected to work 70 hour weeks every week for the rest of my life?ive done enough 100 hour weeks over the 10-15 years I’ve been training. Oh and that’s right, I’m paid well enough that I can work part time. Why should I bloody not be? I’m a highly qualified professional, who academically was always top of my class and has 3 degrees, who has them gone on to have 10+ years post graduate training on top of that. I’m paid a damn sight less than most dentists or barristers, but I deserve to be paid more than a shop manager in my opinion. For those really interested I’m paid around £55k for my 40 hours a week. Yes it’s a good salary, but given the level of responsibility and training I’ve had I deserve that.

I have no idea why in the uk we feel our doctors should be in a life of servitude rather than recognising they should be treated just as well as any other professional.

OP I agree it's lunacy. If I were you I'd google private GP in your area. It will be worth the money.