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.

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

Yep, that's what our online booking system is like, I have occasionally seen appointments for the diabetes nurse

Hi OP
The GP practice is very frustrating and they're overworked. Everything takes weeks even months. In my frustration I booked a private appointment it was £85 for 20 mins. I was able to book it for the same day. Also there is a company called medicspot which charges £49 for s Skype consultation within a pharmacy. If you have the available funds, it's worth looking at private options. I hope you get to see a Dr today. Get well soon

Nope, OP. You can't have it both ways. You've said that you are too busy at work and others are too dependent on you being there to have time off for being unwell, but that you're that unwell that you're wetting the bed at night because you're not even waking up when you need a wee whilst conversely you say you can't sleep. You've also tested your urine (not said what for) which you could have done on Monday to rule out infection or ketones or whatever you can test for. Also, you didn't take the call back on Monday and are now complaining that you're getting worse!
Stop being a martyr. Make a regular GP appointment for March. Then self certify for a week and in that time go to your GPs surgery, request an unrgent appointment, phone consultation or call back. If you still feel like shit, call 111 or go to a walk in centre. If you do feel better after a week of rest, then you could cancel your GP appointment.
As a nurse, you should not be dealing with patients when you are that unwell.

eurgh are you a daily mail reader?

No, I'm an accountant who has acted for many GPs, dentists and other healthcare professionals over the past 35 years of being a chartered accountant, mostly partners in practices.

I have almost daily conversations with such clients. The common theme is reducing hours to avoid the 62% marginal tax rate on earnings over £100k. Second to that is converting to limited companies to avoid the NHS superannuation contributions breaching the lifetime pension allowances. Then we have the ones taking their superannuation pensions, which are typically circa £50k p.a. on average - why would you carry on working when you can get that pension for retiring early? So, I do know a lot about the financial side of things.

Our GPs isn't actually too bad for getting an appointment. I'm worried though that the local council's massive house building plans (on greenbelt) are going to tip things over the edge though in terms of all infrastructure.

They also offer online appointment through an app called Livi. I've not used it myself but feed back from others is good.

The whole situation is worrying though. I hope you get the medical help you need.

@Hearhoovesthinkzebras I’m sorry about the problems you’re having. Yes I have considered what patients are going thru. I have been on the other side when family members have been ill and when suffering infertility problems myself and I get it can be frustrating. Does that justify abuse of staff tho? Never.

I’m frequently shouted at, insulted, I’ve been spat at. I’ve been physically assaulted. But in reality, it’s the attitudes of the ‘worried well’ or people who are over entitled. On a daily basis, many of my patients won’t bother turning up to their appointment in time. They will be 5-8 minutes late, which then puts me behind (and I’m one of those gps who very rarely runs late so often I can be sitting waiting fir them). They will come with multiple things on a list then get shirty when I can’t address 5 things in 10 minutes. I’ve had a couple of completely unfounded complaints (which had no clinical basis) which really wore me down. One was someone complaining as I had told them not to book an emergency appointment for a routine issue - she had deliberately lied and bypassed the system which is inappropriate. And why is this my fault? We have so many hoops to jump thru and I’m just burnt out and worn down.

Patients will get a real shock when it’s privatised and most wont realise how good they’ve had it. You only have to look ok here, there are multiple threads every day moaning about GPS and the nhs.

My doctors run on the system you can ring when they open to get an app if you’re poorly and need to be seen that day. If you want to pre-book for non urgent. It’s a 3-4 week wait.

You’re obviously feeling under the weather. Try and book a same day app. I did the same yesterday. My heart rate has been rapid, I’m out of breath, head rushes and feeling very achey. I rang up first thing yesterday. The receptionist didn’t seem to think I needed an app but I insisted. I have high blood pressure and worried about it. The doctor seemed fine about me being there. Generally at ours they will fit you in if you ring early enough if it’s urgent.

The actual doctors at my surgery don’t seem to realise how difficult it is. I’ve lost count how many times they have told me to come back in a few days... if if only it was that easy!

Is it possible to go over to the surgery to book one in person? I did this for my partner last week. He woke up vomiting blood but feeling ok.. we popped over at half 8 when they opened and got an early appointment! The bizarre thing is - the phone wasn’t ringing whilst if you ring at that time you can’t get through!

Thankfully my doctors don’t do this new call back thing.

I work in a GP surgery (admin) and it’s become hell on earth because of patient demand and staff are leaving in droves. Most surgeries would offer you an urgent same day appointment if you rang when the phone lines open. I know it can be frustrating to be on hold but you could also go in person when the surgery opens and get an appointment. Needs must.

@bobbypinseverywhere

£55k for 40 hours?! You are massively underpaid in my opinion. I work in banking and many many unqualified people earn more than that.

God that’s shit. I’m sorry. Thank you for what you do.

That sounds like an awful situation you are in. Thank you for still going to your clinics so as not to let people down, but it doesn't seem like you are well enough to be working.

Could you pay for a private GP appointment?
Are there any Doctors at your clinic who could see you?
Could a pharmacist help?

I realise I'm clutching at straws.

Get well soon.

If anyone is having a similar issue wait till after 6pm, call 111, theyre likely to get you an OOH appointment.
Sadly, I had to do that when I had Kidney stones.

I feel for you, I think were all in the same boat.

My Dr has just left our practice and dropped down to 2 days a week as the stress from within the NHS is so bad, hes considering moving into private practice. If that's a true reflection of how Drs feel, then were in big trouble.
This Dr is the best Dr I've ever seen. In fact, even scheduled me in before he was due to start taking appointments once a week which I really appreciated as I'd spend upto a month trying to get an appointment.
My DH has recently started anti depressants, told to go back in two weeks. Two weeks later he has tried to go back but has been told his gp is covering for someone else and wont be available for his own appts for the next 2 weeks, so call back then.

There’s something seriously wrong with a system where doctors are paid £55k and bankers more like £200k.

Bobby I help deal with patient complaints at my surgery and feel so sorry for the clinical staff who have almost never made a mistake but have to go through the stress of the complaints process. I’d find that so hard to cope with on top of the “usual” everyday pressures you describe. We’re relying more and more on locums as we can’t recruit salaried GPs and some members of the public seem to have little awareness of how dire the situation is becoming.

I get how pissed off you are. I have to ring my doctors surgery 70+ times in a row before someone picks up and then tells me all the appointments have gone. I actually sat for three hours in the walk in yesterday because my daughter is head to toe in a rash that developed within about an hour and they couldn't even fit her in and she's a baby. I dread to think what happens to the poor old dears who have no one and just give up. System is aloada shite. I ran clinics and used to fit people in all over the show. The pressure on everyone is ridiculous.

But hey isn't that what everyone voted for more cuts to the health service and less available funding for training and the likes. I guess we will all have to endure until the reign of cunty Johnson is over. Maybe when more of us die the idiots will wake up and realise the torys aren't your friends and the NHS is right down the list of priorities it's all great when you have private health care. I hope you get seen today demand an emergency appointment don't take no for an answer.

@Hulabalula thank you. It’s a part time wage so I’m only paid for 3 days, which seems high for part time, but I don’t consider 40 hours part time.. I couldn’t manage full time as I said it would be 60-70 hours, which I know a lot of other professions do - and I have done my fair share of, but I find GP too intense to do it long term. It burnt me out.

I think it’s important that the public realise a lot of salaried GPS aren’t making fortunes and are working their arses off, there’s a lot of misconception that we are all on £150k and on the golf course. Some of the older generation partners are, but that’s very rare now

Can I just say a massive thank you to the nurses and doctors on here

I agree with doing OOH GP - I’ve been twice, once with baby DS and once for me (pneumonia). On both occasions I was the only patient there.

@bobbypinseverywhere

Agree... 40 hours is definitely not part time.

Not helped like people like @Kazzyhoward who paint the picture we are all overpaid and lazy

Simple question tho - if GPS are so overpaid - why are we so short of them? Why are doctors leaving in droves? Why can’t they retain enough new trainees in the speciality? Surely if it was easy or overpaid there wouldn’t be a problem filling the jobs. It’s because it’s becoming unbearable

I was an NHS nurse but currently expat in country which has private health care. I do miss the NHS a lot but recently spiked a fever and had a clogged duct, text my OBGYN that I'd seen my whole pregnancy in docs across the road. She replied in 10 minutes and asked me to come down anytime before 10pm, I had antibiotics for mastitis within the hour. Cannot complain about that service! She then text me 2 days later to make sure the antibiotics were working ok and that I was feeling much better.

Our GP practice started a new system where you phone and say you need an appointment and you either speak to the receptionist (if you're very lucky), 111 or some random child in a call centre with a crib sheet. I got said random child in January, after trying and trying to get an appointment since November. I was about at my wit's end, and had seen a pharmacist, who said I needed to see the GP. I explained that while I wasn't ill, I had something that needed to be seen because there was the chance it could be breast cancer. She told me that it clearly wasn't breast cancer and I was causing a fuss over nothing. I asked her what medical qualifications she had and she replied that she had a list of common symptoms on her sheet and this wasn't one of them, so it was nothing to worry about . I work in a shop, often alone, so a call back was no use to me. I explained when I could go to the surgery to be told I wasn't allowed to choose when to go. I went down to the surgery a couple of days later (not my first trip there for that either) and was lucky enough to get a cancellation for that afternoon. I put in an official complaint about the phone answering service, which I'm sure was ignored.

I'm now on a 62 week wait to see someone about my problem.

The UK should.look to Australia and copy its system.

The UK doesn't need to copy any other system - it needs to get the NHS, once the greatest health service anywhere in the world, back on its feet.
Bt this will not happen under the current administration, as the NHS is being purposefully underfunded & run down.

If you’re that unwell then you know that you shouldn’t be going to work.

Yes you need a doctor. Call 111. Explain the symptoms and situation and they will get you an appt. No, most likely it won’t be with your usual GP or even at your normal practice but owing to system 1 they’ll have your notes and you will see someone.

There are other options available. Stop trying your surgery and call 111

@bobbypinseverywhere, most people who live in the real world should understand that GPs are overworked and underpaid for what they do. I feel so sad for my GP (or who was my GP- I'm trying to change surgery so that I can still see him)
Hes an excellent Dr, really is, and I'm sure there are thousands like him who are being chewed up and spit out by the whole system.
Thank you to all of the GPs and nurses who are on here.

I think £55k for 40 hours is terrible. Mind you, my south east large teaching hospital advertises registrar surgeon positions - starting salary £45k full time (which is probably at least 100 hours).