That doctors are only doing phone call appointments?

[Yellowskies1988]

I'm generally fit and well but I've found what I can't determine if it's a spot or a lump high up on the inside of my right leg. It feels asif it goes down inside quite deep maybe I'm overthinking but it also seems like the same leg aches a little. The doctors offered a phone call appointment which I took. But I may as well have done the dreaded Google search instead.

Phone appointments triage out the need to be actually seen from the no need to be seen, but just reassure/ monitor - I hope this system stays as it must save so much face to face time, even outside of these awful times.

Three weeks ago I had a phone appointment due to concern about a mole that changed in a short time. An hour later I was in front of the same GP, two days later I had a consultant appointment at the local hospital and the mole removed later that day. Two days was fast as obviously it’s not busy in ‘normal’ clinics at present, but the GP said this type of thing is max 2 weeks anyway. I’m still waiting for results, but it’s been dealt with.

He was also very clear - normal medical stuff doesn’t go away just because of COVID (I kept apologising for bothering them when they must be busy!). I’d take a phone appointment and trust that the doctor knows what they need to be asking and doing.

It’s really important to do TC to protect both staff and other patients and escalate appts or tests as needed. An example this week: I work in cancer services and had an urgent 2 week cancer wait added to my clinic at short notice. I called patient day before to explain this would be a TC first and we would investigate/bring her up quickly if needed. She sounded incredulous/pissed off not having immediate F2F (I accept she was scared, but actually she was just plain rude to me). When I called next day to do the consultation, she mentioned she’d had a cough and fever too for a few days as did all her family (unrelated to referral issues). So without my call she was genuinely going to come up to a clinic in a cancer unit with cough/fever and thought that was ok. No sense of the bigger picture. So one reason to screen patients by phone is to stop patients that lack insight (many think they might ‘just have a cold’ and deny it could be covid). If patients are covid suspicious and still need cancer investigations that will also still happen, but risk/balance, done in red zones etc and stops us using up precious PPE if not warranted.

I'm a GP, using a mixture of phone, video and asking the patient to text a photo in. Works well. Need to start with the phone call.

OUr telephone appointments can turn into video if needed.

OP you might have an abscess?

My doctors are absolutely not doing face to face appointments. I had a video call after five telephone calls and was sent to the hospital.

A friend of mine was sent to the hospital with a water infection. The GP wouldn't seem her and wouldn't prescribe antibiotics without seeing her.

@80sMum Deaf/hard of hearing can phone through the NGT (Next Generation Text Service) www.relayuk.bt.com/ I found out about it at my BSL classes. Free to use and confidential. No-one had told my family it was available before. I don't need to worry about accents at call centres any more, or not understanding medical appointments.

Mine are doing F2F and blood tests etc where necessary. You have to start with a phone consultation though. Ask for a postal COVID test so they know it's safe to see you

It’s a good system - telephone and photos first, appointment in person if entirely necessary. I hope it stays in place indefinitely tbh. Very efficient.

Ours are doing telephone first then video and/or face to face if required. They have been doing telephone consultations for quite a while.

I had a telephone appointment two weeks ago when I suddenly woke up one morning unable to put weight on my foot. No obvious sign of trauma injury but bloody painful! It was great,started off on the phone then over video call straight away. Diagnosis and advice given. All from the comfort of my own home!

No calling at 8am and waiting 40 mins to be told no appointment left or only ones when I am at work so can't attend (I'm a teacher so can't just nip out). No waiting 3+weeks for an appointment. No having to go to the village where the surg
surgery is and struggle like mad to find a parking space.

Obviously, surgeries need to ensure those who need to be seen face to face can be. They also need to ensure that people who may have difficulty in communicating over the phone can access care. However, for those who don't need face to face and can communicate on the phone/use video it's great. I hope they carry on with having these appointments available.

Ask for a postal COVID test

@DahlingDahlia

ask who?! not the GP I hope, not something we have access to. no terribly reliable tests available yet.

Postal Covid test??? Where do people get their thoughts from. We don't have access to any testing and the testing isn't reliable anyway.
We are seeing all patients with PPE ...face masks visors aprons and gloves and all rooms disinfected between patients with deep clean at end of day. Only seeing patients in certain rooms too. I've seen 3 patients all week but spoken to about 60 and been through 140 case notes.

I got one, it was prescribed and I picked it up at the chemist. Posted the test off, result was negative for COVID.

When you spoke to the GP did they suggest when to contact them again , so if you get an increase in pain ? loss of sensation or other sensations , colour change or quick increase in size , colour change or heat or feeling generally unwell in yourself ? Those are the things that off the top of my head that are important to be aware of.
Has anything changed since the telephone consultation ?

There are lots of people, especially the elderly, or those with brain injuries/damage, dementia or cognitive or communication difficulties or who are just deaf or find it hard to articulate their personal bodily problems on the phone.
I'm really hoping once life is back to normal my GP goes back to offering appts you can book online without phoning up for triage, I have autism and can't explain my problems well on the phone, it meant in my doctor's before this I wasn't able to get appts due to not articulating the problems or symptoms, and means gp is inaccessible to me at the moment as they have switched over (understanding at the moment) to that.

Ours does a phone call first, then they send a link for a video during the phone call as I had to show my go
Ds2’s eczema. If needed, they will then do a face to face.

Gp* not go

Thank you @39RamblingFar that looks interesting, I've never come across it before. We will give it a try.

I love the phone training I've had several appts since lockdown. The first one resulted in the doctor asking me to attend at the surgery for an exam. The others were done quickly over the phone & were just as effective as a face to face. I wouldnt be surprised if they keep the triage system after this is over.

I have done phone consultations with my GP for years out of choice.

It's far easier. They call you-no waiting in waiting rooms, if they decide they need to see you they urgently you get an appointment that day.

I have often asked for the telephone consultation at my GP rather than dragging in my 2 children as I don’t have any other childcare.

I'd be skeptical you could do a Covid swab yourself without high risk of false negatives as the swabs have to go really far up your nose and down your throat and I would think the discomfort would make it very hard to do yourself.

Did your doctor say your lump might be a boil?
I think there is a mixed bag with gp’s seeing patients. The gp’s for my f’n’law’s nursing home will not enter the home. They will only do video calls. Any nursing home residents sent to hospital have been sent back without treatment. The staff are under enormous pressure. It’s very sad.

My GP started doing phone appointments a few years ago - bit confusing when it started, the receptionists didn't make it very clear, but fine once the service settled down.
I don't see my GP often, but phone is generally a lot more convenient, Anything detailed i send an email before the phone call setting out my symptoms/concerns (she hasn't asked for that, but said it was v useful).
The one occasion she felt we needed to speak face to face, she said to come in that evening - after the surgery would usually have closed, I think phone triage must be far more efficient for the practice, and more convenient for most patients.

I usually ask for a telephone consultation if its something not scary. They absolutely have to do this. In my health board it transpired that people were lying about not having Covid symptoms as they were worried about not being seen.