Fed up of telephone appointments

[OverTheRainbow88]

I want to see my GP (well any GP). I have to call at 8am on the dot to have any hope in hell to get a phone back that day. They only do calls backs on the same day, so you can’t book one for the next day or week etc.

8am I’m waiting in line to drop youngest off at nursery... finally get through, receptionist wants to know why I am calling, I don’t want to discuss my possible nipple thrush in the nursery line. Get told ok a GP will call you before 1pm today but they won’t give a time.

I’m teaching 8.30-12.15 so now I have to teach with my phone on, and try and subtly whisper to the GP I think I’ve got nipple thrush and hope the kids don’t hear.

AIBU to just want to see a GP face to face or given a set time they will call?

No doubt that giving birth will soon be done via a telephone call from a midwife too!

Nearly! DDIL had to film her stitches with her phone for the midwife to check over the telephone, after the birth!

Join the club. I've no holiday left because I've used it all up taking a day off for a telephone appointment!
Can't take calls at work, GP can't give a time they will call

Health but it isn't 10 mins. It's all day. The 10 mins is to book a phone appt. Which could be at any time in the next 10 hours. And if you miss it, you miss your appt.

So if you work on a shop floor, in an open plan office, if you teach with no immediate cover available, if you have to commute by driving back home..... you risk missing your appt. Then you need to ring up the next day and be late again.

Or, take a whole day off work to be sure of being able to answer. Some people can't afford that.

I think practice management for some GPs really needs an overhaul!

At my (busy, city) it is possible to book a phone call (with a time slot, and they are pretty good at running to time). If you ring for a consultation on the day, you are given a somewhat wider time slot (less precise than a booked call as they're still prioritising the day's work, but enough to plan round) and they also tell you then what time the afternoon F2F slots are, so if the telephone GP thinks you need to be seen in person, you have some sort of idea what time they might ask you to visit.

It's ridiculous OP, there are so many reasons why you might not be able to take a random phone call. I don't blame you for being frustrated. My gp is operating their normal booking system, but instead of attending in person, you book for the gp to call you at a set time, and can book either by calling the receptionst or through the patient access app. It's working very well so far, as of right now looking at the app, I can book for the gp to call me at 8am on Thursday, that's way quicker than I used to be able to get a face to face appointment. I don't understand why so many gp practices are letting people wait all day for calls, it just screams of arrogance and poor client care to me.

@JohnnyMcGrathSaysFuckOff

Health but it isn't 10 mins. It's all day. The 10 mins is to book a phone appt. Which could be at any time in the next 10 hours. And if you miss it, you miss your appt.

So if you work on a shop floor, in an open plan office, if you teach with no immediate cover available, if you have to commute by driving back home..... you risk missing your appt. Then you need to ring up the next day and be late again.

Or, take a whole day off work to be sure of being able to answer. Some people can't afford that.

Yeah I know, our GP system is pretty shit.

Worst case scenario, call 111 as they can either get your GP to see you as a priority or book you an appointment as an out of hours GP

Haven’t had any issues with telephone appointments at my gps. E-consult works well, they give you a time slot for a call and will get you in for a face to face if needed.
Dh’s is a nightmare with his work as his Gp doesn’t give a time just am or pm and if he is with a client he can’t just walk out.

I’m having more of an issue with hospital telephone appointments. Dd has a telephone appointment with her orthopedic surgeon this week.
Completely pointless! It’s not even a video call so he can’t see her or examine her. How is that going to work? Sorry slight rant.

@katmarie my GP is am or PM at very best
So that's half a day off work

@FluffyPJs senior management walk about the school and communicate with each other on mob phones here. Esp with covid so less face to face chat.

As the line was engaged I wrote a full note of the the reason, pharmacists opinion, and the recommended drug to take with the one I'm on long term. The adjunct drug was over the counter except that the supply is so limited it is not being sold OTC. The receptionist triaged the note and I was told that the very first appointment was eight days away in a two hour slot. I know and knew it was not an emergency but very uncomfortable for those eight days. No hestitation from GP who'd never met me after I uttered one sentence.

This was the case with the gp I was with years ago, long before covid.

You were instructed to call at 8am, and could be on hold for 45 mins. As I took the tube to work and therefore was underground with no train signal. You would then get a call back sometime that day, and the doctor may decide they needed to see you. I remember once travelling an hour to get to work, as I arrived at work, the doctor called me and decided I needed to be seen. He told me to come to the surgery for an appointment in 30 mins, but I was an hour away.

This was the only way you could get an appointment, even for something routine. So difficult for working people.

It’s absolutely crap. And having to listen to that spiel about coronavirus each time does my head in.
Dd waited from 8.30 until 4.30 last week for GP to call. No call. Had to go out and missed the call as was driving. She rang the surgery and asked if GP could ring back. No she wouldn’t. Was told to buy over counter Co Codamol for chronic pain. If she’d bothered to look she would have seen DD already on Codeine!
Totally crap. This system is pre Covid. It’s just 10 x worse now!

I think practice management for some GPs really needs an overhaul!
Yes this. I used to be with a really shit surgery (shit in many ways). Sooo stressful waiting in all day for a phone call that you had no guarantee of getting (reception were never able to say for sure if you'd actually get a call back). Sod's Law if the call came, you'd miss it having nipped to the loo.

I changed surgeries. Current one is brilliant. Bookable in advance telephone appointments (with same day emergencies). Face to face if needed.

Is there any chance of just stepping outside the classroom, or going to the ladies for the call? And if you are worried about being overheard why not say 'areolar candidiasis' instead of nipple thrush.

GPs are trying to minimise risk for the safety of everyone and it's not really fair to bypass the phonecall system just because you don't want to say nipple thrush on the phone. The GP shouldn't mind if you say 'hang on let me pop somewhere more private'.

Are you breastfeeding?

If so baby needs to be treated for oral thrush at the same time as you have treatment or you will keep passing it back and forth

Baylis a lot of people don't have somewhere more private. I get aerated about this because it's a privilege thing. I work in university senior management and have my own office that's keyed to my staff card. Meanwhile, the admin team next door work in a busy student- facing office, completely open plan. Outside is an equally busy corridor, the ladies' loo, and a foyer area with cafe. There is literally nowhere for people like that to "just pop to". Same goes for eg nursery workers, retail staff etc etc. It does matter as it is a barrier to people accessing healthcare. And it could be easily fixed by giving someone an hour time slot, say, so they could book a meeting room/ arrange not to be in a meeting/ arrange cover / go home.

I had to do an abdominal check via zoom to see if my son had appendicitis im NOT a medical professional I felt like a medical student

Often on the day phone times are difficult to predict a timescale as likely to be carried out by the duty team who will constantly be trialing requests, asssessing urgency and carrying out in that order.
I absolutely understand how frustrating it can be. Often we call people 3 x to no reply, we try to be understanding of the fact people are busy.

@FluffyPJs

There's no way you would have your phone on in class, and answer it, let alone have the conversation you say you will be having! It's an immediate safeguarding fail to have your phone on you in school.

This is not true, why say this?

Phone calls reasonable, but in a time window.

The most unreasonable thing is the 8am time to call. Probably dates from the last century when doctors had morning consultations, then went out on house visits late morning.

I expect earlier than 8am would be better or even sometime such as 10am.

This is not true, why say this?

Because people like to make up melodramatic facts to make themselves feel important...

It is categorically not true for all schools.

Haven’t been able to get through again this morning! Sat in staff car park waiting but it’s not even ringing just saying user busy!

I’m also the deputy child protection officer so every member of staff has my personal mobile number to call, and my phone is on me at all times.

I'm sick of it too. My surgery is shit and disorganised and I feel like they're rubbing their hands together now they've got an excuse not to see anyone.

Also adding to confirm that phones in classrooms are permitted and there's no safeguarding rules against it. People need to stop bullshitting!