‘Call at 8am for a GP appointment’

[purplepufferfish]

I work for the NHS and personally understand the stress that the service is under. I get it. But does this frustrate anyone else?

Call for a GP appointment. Get told that the nearest one is two weeks away and to call back the next day at 8am for a same day appointment.

Call back at 8am the next day, as is everyone else of course.

Finally get through at 10am to be told that the next appointment is two weeks away and to call back at 8am for a same day appointment!

Again I know that this is no one’s fault and I genuinely blame no one for this.

Am I being unreasonable for being frustrated?

I used to have this at my old surgery, it was a pain in the arse!! Moved to another and you can do online bookings where often the reply to queries and medication type things within the day and can offer phone appointments same day as well. For face to face appointments it's usually a few days max you have to wait. Much better!

I don’t intend to minimise GP’s knowledge. But when I was applying for Oxford/imperial science degrees 17 years ago the medical applicants who outclassed me (as a straight A Oxford candidate) didn’t expect to all get medical offers.

How bad would they have been to be worse than “no appointment for six weeks”?

@WaterOffADucksCrack receptionists are not medically trained, they shouldn’t be making those decisions. I don’t blame the receptionists necessarily as it’s up to the GP partners and practice manager to ensure that the service is appropriate and that they don’t leave it up to the receptionists!

My surgery is like this. It's so annoying. Pre covid you could book online buy they've suspended that now. I'm on medication where I'm not allowed a repeat prescription. Do everytime I run low on tablets I have to book a medication review before I can get anymore.

I was feeling this today. I phoned yesterday to request a phone appointment and was given one between 10 and 12 today. And so I waited, but nobody called. I had to collect DS from nursery at 12:45 and what I needed to talk to the doctor about is something that is causing me a great deal of emotional pain and worry. So at 12:30 I phoned a private medical service which offers consultation on what I need and they gave me an appointment, which I’ll be paying for.

The GP phoned at around 3 but I was with my son and didn’t hear the call, nor would I have wanted to have that conversation while looking after him. They eventually phoned again about 5:45 at which time I told them I’d be using a private service. Why they can’t send you a text to say they’re running late or whatever I don’t know, instead of having you waiting 2 hours for a call that never comes.

BungleandGeorge Yes and I don't disagree however there is no need for the ones I've dealt with to be so rude to everyone. I've witnessed one who had someone in tears because she berrated them for ages and called them stupid and idiotic for getting the time wrong (they were too early not late and hadn't asked to be seen there and then or anything). And I think the one who said she didn't care if the resident died in pain because it wasn't her problem was evil as she refused to even ask the practice manager or a doctor.

@WaterOffADucksCrack

BungleandGeorge Yes and I don't disagree however there is no need for the ones I've dealt with to be so rude to everyone. I've witnessed one who had someone in tears because she berrated them for ages and called them stupid and idiotic for getting the time wrong (they were too early not late and hadn't asked to be seen there and then or anything). And I think the one who said she didn't care if the resident died in pain because it wasn't her problem was evil as she refused to even ask the practice manager or a doctor.

I agree there’s no excuse for being rude, but if the practice manager is aware of inappropriate behaviour they really should tackle it. Suggesting a patient at end of life stays in pain and not referring to a clinician should be a serious disciplinary offence, a formal warning at the least

@Authenticchicken

And if the receptionist doesn’t think your illness warrants a doctor she directs you to the pharmacy and won’t give you an appointment at all.

Receptionists prioritising appointments should not be allowed.

If anything, I'd rather be triage by a pharmacist. My pharmacy has a direct link to the GP, and they've helped me out looking at rashes etc to determine if they need an OTC treatment or if I ought to see the GP. But they have no power to get me an appointment.

At mine they used to do online booking, and release 4 week blocks, so you could get a non-urgent if you knew the release day (after that they'd all be gone).

Now it seems that it's ring at 8:30 for same day or nothing.

I teach, my tutor group arrive at 8:30. I can't book a morning off (or request cover) to attempt to book a GP app! Even if I could it would mean I could only request appointments after 4pm - unlikely, I'm usually caller number 6 and on hold for 45 minutes, if I get through at all.

I could really do with a medication review, over the phone would be fine, any time this month after 4pm would be fine, but I can't book one until I'm ill enough to justify a sick day, so in crisis basically.

It's madness.

Receptionists prioritise our appointments. Always have.

More than once I ended up in hospital as a result of being told I wasn't ill enough and needed to phone back. It's why I've ended up in the last year buying medication illegally to treat infections such as tonsilitis after being told to wait until I couldn't speak/swallow/breathe by which time I'd need to be hospitalised from experience. The black spots in my mouth apparently weren't relevant (they indicate infection spreading!) so I was forced to lie and get antibiotics illegally. The same thing happened when I had a UTI - told to wait seven days. Last time I did that I was hospitalised.

What kind of specialist trained receptionist tells someone to phone back when they can't speak?! Or for UTI after seven days of home treatment not working? It's dangerous. I read somewhere UTI is the number one cause of sepsis. Can't say I'm surprised given how flippant my surgery are about them.

The pharmacy here have been fantastic. Even trying to get medication for me when ill and help - they know I buy online, and not through any kind of GP service but illegally, because I've no choice. They've been run off their feet due to the pandemic and GP services refusing to see non medical emergencies here, plus sorting out meds after two pharmacies went bust.

I really feel for them. They struggle so much and get so much abuse because they cannot treat what gp surgeries are sending them there for and people get angry (bearing in mind we also have very few pharmacies now as well) as people need to travel quite far to get to the pharmacy just to get turned away.

The whole service needs overhauling. All our clinics are still indefinitely suspended, including clinics like diabetes and well woman (both relevant to me).

I got through after over 200 tries one morning. Luckily I got an appointment that afternoon. Pre covid though

At 8am I'm in the car on the way to work. Even on days when I'm off, you ring at 8 and it is permanently engaged. You ring and ring and ring and ring, finally get in a queue, but by the time you actually speak to anyone all the appointments are already gone for that day and they have no other appointments for a fortnight. And they aren't booking any further ahead.

It's a complete joke. The only way we used to get round it (can't at the moment for obvious reasons) was that DH used to walk round there at 7.50 and wait for the doors to open.

Two weeks? I called Monday and the first appointment is 12th April. This is an issue I've had since Nov and have had three sets of blood tests for - the appointment is to discuss the recent blood test which was on 26th Feb.

I rang my surgery yesterday to make an appointment and an automated message told me they weren't taking appoint at this time and to call back next Tuesday

Ours are not offering any appointments at the moment, except urgent ones if you try phoning at 8am. It took the third attempt of trying and hanging on to be told that. It's probably going to force people to use A and E instead.

@Ggeemerc

Ours are not offering any appointments at the moment, except urgent ones if you try phoning at 8am. It took the third attempt of trying and hanging on to be told that. It's probably going to force people to use A and E instead.

Except some A&Es are running a telephone only triage system as well with their doors locked unless attending via ambulance, again with receptionists deciding if something is urgent enough to be put through. It's putting people's lives in danger. I injured my hip last April and never recovered. Now it's agony and permantly disabling.

I wasn't triaged by receptionist as needing to be triaged by nurse in a&e and left to suffer.

YANBU. I wish I had health insurance so I could actually see somebody. It's always the same: "we're not booking appointments at the moment, but please ring back tomorrow at 8am or 2:30pm for an appointment".

Becca that's awful! I keep hoping my issue will go away.

@Ggeemerc until recently I kept thinking the same, but someone pointed out to me it's been almost a year and it just keeps getting worse so obviously damage that needs medical intervention.

Normally our surgery operates the "you have to be well enough to queue outside at 8am to get an appointment system". It's laughable. People were lined up down to road and by the time the receptionist had answered one telephone call all the appointments had been given to the people physically present. If you are too ill to drive, or too ill to queue for a minimum of 30mins you miss out. Also, they used to use a premium phone number so if you were hanging on in a holding system you were charged premium rates. I recently tried for 3 weeks phoning only to be told they were no telephone appointments left and I needed to call at 8am. Since having Covid, I have vertigo and I'm too sick to speak first thing. I said I thought their policy of only giving appointments to people healthy enough to call or lucky enough to get through wasn't fair and would they agree to my child phoning to make an appointment on my behalf and suddenly there was a cancellation and an appointment became free. I don't think GPs have covered themselves with glory during this past year. They expect everyone to have access to technology and seem a bit out of touch with people living on normal wages. At my parents surgery you can only re-order prescriptions online, its an awful system. How is my mother in her 80s without a computer supposed to do that, she can't even use a library computer as they are closed and she doesn't drive. The gp has asked for photos of rashes etc, but she doesn't have a camera phone, email or a clue how to use it. It's ludicrous.

Yes, it's an absolute pain. I remember someone complaining directly to Blair years ago on a question time program. He agreed it wasn't ideal and should change and things actually changed not long after this at our GP surgery. You could actually get an appointment a couple of days later when you rang at any time of day. Unfortunately it was very short lived and soon went back to the ridiculously annoying and impractical system you describe. It's even worse now that they have suspended online booking, which at least meant you could check often and get last minute appointments when other people cancelled, and had the added bonus of not having to speak to a bad tempered dragon.

There’s something called Livi which is basically a doctors appointment via FaceTime. As long as your GP is signed up to it then you will get free appointments

It’s been incredibly useful for me. All prescriptions sent to my doctor as usual

This is all so depressing. Doctors service getting worse and worse, police stations closing, traffic worse and worse, and yet new houses and flats being built in their thousands in our area. I really despair for the future.