‘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 think there are a few problems with getting appointments at a GP surgery, even pre-covid.

First is a lot of ailments that people want to see a doctor for could be solved with a trip to the pharmacy. Obviously there are plenty of reasons to need to see a GP but there are things that pharmacists are more than capable of prescribing.

Secondly, and this is the case for where I live, there are new housing developments popping up in every available bit of space in town- but no increase in resources for those people. There’s still the same number of schools, shops, parks, dentists and GP surgeries. So there could be an additional 5 or 10 thousand people crammed into every available bit of land... but no more healthcare provision or education facilities.

More demand for the same amount of supply, it’s not really going to work is it?

Yep same where I live

This thread got me thinking about to the last time I needed a doctor for something that wasn't routine.
It was just before Christmas.
I phoned at around 09.00hrs and I was offered a phone consultation at 11.40hrs. The doctor phoned back right on time, talked through the issue. I had an option to send a picture through and have a follow up phone call the following week if the condition wasn't improving. I was told I could have a face to face if I felt my condition warranted it - I didn't think it did. I had taken MN advice about a sweat rash on my breast.
I have to say I thought it was a very efficient way of dealing with things and saved so much of my time.
I hope this system continues after the pandemic especially as you do have the option of a face to face as a phone call won't suit everyone. The call wasn't rushed, lots of questions were asked so I feel like it was a comprehensive appointment.

I feel this post soo much. Our surgery is a nightmare. One of the receptionists is a real pain, quite rude, the other is really lovely.
Doesn't help that our GP is only in 2 days a week for 4 hours.
I phoned for an emergency appointment because I found a lump in my breast. I was very concerned by the sudden dimpling of the skin. My GP wasn't in that day - I just wanted someone to look at it - but the receptionist said I had to call back the next day as there was nothing she could do right then and promptlyhung up on me.
After 2 hours of trying to get through the next day; the nice one finally answered.
She passed my details onto my GP's secretary. The next day I had a phone call from her to say I had an appointment at the breast clinic.
Why couldn't the first one have done that?!
I spent the entire evening fretting that I might not get through and would have to wait till the following week when she was in again.

YANBU I used to be on a packed commuter train at 8am and my old surgery made you phone in at 8am and if they didn't have any that day they'd tell you so simply not getting my train wasn't an option and my train was so packed just lifting your arm wasn't fun let alone trying to sort out a doctors app.. I also could never get an app until I finally set three phones up in a row and pressed ring at exactly the turn of the minute at 8am!!
If I rang at 8:01 I would either not get through he number 29 in the queue or just not have a free app. So I developed this method to get an app. Bloody ridiculous.
Hope you get it sorted. I am sooo glad I've moved rurally now but I'm now suffering from the effects of covid where out doctors is refusing to see anyone and there's no alternative. Sigh.

Our doctors system is like this in Hertfordshire

It drives me mad

We have a son who has chest issues and it’s mean we’ve ended up taking him to urgent care from not being able to get through to the surgery

I’m genuinely concerned about my GP. Haven’t been able to call them all week - my phone shows user busy and automatically disconnects the call. However their number hasn’t changed and there’s nothing online to suggest that there’s an emergency closure?? Wtf

Ours on the website site says no routine appointments for a few weeks (dated 28 March 2020 - nearly a year ago)

I would rather just pay 20% less income tax and opt out of the NHS entirely.

@Xenia

Ours on the website site says no routine appointments for a few weeks (dated 28 March 2020 - nearly a year ago)

I would rather just pay 20% less income tax and opt out of the NHS entirely.

Its about 120 Euros a week in The Netherlands for their healthcare system. Employers pay a larger contribution, the non-employed have their payment paid by the State.

I lived there for a few years until recently and had no problems getting GP appointments. Not rushed ones where you are ushered out asap or fobbed off, as can happen here.

I'm not a fan of the NHS as a system. I would also like to opt out of it and arrange my own private healthcare. But the NHS not only stifles, but completely prevents, other competitors setting up on a level playing field. The lack of competition on the market is one of the reasons its so inefficient and wastes so much money. As you will know, a significant proportion of its budget is spent fighting, settling and paying out on negligence cases where people have suffered avoidable harm.

It’s a sad situation because clearly the NHS has been subject to a process of dismantling for a long, long time now. If it worked well, it would be incredible. And when it does, it is. There are a lot of very, very good people in the NHS. And a lot of folk sitting at desks getting paid a fortune while improving precisely nothing.

But when it comes to your health and that of your loved ones, accepting shite service is just wrong and dangerous.

Sorry! 120 Euros a MONTH in The Netherlands!! Not per week!!!

Just to add, I’m paying £100 privately for a procedure I need. I have a consultation next week and will receive what I need a few days later. I tried to go through the NHS, was on the phone for ages, getting more and more upset because this can’t wait. I was told I’d get a phone appointment during a certain period but it never came. I told the receptionist what I needed to speak to the doctor about, and anyone would have known it was important. For me, the NHS was definitely not fit for purpose on this occasion, and I don’t even want to talk about my experiences with ante natal care.

One of the reasons we are leaving the U.K. is because of the way (some) members of the public treat GP’s. DH received a complaint from a patient when DH left in the middle of an appointment as someone had been knocked over outside the surgery and was unconscious. He got another complaint when he left part way through his morning surgery as DS’s school rang to say he had a compound leg fracture after a fall at school. I wasn’t contactable as I was working abroad.
The public don’t appreciate good GP’s.

Some of the comments here are funny. Someone thinks 20% of their income tax goes to the NHS🤣 that the NHS is inefficient and all the money goes to negligence claims🤣 perhaps look at the actual statistics on costs. Virtually the whole of Europe pay more tax towards their health service and many have charges for medication/ GP visits etc on top. Private health insurance in this country is lower because the NHS is used as a back up. Private hospitals are often glorified hotels with very little in the way of senior staff or facilities on site. How many private hospitals provide their own ITU? They cherry pick...

It's so frustrating. I tried to get through to my GP three times yesterday. The first time I was 17th in the queue and an hour later I had only got down to 6th so had to hang up as couldn't hold any longer.

The second time I was 11th in the queue and again I didn't have time to hang on the line

The third time I was 7th in the queue.

I am on annual leave from work this week so bad time to do this but what happens when people are working. There is no way I could have hung on that long if I wasn't on leave.

So frustrating

HMRC tell me that 20% goes to the NHS. When you file your tax return or logon you can see where it goes. So I think it would be hard to dispute that 20% figure. let me look it up again now...

Okay looked it up - 2019 - 20
Health 20.5%

Welfare 22.1%
State pension 12.4%
Education 11.6%
National debt interest 6.9%
Defence 5.3%
Overseas aid 1.1%

And some others.
If I could opt out of health, welfare, state education, and state pension that is 65% of my annual tax bills and pay 65% less income that that would be absolutely wonderful.

Even 20% of tax take isn't enough. No other country tries to fund a health service on taxes alone. Probably they look at us and don't like what they see. I can't say that I like what I see either.

Why shouldn't we contribute more? Not through taxation, every worker pays that. But why is it ok for people earning £60, 70, £80k etc to only contribute to costs via tax same as the rest of us? It's crackers that those on high incomes aren't contributing more whether via work insurance schemes or copays or whatever. Every other healthcare system does this. If we did likewise, maybe we wouldn't have people queuing outside surgeries before dawn just to see a doctor.

@Xenia

Okay looked it up - 2019 - 20 Health 20.5%

Welfare 22.1%
State pension 12.4%
Education 11.6%
National debt interest 6.9%
Defence 5.3%
Overseas aid 1.1%

And some others.
If I could opt out of health, welfare, state education, and state pension that is 65% of my annual tax bills and pay 65% less income that that would be absolutely wonderful.

That is percentage of central revenue isn’t it? Which includes your employer contributions plus charges such as dental, optician treatment and prescriptions?

If you want Everyman for himself, you need to find a country supportive of that. Personally I’d hate to live in a country happy to let people die or lose their house because they can’t afford medical care.
We have an extremely efficient health service due to strong bargaining power, look at UK medication costs v the US. We just don’t pay enough in, Germans pay 30% more

@BungleandGeorge

Some of the comments here are funny. Someone thinks 20% of their income tax goes to the NHS🤣 that the NHS is inefficient and all the money goes to negligence claims🤣 perhaps look at the actual statistics on costs. Virtually the whole of Europe pay more tax towards their health service and many have charges for medication/ GP visits etc on top. Private health insurance in this country is lower because the NHS is used as a back up. Private hospitals are often glorified hotels with very little in the way of senior staff or facilities on site. How many private hospitals provide their own ITU? They cherry pick...

BungleandGeorge Private health insurance in this country is lower because the NHS is used as a back up.

As I pointed out above, the private healthcare system in The Netherlands costs people around 120 euros per month. Costs don't go up if you claim or develop further conditions. The Government pays for the non-employed.

I was latterly paying around £150 per month a few years ago for private health insurance for an under 50 with no pre-existing medial conditions because I made a couple of claims for things the NHS wouldn't treat me for (ankle surgery and surgery for a kidney stone).

Tbh high earners like Xenia are getting a pretty easy ride by living in a place where health is funded by tax take alone, given that high earners pay less of a percentage of their income in tax than low earners do.

@Xenia

Okay looked it up - 2019 - 20 Health 20.5%

Welfare 22.1%
State pension 12.4%
Education 11.6%
National debt interest 6.9%
Defence 5.3%
Overseas aid 1.1%

And some others.
If I could opt out of health, welfare, state education, and state pension that is 65% of my annual tax bills and pay 65% less income that that would be absolutely wonderful.

Xenia I know you have your own personal take on this stuff but would you honestly want to live in a country where welfare, education and provision for the elderly was left to be paid for only by the people who were affected by it and not rich enough to opt out? What do you think that society would look like? How much tax would a parent of school aged children have to pay if the education budget had to be met only by people with school age children? What would a school system funded by that budget look like? What kind of welfare provision would we have if everyone who didn’t think they needed welfare had opted out? Would you be happy to live in the society which left people, including their children, completely destitute?

Because that’s crossing a line from “bracingly libertarian” into inhuman, and also quite shortsighted.

@GreenlandTheMovie

Sorry! 120 Euros a MONTH in The Netherlands!! Not per week!!!

I would gladly pay that with a corresponding decrease in income tax in return for a better system. The current system is broken, can't cope with the demands upon it, and is no longer fit for purpose.😫

@GreenlandTheMovie it appears that employers have to pay a contribution on on top and the 120 is only for the basic package and their are costs on top at the point of needing care. So it doesn’t cover as much? There is optional additional cover? How much is that? What is actually covered as there appears to be quite a number of exclusions

I don’t have a problem in considering alternate funding btw, I just think it’s ridiculous to claim that we do t have services due to inefficiency. Our system is very efficient compared to many but overall we pay in much less as a nation