To think gps need to unlock the doors/open properly

[Nousernameforme]

Theres an article on the bbc about childrens a&e being overwhelmed by visits that aren't needed. Aibu to think that these people would have taken their children to the gp had they been able to? I know that they say a lot of them wouldn't have needed to see a gp but the viruses right now are horrible, probably due to everyones immune system being protected for a year, so it's harder to tell what needs help and what will get better on it's own.
My youngest has just got over the most awful virus which if it had not turned a corner when it did I would have got him medical assistance and if I can't get it from a gp I would have had to take him to a&e.

Our gp surgery is locked up the phone lines are only for those who have no internet and if you do get through all they do is put a request through on the ask my gp thing. I or members of my family have tried to see the dr for about 9 things this past year and got in once. 4 times we were prescribed antibiotics having not seen a dr.
Can we not have an official unlocking of the gp surgerys now please.

@Scubalubs87

Here, you have to sit on the phone line at 8am if you want any home of an apt. No other options but sit in the line, god knows where in the queue, or make 50+ attempts at call if you you keep getting cut off! Really fun when you're juggling work, and life and childcare simultaneously.

Exactly the same here, and they've turned off all online appointments. I wouldn't necessarily have a problem with this except for the fact that all I want is to book for a smear test. I don't need triage or anything else, I just need to book for the appointment that I've been sent a letter telling me I need to book. It's not the GP's fault, it's the poor systems and processes surrounding them but it's very frustrating. I've been trying for weeks now.

@RosesAndHellebores

What I want to know is why it was impossible, evidently, to deal with stuff using the Internet pre covid but it became entirely possible as soon as it suited GPs better. That's my gripe really the service, such as it is, is designed to suit the GPs rather than the patients and whether practices like it or not the NHS is free only at the point of delivery.

my gp surgery had online and telephone services years before covid. While in lockdown i was able to get a same day remote service for antibiotics for sinusitis. I was also told that if the antibiotic didn;t work and I felt iller then I could be seen f to f. If one surgery can do it, why can't they all?

BUT I have no kids but if I did, even under normal circs i would want to get a baby's high temp checked FAST and with covid and the delta variant doubly so and i think that A and E is definitely the right call.

@sparemonitor

We are open. I've seen patients face to face every working day of the pandemic. We have also been underfunded for the last 20 years and the gap between supply and demand is showing. Blame successive governments for year on year real terms funding cuts, because every GP bashing post like this pushes another GP towards leaving the profession.

I agree, and I think it goes back further to be honest. The UK public has been voting in governments that underfund and hobble the NHS for ideological reasons since Thatcher. This is a crisis 40 years in the making.

(I do also think the lack of congruency between GPs and hospitals doesn't help, but that's due to how the system was set up.)

*NotPersephone

every GP bashing post like this pushes another GP towards leaving the profession.

Pretty transparent passive aggressive blackmail attempt there. Put up or shut up, even if the service is dog shit and your half-dead granny with no internet access is being left for dead while her GP retires early to take advantage of more favorable tax conditions.

OP - YANBU. Far from GP-bashing, no other profession would have got away with performing this poorly for this long*

What a horrible post.

Our GP is the same. Very very rare to see a doctor face to face. Impossible to get through on the phone line. It cuts off as there’s too many people waiting. I sent a message to a doctor through the online system and waited 4 days for a response. If I had missed their call I’d not have been able to call them back (see phone line issue above) and then there was a panic to find my child an urgent appointment (wouldn’t have been so urgent if addressed 4 days before!)

I had two GPs tell me I needed a face to face appt, only when I tired to book I was told I'd made it up 🤷.

I've had vomiting for almost a year and have lost 10kg so I'm very underweight now and I've had to cry and beg on the phone just to be gaslit. It's not good enough.

They are literally talking about this now on the morning show in bbc1, children with temps presenting at A&E.

Probably A&Es are crowded for various reasons.
What can G.Ps do once all their appointments are all gone (and more I imagine)? I don’t know what the answer is.

My own GP surgery have been amazing.

There will definitely be inefficiencies which are even more frustrating at the moment when appointments are so scarce & lack of communication of how the system works makes this worse.

I expect most people have their own family experience of not been able to access the healthcare we are used to in the last 16/12 and it’s a frightening experience.

Overall the blame likely lies with the government underfunding in the same way it does that my daughter is waiting to see CAMHS for 18 months whilst barely able to function.

We don’t have enough investment in primary care and numbers of clinicians per population is too low so this level of demand is impossible to manage.

I’m not angry with the CAMHS team I’m angry with the successive government underfunding of mental health services. Personally If it weren’t for my GPS support I don’t know where we would be.

Tried*

@Ginmakesitallok

I work in health and social care. We are drowning just now. Its worse than it was at peak of admissions. Around 50% of our care staff are off isolating/looking after isolating children. The public are (understandably) expecting services to be up and running. Attendances everywhere are up. Services are playing catch up. It's hell.

So yabu. GPs are doing what they can.

Well that’s the case for many other professions who provide a public service. Like schools for example.

So yes we all know the situation is dire.

But not all surgeries have their door closed the way the OP describes. If some can manage to see people, book them over the phone etc… why not others?

I have 2 young children & have seen a GP 2 or 3 times during the pandemic without issues, even at its peak. Maybe I’m lucky!

Mine can be a pain to get through to on the phone but in my experience they’re always great when it comes to children. If I needed them myself… maybe not so easy.

every GP bashing post like this pushes another GP towards leaving the profession.

I just don’t believe they’d leave a high salaried, low working hour job because someone is mean about them on Mumsnet.

OP I agree. A&Es are bearing the brunt of GPS refusing to see patients. Here you phone at 8am, fastest finger first to get through for a TELEPHONE appointment and then they can’t tell you what time they’ll phone so you are expected to be available to take a call at some point that day, which obviously isn’t possible for many working people.

A few weeks ago, I took my 8mo in with a 39 temp and bulging soft spot. According to the rules listed on that article, I shouldn't have taken her in. But is it worth the risk?!

I'm so fed up with our GP. I wait 40 mins to get through to reception, then it's a 2 week minimum wait for a phone appt, even if you need to be seen. So then you have the phone appt, explain why you need to be seen, then it's another 2-3 week wait for an in person appt. It is so nonsensical and a waste of the GP's already limited time! And the receptionists act like you're a massive inconvenience.

But what do you mean by an ‘official unlocking’? If demand outstrips supply, you still won’t get the appointment you want?

I don’t want to go for a smear test - the NHS wrote to me about it! It took me 3 years to pluck up the courage to go last time. Having to wait 35 - 55 minutes in a telephone queue, while I listen 14 times to the Covid message, which I have heard about 30 times already, is not going to make me want to go either! I do not understand why when I am fully vaccinated and the receptionists are, I can’t go in and make an appointment in person - Covid is going to be endemic, and we have to live with it! Pharmacies have been open throughout Covid - why are their lives less precious than those of GP receptionists; and its the same doctors’ patients standing in the pharmacy queue?

The problem is the national shortage of GPs and chronic underfunding of primary care. There just aren’t the resources there to meet the demand. “Unlocking the doors” won’t make any difference.

The government are trying to perpetuate the “GPs aren’t doing any work” myth to cover up the fact that they’re running primary care into the ground.

Since they’re also making general practice very unattractive as a career option, it’s only going to get worse.

My GP surgery has been very reasonable throughout the pandemic (easy to get telephone appointment, will do face to face if they think necessary or you insist it is).

My kids have been sick with a cough/temp on a loop for at least a month now and GP was happy to see the youngest after a negative PCR test despite a continuous cough.

I realise how lucky we are but still wish they would open up for prebooked appointments.

GP here. We have been delivering 30% more patient contacts than pre-Covid, over 60% of which are face to face. So we are at near pre-Covid levels of F2F consultations, but are doing a lot more telephone and email consultations than before on top of that.

Workings days are 12 hours+ without a moment's rest. I'm also an A&E doctor. General practice is more intense. I occasionally get a break in A&E. Never in GP.

My reception staff are sworn at and abused every day.

We can't retain staff. 1 new receptionist left after a week because she couldn't take it. Two of our neighbouring practices are handing back their contracts and giving up.

There are not enough GPs or general practice staff.

Constant bile directed at us in the media and social media is the final straw. My team have worked so hard throughout Covid. And you all hate us. Perhaps we shouldn't care, but we did not go into medicine to do a shit job We cannot do our job properly because we have too much demand and not enough staff. No one wants to do the job because who wants to work a 12 hour day with constant abuse?

For gods sake its not the fault of the GPs. Its chronic underfunding and having more and more demands placed upon them. Even if there was an 'official unlocking', do you expect there to be a myriad of free appointments? The shortage of staff and underfunding still exists. Your anger is misdirected.

I should also say im a GP Nurse practitioner.

I heard on the radio that many of the children presented with a low grade fever that could have been managed at home.

Our health and social care problems go far deeper than Covid, although undeniably it has made things a lot worse.

I worked in a version of 111 before it existed (and was much better imo) and a high proportion of calls were advice for self care and management. I’m not sure if it’s just down to not having extended families any more, or an education problem, but many people either don’t know how to look after themselves, don’t want to look after themselves or are too scared to try so present wherever they can for help and advice. You see it on here too - my child has a temperature of 38.1 what do I do?

I’m not even sure of the resolve either. Something needs to happen though.

I don't know anyone locally who has actually managed to see a GP in the last 15 months. DD had a phone call with one (about a mental health problem). The GP didn't know what to do & said he would call back later that day. That was in May. Still waiting.
No wonder our local A&E is over run.

Ours is at crisis point. Someone put on FB that they'd rung the surgery 67 times and not got through to make an appt. They rarely seem to respond to emails so do you resend, or phone? Once you get to the stage that people are resorting to these measures, that in itself creates a whole pile of extra work. It's like being in debt - the backlog creates extra work, like a debt generating interest, which sends them deeper into the red.

Also there must be millions of people with depression and mental health difficulties who haven't seen a GP in nearly 18m. Depression never seems a "good enough" reason for a face to face appointment, and that feels unsafe to me.

every GP bashing post like this pushes another GP towards leaving the profession.

Maybe they need to take accountability and consider why people are unhappy with the service they are providing. Primary care is largely shambolic in the UK and needs a complete overhaul.

And can someone explain me why it’s better to have a tel. consultation rather than face to face if you allow the same amount of time.

I mean I had a tel consultation for something on my skin. Couldn’t diagnose over the phone (surprised?). Had then a F2F appointment where I was told to come back to see someone else again (something to do with being trained on a certain piece of equipment).
That’s 3 appointments that would have been done in one before.

How is that efficient?.

YANBU, but our GP has been open right the way through, I have seen mine several times in the past year, and had regular nurse appointments, and was even referred for an MRI scan.

I don't know why some areas it is impossible to see a doctor , are they areas that are rife with covid?