Unlock the doors please, GP surgeries

[Tiari]

to think, if restrictions are lifted on July 19, then GP surgeries will open their doors?
We should be able to walk in freely and up to the reception desk for queries, appointments etc?

My surgery has been pretty good. I like the e-consult system followed by telephone triage, but I realise it doesn't work for everyone. The reception desk was open for walk in queries when I was there for an appointment recently, so there is an alternative. I have found it pretty efficient. Rather than hanging around a germy waiting room I can wait for a call at my desk whilst carrying on with work. I have been seen in person as a follow up when needed.

I totally agree. Last week I had a nasty fall down the stairs. Contacted GP, wouldn’t/couldn’t see me, wouldn’t prescribe any pain relief and advised me to go to A&E. After waiting an hour or so, consultant addressed the waiting room and said due to no capacity wait times could be in excess of 12 hours (overnight) At this point some people had already been waiting 8 hours! We have no other provision in our area such as walk in centres or anything. I’d guess how GP surgeries are operating is putting A&E under unprecedented strain! According to regs on line GPs are fully capable and equipped to deal with minor injuries. I was left not examined and relying on otc meds. Ultimately nothing appears broken but I have significant bruising to back, foot, arm & hand.

We have been able to since last May (2020) so it's your gp not government rules

I have no problem with the triage idea (although EConsult could be less frustrating).

I have a problem with waiting for a call back (a five hour time slot) when I used to be giving an appointment time to actually see a GP. Although I'd sometimes have to wait a bit longer in the waiting room if the GP was running late, it was never a five hour window. If I'm at work (school) then I have a limited window when the GP can contact me - no phones allowed and you can't just walk out of a class room. I imagine similar if you work in a shop. Last time I asked the receptionist if they could put something on explaining I was a work so could only take a call after a certain time I was told 'I'll put it on, but I can't promise'. GP rang during the times I was working so I had to call again and finally got a call back four days after I had initially contacted them.

I understand face to face appointments take longer, rooms have to be cleaned in between. But I can't imagine my GPs are seeing patients every minute of every day - we have 10 plus GPs in our surgery. Plus nurses and HCAs. Surely it's not outside the average Practice Manager to arrange the day so a GP or two and a nurse take to the phones with specific appointment times for phone calls and the rest see the patients? Treat telephone consultations like normal appointments so those who work in roles where they can't be within reach of the phone every minute of the day, can actually speak to a GP in private by putting a time slot down? Five hour time slots are ridiculous!

My friend's daughter ( a baby) had croup not so long ago. She's had it before. She asked for a GP to give her a prescription. Reception told her the girl had to be seen so go to A&E! Now I understand they may have thought there was a possibility of Covid. But A&E are no more Covid resistant than the surgery! She finally persuaded a GP to do a video call, was given a prescription (which was wrong three times - too much for the weight of the child and luckily the pharmacist caught it).

My sister, who has had a breast cancer scare, found a lump. The receptionist again told her to go to A&E. She said she wasn't going to block a genuine emergency and if she didn't see the GP she'd report the surgery and hey presto, an appointment magically appeared. Shouldn't come to that but it is.

@hopeishere

Yes I explained to the receptionist it was a breast lump as soon as she said it would be a telephone appointment - I don't mind waiting a week or so for a pre booked appointment as long as it's face to face but it's a week wait for a pre booked telephone one

I am frustrated that it is so hard to even speak to a doctor on the phone. Mine has a system of - first 100 calls before 11am will get a call back. If you are unsuccessful, there is no carrying over, you just have to ring again the next day. I rang 19 times in a row before getting through to speak to a receptionist, who then said that because it was 11.05am I'd have to try again tomorrow. When I queried what I should do about my unwell 7 month old between now and then, they suggested a&e 🙄 I was under the impression A&E was for emergencies and GP for the more mundane things, not the other way around!

I hope ours open their doors. DH had a simple issue (that still needed some attention) a few weeks ago and got told to go to A&E as they were not seeing patients face to face. A&E were not at all happy about it and we told them we agreed with them on that. 5 hours sitting waiting and thwn a course of antibiotics and a total waste of the hospital staff time.

@Tiari

to think, if restrictions are lifted on July 19, then GP surgeries will open their doors? We should be able to walk in freely and up to the reception desk for queries, appointments etc?

GP's will not be returning to the "old way" of practicing. The method of triaging and appointments via phone etc is here to stay.

It's NHS England's attempt to manage the volume of patients and be more efficient.

@Tiari

Oh, scrap that!! Doors are not open in north west Kent

The doors are open at ours in NW Kent

@Rhinothunder

GP's are all emigrating or retiring. The government doesn't pay doctors properally. The public abuse them.

Start appreciating them or prepare to have to pay privately for health.

£100k is not being paid well? How so?

It definitely seems to be dependent on the surgery. I’ve been in twice since May. One which didn’t need anything poking at, but major lack of privacy + MH/ED stuff & once for my asthma which I wasn’t overly thrilled by.

FFS - Now had a text message from the doctors asking me to send them a NON INTIMATE photo of my breast lump 🤔🤦‍♀️ not sure exactly how I'm going to manage that - I'm considering taking a photo of my boob and photo shopping Chris whitty's face over my nipple?!

I have a gp phone appointment today, between 2.30 and 4.30 approximately. So i have to be free to take the call and somewhere i won't be overheard. Which is impossible as i don't wfh.

I hate all this.

£100k is not being paid well? How so?

It doesn't really matter whether you consider them well paid or not, the fact is that they are paid considerably more in other countries, so that's where they go.

I’ve had to speak to my GP a lot since lockdown. I’ve managed to hopefully find out what is wrong with me through a blood test, and be referred to gastroenterology at my local hospital to confirm. Who have stopped doing the procedure unless it’s an emergency due to covid, meaning I can’t get it done on the NHS any time soon and have had to go private.
This was all done over the phone other than for the blood test but that’s only because I actually asked them to test for a specific thing that it turned out to be. I’m not going to lie, I’m a teacher with very few safety measures in place (this doesn’t bother me on a personal level), and I kind of feel like GPs should allow people to book appointments in person as a rule now.

Ah yes. Our GP has 'a new way of working' now (said the receptionist to me). Which is that you ring and ask for an appointment (after you have listened to the 10 minute recorded message which tells you about their covid systems etc). Then they post you a questionnaire out and you fill it in with your symptoms and post it back to them and then they decide what the next move is.

I haven't been able to see my GP face to face until the Saturday I went for my covid jab and there he was, merrily vaccinating the over 50s population of the town (there were around 300 people in my queue alone). Kerching kerching for him.

Conversely, I have recently had an operation in our (very large) NHS hospital which states on the doors that they are very low-risk with currently no covid patients.

Perhaps all the really ill covid patients are filling in the questionnaires at home and waiting for the post.

@Lockdownlumpy

My GP surgery is still very much a closed shop. Telephone triage only and they really don't want to see you face to face. I called in December about a problem that was impossible to assess and diagnose over the phone. Refused to see me. Told to take ibuprofen. I finally managed to see an actual real person last week, after three pointless phone calls and a pointless video consultation. The upshot is that I need surgery and I could have joined the waiting list 6 months ago but because no one would actually look at my problem it was incorrectly assessed as being inconsequential. It's not a life threatening thing but it does affect quality of life and surgery is more successful done earlier before it deteriorates. My GP surgery is a huge practice with 13 Doctors so it's not down to lack of staff.

I have no issue with telephone triage, it has worked well in my (admittedly singular) experience with our GP. My issue is that, as Lockdownlumpy had described, some are only offering triage via phone.

I have spoken several times about an older family friend calling his GP from prior to the first lockdown with classic symptoms of prostate cancer. He was literally fobbed off and told to visit A&E if his symptoms worsened. No tests or similar offered. Unfortunately he is the type that would think twice about presenting at A&E even if his leg dropped off so there was no chance. Prior to this he hadn’t visited his GP in 3 years so far from a time waster, although that was how he was made to feel before he finally stopped calling.

It was only early this year that he mentioned his issues to us and we got involved that he was diagnosed. Unfortunately now it has spread.

Yes, most GP’s (including my own) are doing an excellent job. But there is no excuse for this type of treatment and it is happening far too often at the minute. This isn’t overwork, it is a lack of basic care and there should be far more accountability.

@ssd

I have a gp phone appointment today, between 2.30 and 4.30 approximately. So i have to be free to take the call and somewhere i won't be overheard. Which is impossible as i don't wfh.

I hate all this.

The equivalent though ?would be taking a half day off work for an appointment ?is that better. Not being cheeky.

I don’t mind the current system- being triaged over the phone works for many things and my surgery seem to have dealt with it all quite well. The only thing that could be improved is how long you can be on hold for- an hour and 15 minutes is my personal record. This isn’t the fault of the staff really. There aren’t enough of them answering the phones for appointments for a start and they’ll still be getting people phoning for appointments when a trip to the chemist is more appropriate. The GP who saw my son a couple of months ago said she speaks to more patients now per day and there’s very very few appointments that are missed like there used to be as so many are over the phone so if someone doesn’t answer their phone they can skip ahead straight away to the next patient on their list.

@showerbeer

I’ve had to speak to my GP a lot since lockdown. I’ve managed to hopefully find out what is wrong with me through a blood test, and be referred to gastroenterology at my local hospital to confirm. Who have stopped doing the procedure unless it’s an emergency due to covid, meaning I can’t get it done on the NHS any time soon and have had to go private. This was all done over the phone other than for the blood test but that’s only because I actually asked them to test for a specific thing that it turned out to be. I’m not going to lie, I’m a teacher with very few safety measures in place (this doesn’t bother me on a personal level), and I kind of feel like GPs should allow people to book appointments in person as a rule now.

From position of trying to understand your opinion. It seems all went ok in this situation. You got the investigation you needed and came in, in person, when needed? I assume GP cannot do the procedure you are waiting for?

If you needed a physical examination I assume this would have been done?

My GP is still locked. I had to hand in a form and have a (sensitive) discussion through a tiny gap in a cracked opened door with other people behind me. The receptionist was wearing a mask and gloves.

I like the video consultations and we can get them the same day but today ds needed to be seen in person and we were waiting outside in the pouring rain for 20 minutes. These things happen though when they run late. There was an elderly lady with us and she couldn't use the one chair they'd put outside as the seat was a pool of water. You'd think in over a year of doing things this way they have built some kind of shelter for people to wait. The dentist is the same.

I've had to resort to writing a formal letter to my elderly, dementia and diabetes suffering Dad's GPs, who categorically refuse to send anyone with medical training to look at his seriously swollen and infected legs or do the dementia assessment I've been requesting since last July.

They are quite shocking in their neglect.

Definitely agree OP. They should have been opened a long time ago!

I’ve been having what I’m guessing are asthma symptoms (I’m at risk) for 6 months now. Mentioned to my GP 3 months ago who completely dismissed me but it’s gradually been getting worse over the past few weeks. Sprays like cleaning and deodorant are now sitting on my chest and making me cough, I’m getting breathless when I’m speaking occasionally and finding it harder to breathe in a mask etc. I’ve also been getting ribcage pain, which is an intermittent ache.

I finally got a callback from my surgery last week, attempted to explain everything but before I could even get half way through my symptoms the triage nurse interrupted me, said my symptoms were COVID and I must immediately isolate and book a test! Didn’t listen to the fact that this has been going on for the past 6 months I knew I didn’t have COVID but duly booked a test and received a negative result. Is this how it is going to be from now on, every symptom could be COVID and I cannot see a GP in person unless I take a PCR test?! 🙄😡

I’ve seen the dentist 3 times in the last 6 months, the optician twice plus a chiropractor twice a week and I didn’t have any of this nonsense! 🤔 I’m trying to avoid ending up in emergency care if I do have asthma and it escalates but the system just doesn’t seem to understand that!