30 minutes to negotiate with the GP receptionist for a phone appointment

[Gakatsbsk]

Hi,

I am an nhs nurse, and so I realise this is not all GP receptionists but I have just spent 30 minutes speaking to a GP receptionist to try and negotiate a GP over the phone appointment.

It seemed to me like I was wading through excuse after excuse, in a hospital none of these excuses would wash.

The first excuse was that despite registering five weeks ago they didn’t have my medical records (I’ve moved between UK nations) and ‘there was no possible way’ to determine what previous medications I was on, my suggestion that they could be confirmed with me, the patient was of course completely ridiculous and I could be maliciously seeking meds (which are non opioid, non addictive and not remotely interesting to any one).

The second excuse was that I couldn’t have a GP appointment because I’d not had a GP appointment there yet and ✨ covid ✨. In secondary care we haven’t been able to use covid as a reason to not see any new patients, and of course how can I have had an appointment without having an appointment.

The third excuse was an altered replay of the first one, that doctor won’t be able to prepare for your consultation without your medical records. Doctors do this day in day out.

The fourth excuse was a lecture about how busy the nhs is, how covid is surging at our local hospital and how there’s so many covid patients in critical care. At this point I told her I work as a staff nurse in critical care at said hospital, and that this conversation was dragging on and could I please be given a GP appointment, or ANP appointment, or do I need to register elsewhere. At this point I was granted a phone appointment (anytime until 8pm so don’t go anywhere was the warning).

I do realise our colleagues in primary care are stretched, as we in secondary care are but this was ridiculous and it saddens me that vulnerable people probably miss out on health services because of attitudes like this. If I spoke to anyone on the phone in my job role the way she did, I’d end up facing disciplinary action if the other party complained.

Is it just me being completely unreasonable ?

Many thanks

I have the same experience when I try to access GP care. I think what will ultimately bring the hospitals to a stand still will be people using. A and E as they can't get to see their GP.

That is ridiculous and honestly not surprising. So many GP surgeries are like forts at the moment. Yet we have warnings pretty much weekly that A&E depts are getting overrun, jeez I wonder why? Because people are desperate and struggle to get appointments with their GP like you OP. I don’t know what the answer is though, it’s so frustrating.

Ridiculous.

Does your survey have econsult? I use that than trying to get past the receptionist, dr always rings within afew hours depending time I've done it.

Surgery obv

YANBU. I'm about to move GP practices because mine now only offers same-day appointments, for which you have to call at 8am (realistically you have to try continually from 8 until you get through, for me this was at 9.30am) until you are given a 2 hour time slot to wait by the phone. Ridiculous for anyone with work/caring responsibilities.
I'd been trying since Thursday.

They've also messed up test results and given me a positive when it was actually negative.

I want to complain to the practice manager but I also want to not have to spend any more time on their ridiculous system.

So, sorry I've just done my own rant but you have all my sympathy and respect for not going totally nuclear.

Thanks for the replies

@Cheerio21 no sadly not, it’s a very small GP surgery and seems to have not yet caught up to modern life. The GP is supposedly very good, but then I’d hope so after the battle it takes to speak to them.

YANBU.

All GP surgeries are using covid as a reason not to do anything. It's beyond a joke.
I have several chronic health conditions that need to be regularly monitored - I became extremely ill because the receptionist kept putting me off refusing to give me an appointment which could of easily been avoided.

Yanbu it’s clearly wrong.

It shouldn’t be like this. And if they are so busy I’ve no idea why they think they have time to waste on the phone like this either.

@Palavah

Sorry you are having such difficulty.

It saddens me that in secondary care we are (rightfully) expected to hold such high standards despite covid, yet this poor practice is tolerated from primary care. I’m also trapped as I don’t want to be driving when the GP rings, don’t want to be in Tesco.

Sadly I see in my job patients who have terrible symptoms and conditions that have progressed due to being unable to properly access GP services

YANBU. Our GP is the same.

No, it's crap. I had to wait 48hours in pain with a UTI while the gp's cogs turned to finally get me the antibiotics I needed. A completely unnecessary 48 h as well because they know who I am, they know I'm 45 and haven't had antibiotics for years, the chances of me knowing I have a UTI are pretty high. Literally feels like they don't give a shit.

@riseandshine2021

Sorry you are also having these difficulties. I too have a few chronic conditions, if well managed they aren’t too bad but I am now 5 days without my regular tablets. I had to ring 111 for them before (who posted me a prescription from 200 miles away) and who told me clearly this GP surgery were to give the next prescription

Can you move to another one?

Ah cross posted. Can't move yet obviously as you need your medication!

It's bonkers.

I had to google-diagnose myself with a v nasty skin cancer and go straight to a private consultant dermatologist as the GP surgery offered a phone appointment in 3 weeks.

The GP eventually phoned me 3 days after the surgery. Hadn't looked at the photo of the (obvious, text book) lesion which I'd uploaded 3 weeks previously.

Lots of people don't have sharp elbows and money to get a decent service, so whilst I count myself very lucky to have caught this before it got even worse, if I were not tech savvy, or elderly, or had no money things could have got very serious before I would have been in the system.

I don't know what the answer is; encouraging more GPs in from overseas?

YANBU - I've a friend who had similar, and he ended up turning up and refusing to leave until a GP saw him. They eventually caved. But I said the same - that those who are not as assertive will slip through the nets, it's a joke.

Thanks everyone. It’s so frustrating, as a nurse In critical care we have given our all this pandemic and kept our standard of care almost (although not quite) the same. Why others feel they can use the pandemic as a cover all excuse I have no idea

Covid is irrelevant. Primary care has been a piece of shit since 2016.

Secondary care however has been status quo and has plodded along fine during covid.

Like you, I work for the NHS and I stick up for the service a lot, but this is just not bloody good enough. Patients are too often treated like an enormous inconvenience, rather than the users of this service who have a right to expect better. I would have been utterly fuming too OP. Covid is extremely serious and is still with us but it does feel like it's being used as an excuse to fob patients off even worse than they were before

All GP surgeries are using covid as a reason not to do anything.

No they aren't. Mine has been great.

@uramaki

Thanks for your reply. I will probably be moving house again in a few months so will change then and hope it doesn’t take as long.

You’re definitely not unreasonable @Gakatsbsk! I had to have a negative PCR test before my GP surgery would see me in person because ‘your symptoms might be COVID’, despite me telling them I’d been experiencing them for the past 7 months! Didn’t have to have a test to be seen at the hospital and no mention that it might be COVID! 🙄 It’s madness.

@Lottapianos

I’m glad it’s not just me, I’ve been in situations where patients are having to ask our anaesthetists to add in new prescriptions because they have been unable to get GP appointments for months, these poor patients have enough to think about after a critical care stay. It really annoys me.

Our surgery have recently switched to a triage by doctor system which seems to work well - assuming you can fill in the online form....
Prior to that I ended up taking my kid to a&e for something something which a GP should have dealt with but refused appointment.
(Urgent care here is even more badly set up as the local centre 8 miles away can only refer to the hospital 40miles away - when there is a hospital 12 miles away - but in the wrong ccg!!)

I had a similiar experience earlier this year.
I had a bad cough of the end of a cold, i am immunosupressed and it very quickly turned into a chest infection... i know this as i get them regularly. I know the signs and i know how shit i feel with them.

I couldnt get a doctors appointment so i asked if i could just have some antibiotics to help... no i need to see a GP. But i cant see the GP... no you need a telephone appointment.

I gave up, got sicker that evening and phoned 111 who also instead of saying for me to go to out of hours for antibiotics sent me to A&E.

I sat in A&E mid pandemic coughing horrendously for 6 hours. I said to the doctor at A&E this is a waste of your time and resources and i shouldn't be here while immunosupressed. They also couldn't give me any antibiotics until they had taken blood, xrayed my chest etc. My bloods failed (as my veins are exceptionally bad) and they wanted me to wait for another 4 hours to get more bloods.

I left A&E at that point.
All of this cost the NHS circa £1k.
Whereas if i had just seen my GP first i could have resolved it quickly for under £100

The whole system needs a massive rehaul its ridiculous. The surgeries need to move into the current era.