GP Surgeries are NEGLIGENT if they're not doing face to face appointments

[AmIEmptyOrNumB]

My GP surgery never stopped. They just triaged so 90% by phone and those essential face to face appointments carried on but with masks etc. Why is the government not doing more about this? These Surgeries denying all face to face appointments are failing the hippocratic oath.

Apparently it's all lies and its business as usual.

@gamerchick. Ah..... I guess it could be the demonic GP surgery receptionists then just doing what they do best and stopping people get the appointments they need and should have?

I've been trying to access a clinic at my GP for months now. Been getting the total run round. Now discovered I can have the same procedure done in a clinic up the road. Why on earth did they not say I could go somewhere else, rather than endless calls to get precisely nowhere.

I think people confuse the initial telephone appointment as a refusal for face to face consultations.

@Username916. Ah... That could well be a reason! Well done!

I agree OP. Quite fortunate here, in that our GP surgery has also continued giving face to face appointments where necessary. Most have been triage over the phone within a couple of days, with photos submitted by e-consult prior to the phone call if necessary. I've been appalled at some of the things I've read on MN & elsewhere about people basically being left until things are desperate & then needing to go to A&E to get seen.

GP practices introduced telephone screening etc. to keep the most vulnerable safe during a pandemic. GP practices have remained open throughout the pandemic and face to face appointments have always been available where clinically necessary.

You seem very het up about this given your GP practice has apparently been perfectly accessible to you.

Mine will see you face to face if they think you need it.

I’m happy with telephone as virtually everything I need can be dealt with over the phone

My DH gets face to face after triage as he needs face to face

One of the docs at my surgery is a friend of mine. She reckons part of the problem is people who

1. Don’t actually explain properly what the problem is

1. Refuse to believe the gp when they are given a diagnosis

1. Want to see a gp not a nurse even if the nurse practitioner can deal with it

And frankly

1. Are so rude and obnoxious they’d rather fob them off as it’s bad enough dealing with the phone call

Yes.
I have had 3 separate lots of cancer. Breast cancer x 2 and ovarian cancer.
I had radiotherapy, chemotherapy, radical mastectomy, reconstruction, etc, etc.

To be fair, I am six years clear, but when I found a lumpy rash I wanted it looked at. I am NOT allowed to enter the surgery. I rang reception for 4 days, never got answered. ( I tried all different times).
I then decided to do the online consultation.
The same day(!), I had a missed call asking me to make an urgent appointment.
I tried for 2 more days to get through on the phone, then just marched into the surgery.
No phones were ringing. All was calm. I have my appointment - it is a fortnight on Tuesday.

Before this, I saw my GP in 2019. He rang me to see if I was okay following cancer treatment because I never went to GP.
This situation is just not right. I am okay(I hope), but if my experience is anything to go by there must be a lot of people slipping through the cracks.

@TheUndoingProject. I'm just flabbergasted at what I've read and been told about people's experiences. It's so awful don't you think?

@Rabblesthecat i am not like that... honestly🙂

I intend to pay privately, I didn’t realise it didn’t cost THAT much. My GP is less than useless anyway.
Previous surgery was amazing, could see any GP and they were all great.

I don’t know any GP practice that has refused appointments and I work very closely with a lot in my area. As PP’s have said, people see a telephone consultation as a refusal when it was put in place to keep people safe and reduce the need to people to travel especially on public transport during covid.

People are always complaining about not being able to access GP surgeries but people tend to forget how many patients each surgery actually has. My one for example has 6 GP’s and 2 practice nurses but there are almost 1200 patients registered.

Not everyone (and I'm only talking about my surgery here) can stay in next to the phone indefinitely waiting for a call back - they now ask you wait until the end of the following day for call back because they're too busy. They only allow two rings before hanging up.

In our case (again just talking my surgery here) the so called specialist receptionists decide who you will speak to. For example when I had tonsilitis which I have been hospitalised for before I was just sent to the pharmacist and told to ring back if I couldn't speak or breathe. Both of which are indicators of serious medical emergency, not to mention the obvious problems with that. I have rare conditions which mean if I get a uti I must be given seven days antibiotics. Must. All I've been able to get is three days and ni consultation.

Our surgery had signs up saying no one who is clinically vulnerable or shielder should attend under any circumstances; not everyone can use a phone and certainly not everyone can use online.

Essentially it's fine to triage via telephone and online BUT everyone must have access to and the ability to use both AND the staff doing triage MUST be medically trained not receiptionists following flow charts. Peoples lives are being put at risk.

Ive found the problem to be the telephone consultation. Its not private, like seeing the gp is. My house is small and full of people who can hear me.

Not everyone knows the correct medical terminology either to trigger an appointment. Just because you get through and are told someone will phone "sometime" up until end of day the next day doesn't mean you will be rung.

Some people block witheld calls on safeguarding grounds. I'm one. My surgery told me it no longer mattered and to tell police to remove it.

My DH has had 2 chest infections, neither of which he was allowed to see the dr for- no one listened to his chest at all and therefore missed the pneumonia that followed and that he ended up in hospital for. GP s need to start seeing patients fade to face imo

Our go has been great and we are getting a better service

I called last year because I found d a lump on my breast, someone called me back in 10 mins. Spoke to me for a few minutes and asked me to go straight down. They referred me to the hospital and I was seen in less than 2 weeks.

When I have called regarding some pain my son had, they got him in. And when he had what we think was a post viral rash, they asked for photos then saw him the same day as they couldn't decide from the photos.

But the telephone appointments do suit us as well. I had problems after I had covid for quite a while. I felt mentally and physically drained, if it had have been a face to face appointment, I wouldn't have it. I couldn't face driving myself.

Dp has had 2 appointments and it being over the phone suited. Also meant he didn't have to take time off work, unpaid, to go.

For telephone appointments we are getting appointments either the same day or next day. And when it needs to be face to face, it's always the same day. Rather than a week or 2.

They aren't denying face to face. My parents GPs aren't denying face to face. But they are dealing with more via the telephone.

Maybe they need to make it more clear, if you want face to face you can have it.

I had no clue doctors were refusing face to face completely.

Also, when rhe gp calls back it registers on my phone from an 0800 number...and for some reason my phone blocks 0800 numbers, so even getting the call is difficult.

The only issue I have with the telephone appointments given by my surgery is they never state a time, just "Dr will call you during afternoon surgery anytime 12-6pm". So I'm expected to stay home all afternoon and wait for a call? Or discuss my suicidal thoughts while doing the Tesco shop where everyone can hear???

@ssd

Ive found the problem to be the telephone consultation. Its not private, like seeing the gp is. My house is small and full of people who can hear me.

There was a woman in the pharmacy the other day who was rung by their GP who initiated they spoken then or it was recorded as DNA. I felt really sorry for her. She clearly needed mental health help but was too ashamed to speak in front of everyone. The GP kept asking her about self harm and suicide. It was horrible. The result? You're fine, look on the health board website for mindfullness exercises. That was it. Try didn't care she was in public, and it was a video call so could even see that.

*insisted

My one for example has 6 GP’s and 2 practice nurses but there are almost 1200 patients registered.

Is that a typo? My surgery has ten times that number of patients and half the doctors.

Or is this part of the problem? Inequality across different areas.

Ours see face to face if necessary. But to be fair lots aren’t necessary

I have had telephone consultations, no issues and refereed on as required.

I don't think doctors have stopped face to face consultations.

Some surgeries have grouped together when they have staff shortages so people may have had to travel an extra 0.2 miles.

I think most complaints have come from people who really haven't needed to see GP's or aren't willing to go through the triage process because they think they know best.