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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think phone appointments aren't always convenient?

108 replies

TheGenealogist · 12/08/2021 15:03

I need to speak to the GP, menopause related. They do not run a specific menopause clinic, cannot see the nurse as she is unable to prescribe, should it be decided I try HRT.

Phone surgery, telephone appointments only. They can offer me Wednesday morning, any time between 9 and 1. Have already arranged to see a friend on Wednesday for coffee. They can offer me Thursday morning, when I volunteer in a charity shop.

Now I know I am very much not being U by not wanting to discuss my hot flushes, recurrent UTIs and other symptoms in front of my volunteer colleagues, or all of the customers in the cafe.

If phone appointments are here to stay, why are they not being offered in slots? Even half an hour? Because yes I could do after 11am on Wednesday, but no.

Must be a nightmare for people in open plan offices or other roles where you can't just step away to take a call in private.

OP posts:
Bert2020 · 12/08/2021 15:17

I prefer telephone appointments when suitable but agree slots are needed. Our GP practice say they will get back to you, generally within the next few days if lucky you get a message with a day but it can be any time of the day and if you miss it then tough you need to start the whole process again!

Pinkflipflop85 · 12/08/2021 15:22

Ours tell us we will get a call sometime between 8am and 6pm. If you don't answer you lose the appointment and go down as a no show.

It is extremely difficult to be able to suddenly drop everything and answer the phone as a primary school teacher!

caughtinanet · 12/08/2021 15:23

Why wouldn't you postpone the coffee meet up? I know we're all different but isn't health more of a priority than seeing your friend?

WTFisNext · 12/08/2021 15:28

I agree that the phone slots need to be smaller - even an hour is more manageable than a whole morning or whole day to make sure you're in a suitable environment.

It can't possibly be any harder than face to face appointments to organise - allocate an average 10 minutes per call and make the appointment slot 30 minutes either side of the day running on time.

I'm not opposed to telephone triage but the need to take an entire day out of your life to hang around for a 5 minute call is not very patient friendly, especially when a fair number of patients will already be pretty stressed because they aren't well!

TheDistortion · 12/08/2021 15:30

It is incredibly annoying. A few weeks ago I was told I would have a call “on Wednesday morning”. The call came at about 8.20 which I wasn’t expecting really, and I missed it by seconds - grabbed the phone just after it stopped ringing as I was answering the door at the time. Nurse left a message saying she had called but not whether she was going to ring back or whether I should return the call and leaving no number to call her on (was withheld number). If I had the number I could have called her straight back, as soon as she had put the phone down, as it was I had to call the surgery, sit on the phone for an hour (that is not an exaggeration) with “you are 13 in the queue”, “you are 11 in the queue “ etc, to make sure that she was going to call back and I hadn’t missed my only slot. To be told yeah she would call back - and then of course I had to have my mobile with me constantly even when going to the loo all morning.

EddieVeddersfoxymop · 12/08/2021 15:30

Urgh, totally agree. I cannot, as a primary teacher, just dump my class to answer my phone. Plus, walls have ears and my little cherubs don't need to hear my medical woes that I'm sure they'd pass on to mum!!

Really needs bookable slots

234Pepperplant · 12/08/2021 15:31

Slots would be easier, for you. Presumably not for the GP.

But in the current circumstances in healthcare and for a non urgent issue, I think the onus is on you to be a bit flexible and keep a morning free - you clearly do have spare daytime time if you’re meeting friends etc so you’re not in the circumstances of a full time teacher or something.

TheDistortion · 12/08/2021 15:32

@234Pepperplant

Slots would be easier, for you. Presumably not for the GP.

But in the current circumstances in healthcare and for a non urgent issue, I think the onus is on you to be a bit flexible and keep a morning free - you clearly do have spare daytime time if you’re meeting friends etc so you’re not in the circumstances of a full time teacher or something.

Teachers have to access healthcare too though! And even if you keep the morning free you still have to go to the loo, answer the door etc, it is easy to miss a call if you don’t know when to expect it.
Redglitter · 12/08/2021 15:33

Our surgery are, like everyone else, only doing phone appointments. But the system they use is great. They still have an appointment system. So you phone up and you get a specific time and the doctor phones you then. Occasionally they run a bit late, same as when you attend in person but its usually still within about 10/15 mins of your time

Foobydoo · 12/08/2021 15:35

One hour slots would be far more reasonable but in your case I would have cancelled coffee and had the appointment on Wednesday.

Musicaltheatremum · 12/08/2021 15:35

Slots are much easier for the GP. We give a time and say will be roughly then give or take 15 minutes.
If I phone early and you don't reply I phone back nearer the time. After that if you don't reply you have "missed" your appointment although I am pretty flexible if you just miss the call because you drop the phone or can't answer it like me 🤣🤣. So if you called back quickly I'd speak with you. I like to get my calls done.

Original poster
TheGenealogist · 12/08/2021 15:35

I can do Monday all day, Tuesday all day, Wednesday afternoon, Thursday afternoon, Friday all day. I'm not inflexible. But the two mornings they offered me are the two mornings I can't do.

If she said Wednesday 9am to 10am or even 9am to 11am then I can juggle things. But a 4 hour slot... it's just crap.

OP posts:
CoffeeRunner · 12/08/2021 15:38

You could potentially be given an appointment time - but it would only be as reliable as when we used to be given a time for a face to face appointment (ie you might still have to wait an hour if unlucky).

I work in a GP surgery & every appointment does have a specific time slot - but the Receptionists aren't allowed to divulge it. They have to say "between 8.30 & 12" or "between 2.30 & 6".

This is because the phone lines are hideously busy as it is. They used to quote appointment times at the start of lockdown but would then receive lots of calls along the lines of "my appointment was 10. It's now quarter past". Very often the patient then missed the call altogether because they were on the phone to us trying to get through to complain. So it was changed. And in general works better.

Original poster
TheGenealogist · 12/08/2021 15:39

@Musicaltheatremum

Slots are much easier for the GP. We give a time and say will be roughly then give or take 15 minutes. If I phone early and you don't reply I phone back nearer the time. After that if you don't reply you have "missed" your appointment although I am pretty flexible if you just miss the call because you drop the phone or can't answer it like me 🤣🤣. So if you called back quickly I'd speak with you. I like to get my calls done.
That would be great, I think everyone understands that not everything runs to time and GPs can't give a precise time.

"at some point in the morning" isn't great though, and I'd imagine would result lot more missed calls and frustrated Ps and patients.

OP posts:
msannabella · 12/08/2021 15:39

I agree, I have a phone appointment next week. No choice on which day they gave me. Luckily enough its my day off but if it wasn't, in my job I can't have my phone on at all during shifts so id have to miss it and go back to the start and hope for a day I could answer. A slot would be preferable as at least I could arrange to be available for the hour or so.

Original poster
TheGenealogist · 12/08/2021 15:40

So @CoffeeRunner it sounds like it would be worth saying to the reception when I phone back to put me at the start or end of the list?

OP posts:
TheCountessofFitzdotterel · 12/08/2021 15:40

My gp treats them like normal appointments.
I do think you are being a bit inflexible though. If it’s important to you then rejig the plans to meet your friend somewhere, eg outside, where you can slip off to somewhere quiet. I would expect to cancel existing plans for a doctor’s appointment, annoying as that may be.

Siepie · 12/08/2021 15:41

@Redglitter

Our surgery are, like everyone else, only doing phone appointments. But the system they use is great. They still have an appointment system. So you phone up and you get a specific time and the doctor phones you then. Occasionally they run a bit late, same as when you attend in person but its usually still within about 10/15 mins of your time
Same here!

At the beginning of the pandemic they were doing "we'll call some time between 8am and 6pm" but they now do appointment times.

I don't see any reason why GP surgeries which offered specific times for in person appointments can't do the same for phone appointments.

LokiOfAsgard · 12/08/2021 16:05

I had a telephone appointment on Monday. I was told between 9.30 and 10.30. I actually got a call at 12.45.
Spent most of the morning watching my phone and trying not to do anything noisy in case I missed a call. Bit of a pain.

starfishmummy · 12/08/2021 16:08

@Musicaltheatremum

Slots are much easier for the GP. We give a time and say will be roughly then give or take 15 minutes. If I phone early and you don't reply I phone back nearer the time. After that if you don't reply you have "missed" your appointment although I am pretty flexible if you just miss the call because you drop the phone or can't answer it like me 🤣🤣. So if you called back quickly I'd speak with you. I like to get my calls done.
I'd much rather have known a slot. I'm an unpaid primary carer for my disabled son. I normally have to take him to college and back or he cant get there so when I needed a prescription review I had to keep him off college all day.

And calling our suregery back quickly is impossible. It can take hours to get through!!

WhatATimeToBeAlive · 12/08/2021 16:15

YANBU. I've got a "Wednesday afternoon" call next week. I'm at work, my phone rings a lot. It's really not practical. A shorter time slot would be more manageable. I think GP surgeries forget that other people work too.

Hankunamatata · 12/08/2021 16:17

Walk in appointments pre covid used to turn an hour behind. I like phone appointments

Spodge · 12/08/2021 16:45

I don't mind phone appointments when warranted. I recently had one BUT I had been told it would be at a particular time. This was totally ignored and I was phoned two hours earlier when I was at the hairdresser. Nurse said she would ring back and asked what time. I said she could ring at the original appointment time of 3.30 ideally, or at least within a window of 3pm and 4pm. She rang at 4.30 when I was just starting a physiotherapy appointment. Sigh.

LouLou198 · 12/08/2021 16:56

I agree. I needed an appointment for dd. Couldn't get one without a phone consultation first. I rang at 8am, requested they didn't call between 11-12 as I was teaching and wouldn't be able to answer. I was told they couldn't accommodate this, someone would call between 8:30am and 1pm and if I missed the call they wouldn't ring back!

LakieLady · 12/08/2021 16:57

My surgery don't give a time for phone appointments, but when I explained that I may be on a work call or driving and unable to answer, they said that the doctor would just keep trying until he got hold of me.

If you had a F2F appt, presumably you'd have to take the time off work to go, OP, so I don't see any reason why you shouldn't take the time off to have a phone consult.