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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:
Spaghettipie1 · 12/08/2021 20:24

We offer specific times. I agree, if this is ongoing then it needs to be like face to face appointments with alloted times. Really unmanageable if not, especially now lots are back in offices etc

countrygirl99 · 12/08/2021 20:32

bagamoyo1 I doubt many GPS are travelling 30 miles to see their patients.

countrygirl99 · 12/08/2021 20:35

Countess and the vet gets nothing for patientsvthat are on the books but they don't see. They also travel a long way to many of their patients and spend a lot longer with them so irrelevant really. Just better organised.

countrygirl99 · 12/08/2021 20:46

Countess the median salary for a horse vet is £42k. The minimum salary for a GP is £60K so I don't think income explains it.

newnortherner111 · 12/08/2021 20:54

8 to 6 or between 9 and 1 is not an appointment, is a time window at best. It is misusing English to call that an appointment, and if at all possible should be challenged.

With modern technology I don't see why you could not receive a narrower time slot, and/or something such as a text to advise you are next in line to be called. At least then you could move to a private place.

JohnnyMcGrathSaysFuckOff · 12/08/2021 20:55

My surgery is the same. Since 2018 I have had 1 GP appt. They said they would call "Tuesday". I said fine but please not 1-2pm as I was chairing a disciplinary hearing. Guess when they rang.....

I work at a university and many of the professional services staff work in a large open plan office next to my private office. They cannot WFH as student facing. The loos are not private in our building (5-6 cubicles together). People eat lunch in the cafe so no private room. I'm buggered if I know people in that situation are meant to access healthcare.

I mean, imagine if one of those women - and they are 90% women - wanted to have an appt without either her husband or her work colleagues knowing. I don't think she'd be able to.

As ever, it doesn't impact people like me with my own swipecard access office and non-abusive marriage. It's people who work in call centres, warehouses, and the like who will be hit by this.

Original poster
TheGenealogist · 12/08/2021 21:04

@newnortherner111

8 to 6 or between 9 and 1 is not an appointment, is a time window at best. It is misusing English to call that an appointment, and if at all possible should be challenged.

With modern technology I don't see why you could not receive a narrower time slot, and/or something such as a text to advise you are next in line to be called. At least then you could move to a private place.

A text or something saying "the GP will be calling in the next 10 minutes" would be amazing.

Also agree that "any time between 9 and 1" isn't an appointment. Unfortunately we're in Scotland and the way in which they are dealing with patients is not changing any time soon. They still have the hazard tape up outside the practice.

OP posts:
weakpanda · 12/08/2021 21:24

I submitted an e consult 4 or 6 weeks ago because I was feeling suicidal and planning ways to do it and the notes I would leave loved ones. I got a message the next day that a gp would call during afternoon surgery 12-6pm. She called at 3:30 when I had picked my children up from school and had popped in to tesco. I didn't even have a chance to answer as there is no signal and it went straight to voicemail. I also had a text from the surgery that as I was a no show I would have to do the e consult again.

I haven't but still feel the same.

Telephone slots would help, or having an option to let them know when not to call - like school run times

2bazookas · 12/08/2021 21:30

MY GP practice asks if I can do (say ) Wednesday morning , choice of times such as " 8.30. 10 20, 11 am. "

They are very good at sticking to the agreed time;; once or twice it's been up to 15 minutes late.

GoWalkabout · 12/08/2021 21:35

I agree, I have to take pot luck that I won't be in the middle of one of my own consultations with a patient (OT) and therefore miss my slot.

SusannaM · 12/08/2021 21:46

It's Mumsnet, people will pick up on the fact that you are not working during those times, so your time is worthless🙄.
But yes, I can't understand why phone appointments can't be scheduled like ordinary appointments. No, I can't discuss my itchy bits whilst at the checkouts at Tesco or during a meeting with customers who need to hear about renovations, not my vaginal discharge. Our GPs are AM or PM phone appointments, tbf they are good at seeing people in person, so I can't imagine how bad it must be for people whose GPs won't see people in person, but phone appointments are a disaster. I'd be quite happy with the phone or even email...but they don't do email and phone appointments are so difficult to work round.

Judystilldreamsofhorses · 12/08/2021 21:51

I rang this week to get an appointment for a non-urgent issue, which I am sure will be dealt with over the phone fine, and have one booked for early September. I’m very pleased to have an appointment, but will be teaching during the 9-1 slot, so not really sure how it will work. If it was a face to face appointment I could have requested first thing in the morning or late afternoon, and my manager would have arranged class cover with no problem if I was going to be in late/have to leave slightly early. I last went to the doctor in 2018, so it’s not something I make a habit of, but I think most workplaces recognise that staff need time off for appointments occasionally.

My surgery seems to be the only one in the city not signed up to the e-consult thing (I’m in Scotland). It was, however, actually pleasantly easy to get through and the receptionist immediately offered me the first available appointment when I told her what my problem was.

marmitegirl01 · 12/08/2021 22:07

Agree my surgery offer 4hr window. You have to call them if you can’t accept as they will try twice if not answered then you go back to econsult. Receptionist is most disgruntled when I say I can’t answer as I work in a school. We are not allowed our phones due to safeguarding. And if I say pls call anytime after 4pm she says they can’t request that. I don’t actually mind the phone system. Just needs to be tweaked to be more workable.

41sunnydays · 12/08/2021 22:26

Our GP offer actual times for phone appointments which has been brilliant

UntilYourNextHairBrainedScheme · 12/08/2021 22:35

Of course you should be given slots - I work shifts in healthcare myself and can only answer the phone about 20% of the time, and sometimes I work a 20 hour shift including a 6 hour on call sleep window - I'd be very unimpressed if I had a health problem and was told to be grateful for the fact someone might call me at some random point during an 8 hour window!

I think people in the UK might be unaware that this ridiculous situation is very much unique to the NHS. GPs and specialists and dentists in the EU have never stopped doing in person appointments pretty much as usual, with hygiene precautions in place... Nowhere else has regular healthcare ground to a halt...

OverByYer · 12/08/2021 22:44

The whole NHS needs a complete overhaul and cross party review. I’d suggest nominal fees to see a GP for a start like the European model.

UntilYourNextHairBrainedScheme · 12/08/2021 22:54

OverByYer healthcare where I live (Germany) has been free at the point of use for years - no fee, not even nominal since about 2012. There's never been any issue seeing a GP (nor other specialist healthcare whether consultant or physio or OT or dentist of any type including regular orthodontic treatment for teens) face to face at any point throughout the pandemic. I have worked throughout the pandemic with a fixed group of 13 complex clients with multiple health needs who see various consultants, their GPs and therapists of all types, and have a family with various types of ongoing appointments... Never had to wait long, all appointments face to face.

Compulsory state health insurance is 15.5% of income though - compulsory care insurance, compulsory unemployment insurance, compulsory pension contributions are extraon top of that, and those are all as well as, not as part of, income tax. So our equivalent of NI is astronomically higher than in the UK - because that's what it costs.

carolinesbaby · 12/08/2021 22:57

I'm not a GP, but my job involved a diary of appointments with customers. These are usually (pre-Covid, always) face to face, but at the moment they are often telephone based. They're important appointments, it's not a sales role. We give a precise time, and we have to call at least twice within the appointment slot, then again within 24 hours, leaving text and voicemails, then send a written message asking for a response within 7 days. Only then can we mark the call as missed.
My GP on the other hand is able to say they'll call on a particular day between 9 and 6pm, try once and leave no message on a withheld number, then claim I missed the call. It's not on.

Halloaten · 12/08/2021 23:02

Oh dear. I would love for all of those moaning to spend a couple of days scheduling. You would never moan again

chopc · 12/08/2021 23:04

@TheGenealogist when you are offered an appointment mention your plans and they can add a note to that effect. Hopefully your doc will be able to work around it

owlbethere · 12/08/2021 23:06

@TheGenealogist

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.

Well you are inflexible if they don’t have appointments on those days. Meeting for coffee is hardly urgent. Just step out to the car or something if you must go. YAbu
supersonicginandtonic · 12/08/2021 23:07

@Reachersloveinterest I'm the same with my job role. I work for the NHS in substance misuse.

I hate telephone appointments. We only get phone signal in the garden, not where I want to speak to the GP. I has one for my moods following birth of my baby. I've had PND before. The GP actually said; I don't think you're depressed, you don't sound it and you're not crying. This is despite me trying to say I was having a good day that day.

Chubbymummy12 · 12/08/2021 23:12

I wish I could get an appointment that quickly! I called on Wednesday to try and get an appointment for severe crippling knee, hip & pelvis pain, and I have a weird dent/dip above my knee cap, the more I do the more it hurts. and I can't get an appointment till the 31st august and that's a telephone appointment and they didn't even tell me a time just some point throughout the day. It would be helpful if they could give proper slots and face to face when actually needed

FrippEnos · 12/08/2021 23:20

OverByYer
The whole NHS needs a complete overhaul and cross party review. I’d suggest nominal fees to see a GP for a start like the European model.

So if we went with the "nominal fees to see a GP" would you also be happy for the GP to pay a penalty for late or cancelled appointments?

OverByYer · 12/08/2021 23:37

@FrippEnos

OverByYer The whole NHS needs a complete overhaul and cross party review. I’d suggest nominal fees to see a GP for a start like the European model.

So if we went with the "nominal fees to see a GP" would you also be happy for the GP to pay a penalty for late or cancelled appointments?

Yes I would, and hopefully it would mean others make sure they turn up as well.