AIBU - I have called the GP over 200 times this morning

[IAmADancer]

Just that. I need to get a blood test referral for menopause symptoms but I can’t get through. I started calling at 8am and have called over 200 times. It’s still engaged.

I know that if I call back at 10am when it’s quieter they will tell me there are no appointments and to call back tomorrow. Then you go through the same routine all over again. I just want to access basic care. Feeling very frustrated

We were so frustrated at MIL not being able to get a GP appointment despite days of trying that we called 111. After answering their endless list of questions they recommended a&e which completely overkill for the medical situation she was experiencing.
No e consult available. No alert I've method of seeing a doc was possible.
We ended up taking a photo of the problem and printing it out with a note that we posted through the gPs door.
A few days later (no doubt the note had to be quarantined), she got a call back followed by excellent, caring service.
How mad that we had to resort to writing a letter!

I don't blame the staff.
It's frustrating. It's dangerous. It's maddening. But change has to come from above (cCG level?) which is too slow. And I suspect that if all surgeries are trying to change their it systems there is a backlog in processing upgrades.
Do all surgeries have a patient liaison group to represent patients at surgery meetings?

@FiveShelties

Why have GPs gone to this system where you can not book an appointment for a few days ahead? I cannot imagine how awful it must be to take phone calls from someone who has been trying to get through for days, let alone how angry patients must get ringing and ringing.

Unfortunately there just aren't enough GPs/appointments available for everyone who needs them. Pre-booking appointments means there are fewer available for urgent on the day appointments for those who do need them. And patients are more likely to not turn up/not answer the phone if appointments are booked weeks in advance.

I can't see anywhere the OP is requesting an urgent appointment today. Just an appointment. Not every GP surgery works the same way.

Sometimes people on MN can be very nasty. Last week, I was slated (by some) for wanting my blocked and painful ear to be treated. Apparently I shouldnt ask for this when there are others waiting to be seen.

@placemats

Are you not understanding that some GP surgeries don't have a queue system on the phone?

You call and either get through to reception or get an engaged tone. Nothing in between, hence why people have to keep calling and calling hoping they get lucky by a nanosecond.

You can't 'wait your turn' in a queue that doesn't exist and people have tried to explain that to you on here but you're either not reading or being wilfully disingenuous by calling OP 'precious' about this.

Again, in her practice there is no queue in which to wait. You either instantly get through or get an engaged tone.

@Bigtruth

You don't need an emergency same day appointment for menopause symptoms. Call at 9 or 10 and book yourself in.

It's people like you who cause the whole backlog I'm afraid, desperate for same day appointments for stuff like this.

OPs surgery might have the same system as mine, every appt is an on the day one, can't book anything in advance until you're at the GP and he tells you to get one in X date. Mines has been like that for a number of years now.

Skyheather
Have you considered going to the GP Surgery for opening time. Get there early so you're first in the queue when the door opens. Then you can sort it out in person. My surgery opens the same time as the phones.

If I turned up at our surgery without an appointment I wouldn't be able to get in. Doors are locked and you have to stand out side waiting to be questioned by the intercom.
If you've got an appointment you're let through the first set of doors. then have to wait till someone comes and asks all the covid questions before allowed into the waiting room.

@MyMushroomsInATimeSlip

There is a national shortage of blood test containers and only essential or urgent bloods are being done. Does yours fit this criteria do you know? If not you will likely have to wait

Sadly not if you can pay. My husband has just paid £450 for private blood tests, so no shortage there. It must be down to the purchase and supply procedures in the NHS. Probably all eggs in one cheap basket.

You are not being unreasonable. You are not being given even the opportunity to speak to anyone, let alone get an appointment or a blood test. The situation at the moment is woeful and frightening. Who else can you turn to if not your GP??

These places are supposed to be a place of care, not hostility.

I turned up at my gp surgery at 7.30am one day to get an appointment booked and to avoid the phone issue. Could you do something like that?

Sorry you're having a rough time OP. I had the same last week, called several times throughout the week and finally got through Thursday afternoon, I was at work anyway so wouldn't have been able to go to an appt but I asked what to do due to symptoms I was having.

Receptionist left the GP a note and the next morning they checked my history, looked at my request and said I was to book in for bloods, first appt was a week away but luckily I'm off work. Your surgery is like me, everything (other than smears) go through the GP to be actioned and you'll either be told to make an appt for bloods or to call back for a phone consultation the following day.

I hope you get it sorted.

What is wrong with some of the posters on this thread? Honestly. It’s like reading anti feminist bingo on here:

• OP is a woman so possibly can’t put her needs first and get a GP appointment
• OP has a “feminine” ailment so other women are now telling her that she shouldn’t get an appointment for it (if she had a physical injury I doubt the responses would be the same)
• OP has been told she doesn’t know how to use the phone. I’m sure someone who is at least, what, 35 years old knows how phones work.
• OP has been called “precious” amongst other names. Again, it would be doubtful that anyone would call someone worried about their child to the point of needing a GP appointment “precious”
• Other posters have took it upon themselves to (apparently) magically access OPs medical records and diagnose themselves that she “doesn’t need” an appointment, despite OP clearly telling us all that she does due to another condition. If she has been told by someone who is a medical professional and who actually has access to her notes she needs a blood test, I highly doubt nurse Barbara who lives 300 miles away and has never met OP knows any better. Oh, yes. They’re just assuming.
• People think because what happens in their little world is what happens to all of us. Just because your surgery has a queue system doesn’t mean OPs does. Who knew that people living in different parts of the world would have different circumstances to content with. What a revelation.

Also, if I see any more posts about a “blood bottle shortage” and they’re only doing blood tests if it’s “urgent”- I am going to fucking scream. You don’t know if it’s urgent. You have no bloody clue whether it’s urgent. I don’t care what job you do for the NHS- stop being so fucking patronising. Unless any poster on here knows OP, knows her medical history, knows her surgery and their protocol- you have no right to act like you know fuck all about it. So sit back down.

Similarly, it isn’t OPs fault there’s a shortage. She is fully entitled to ring her GP and request a blood test due to x valid reasons.

This thread is an absolute disgrace. And for all the healthcare workers who have came on here to lambast the OP, shame on you. You should know better than anyone that you don’t make assumptions in healthcare. That’s how people end up misdiagnosed and potentially die.

Shameful.

@TeloMere

Skyheather Have you considered going to the GP Surgery for opening time. Get there early so you're first in the queue when the door opens. Then you can sort it out in person. My surgery opens the same time as the phones.

If I turned up at our surgery without an appointment I wouldn't be able to get in. Doors are locked and you have to stand out side waiting to be questioned by the intercom.
If you've got an appointment you're let through the first set of doors. then have to wait till someone comes and asks all the covid questions before allowed into the waiting room.

Similar here. The doors are locked and those with an appointment wait outside. Because there’s no longer a receptionist, the doctor comes out at the appointed time, checks your name against the booked list and escorts you in with a squirt of hand gel.

If you didn’t have an appointment you’d just be sitting outside indefinitely!

@TeloMere

Skyheather Have you considered going to the GP Surgery for opening time. Get there early so you're first in the queue when the door opens. Then you can sort it out in person. My surgery opens the same time as the phones.

If I turned up at our surgery without an appointment I wouldn't be able to get in. Doors are locked and you have to stand out side waiting to be questioned by the intercom.
If you've got an appointment you're let through the first set of doors. then have to wait till someone comes and asks all the covid questions before allowed into the waiting room.

Ditto here. You literally wouldn't be able to get inside and would be asked to leave the premises, they are super strict since covid as many people tried this way when they first started changing the booking system.

@PizzaCrust brilliant post, 100% agree.

Good luck OP - I hope you got through eventually. Huge sympathy!

YANBU. My GP is exactly the same as yours, phone on the day. No queue system, no option of emailing and no online service. This is for telephone appointments only as well. You can wait up to 48 hours for the GP to call you back and they will determine if you need a face to face appointment or not.
DH has a lump on his forearm, the GP referred him for a scan without even seeing it! A scan that was supposed to take 6-8 weeks, but we are now on week 13 of waiting while the lump is getting bigger and more painful. Everytime he calls to chase up the referral, he's simply told 'covid backlog'. We'd get it sorted privately if we could afford it.
I hope you get your problem sorted soon OP.

@IAmADancer if I need an appointment, I start phoning 5 minutes before 8am, knowing I will get the surgery closed announcement. Then I will dial and hang up, dial and hang up, repeatedly, so that I catch the moment when they switch the lines on. It really works. Could you try that?

You have my sympathies.
Personally I think that in general, the GPs service is atrocious, and during the covid crisis, they really didn't step up .
I hope you get it sorted

I messaged mine last night with details of an issue, got message back at 10 am.today someone will phone me on 15th

@Greenandcabbagelooking

200 times in an hour? That means you spent 3 seconds per phone call. Have you tried holding on to see if you get an answer? You are probably in a queue, and every time to hang up you lose your place in it.

OP said it was engaged. How can she hold on?

[quote FiveShelties]@Bagamoyo1 does your surgery allow patients to book appointments in advance, or do you operate the same as many others in that you have to ring that morning for an appointment that day?

If it does operate in this manner, why have you moved to this system? It seems guaranteed to cause more stress on both patients and staff and waste hours of everyone's time.[/quote]
Over the years we've tried numerous systems, and none of them suit everyone.
Young fit healthy people like the book-on-day system, as they rarely need the GP, and when they do it's something unexpected that they can't plan for.
People with chronic health problems want to be able to book in advance, as they know they have ongoing issues and want to plan ahead.
We do a mixture of advance and on-the-day appointments, but there are never enough of either to meet demand. I honestly believe we could staff the surgery 24 hours a day 7 days a week, and we still wouldn't meet the demand.

I haven't read the whole thread but I share your frustration and I think a lot of people are missing the point. You aren't wanting to take an urgent appointment from someone with a greater need but if that's all your surgery is currently offering then what choice do you have? Regular health care can't be put on hold forever!
Our surgery is similar. You can only book on the day. I am due a review of my long term medication. I know it's coming up, and it has to be done or they'll stop prescibing drugs that I need. But I can't do what I used to do - ring up at say 2.30 on a Thursday when the phone lines are quiet and book a call with a GP a fortnight hence.
No, I have to join the 8am bunfight for a call along with everyone else, some of whom will obviously have genuine urgent problems but lots are just like me. There is a queing system at our surgery but by 8.05am you can quite easily be hearing " You are number 47 in the queue. Thank you for holding" and if you try to call back later all the appointments for the day are gone and you just get told to try again tomorrow.
So no, I don't think you are being unreasonable, though trying on a Monday is probably as bad as it gets. I only try to book something on a Monday if it absolutely can't wait. You might find later in the week is slightly less bad. But overall I agree with you. This is a rubbish system and whilst I do understand the pressures of Covid, those of us with long term conditions or other less urgent but still significant problems cannot wait indefinitely. The pandemic has been going for nearly 2 years now and its not showing any signs of disappearing soon. Other conditions might not need to be dealt with instantly, but leave them long enough and they do become urgent.
I hope you get the help you need soon.

As per my previous post, I'm waiting for the solutions. Everyone has plenty of criticisms, but no one has a solution, other than a complete overhaul of the NHS (which is obviously nothing to do with GPs, that's down to government).

@Greenandcabbagelooking

200 times in an hour? That means you spent 3 seconds per phone call. Have you tried holding on to see if you get an answer? You are probably in a queue, and every time to hang up you lose your place in it.

If it's like our surgery, you get the busy signal, no queue. You hang up redial and keep getting busy until it answers.

@Bigtruth

You don't need an emergency same day appointment for menopause symptoms. Call at 9 or 10 and book yourself in.

It's people like you who cause the whole backlog I'm afraid, desperate for same day appointments for stuff like this.

They've stopped this at my GP - much to my shock trying to follow instructions to get DD1 an medical review at set period after new medication at normal time after 1pm for routine appoinmtments- was given very short shrift was told it was on their website and should have checked - it was but I didnt use to have to precheck webpage. There's no on-line book either.

Rang next morning - you have to ring 8-10 - rang consantly got through just bfore 10 was booked in for just over a weeks time.

So I now have to ring when everyone is trying to get to school college work for an appointment any where from same day to a weeks time.

Nearest GP isn't taking on new pateints as they're full and apparently there're running a similar system at the minute and moving further is hard due to not driving.

I'm hoping it will go back and slowly improve as things get more normal though that might be after this winter.

Great post @PizzaCrust