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

Write to your GP.

So people are giving you advice as you posted in AIBU

You then tell everyone that they basically shouldn't give suggestions as they don't know your system and therefore can't advise

🤦‍♀️ people are only trying to help based on the information they have about their GPs coupled with the information you gave

Quite. It's AIBU, not a panel of experts on the health service.

Time to privatise the NHS.

Ignore me 🍷 first afternoon where I can have a tipple 😂

Good health! It's enough to drive one to drink.

Out of interest, what are you hoping to get out of this thread, OP?

@welliesarefuntowear

There are always ways to contact your gp surgery online. It's in the contract.

Why today if you've been struggling for months? I work in a GP surgery. Phones are ringing off the hook. We have staff shortages. We are trying to book in flu clinics. Deal with queries about blood tests. Covid vaccines. There are no extra staff. This is all extra work. That's why you can't get through. Given the fact that you won't wait till say Wednesday afternoon when hours are likely to get a far less stressed clinician available to talk to you properly about your symptoms I can't understand why you won't just wait a couple of days.

Monday's are so very difficult in a GP surgery. I can't even begin to explain how much the system cannot cope with the demands. This is not a slight on the OP or anyone. It's simply a fact.

You and your colleagues are doing an amazing job. You deserve a medal. My gp surgery and the staff there have been amazing through the pandemic and continue to be so. I know you get a lot of negativity but many of us appreciate what you are doing. 💐💐

Well done OP for having more patience with PPs than I could ever muster. Can't tell if people are wilfully ignoring everything OP is writing or whether it's stemming from from lack of reading comprehension...

Also why is it hard for some people to understand that AIBU is a place for voicing complaints and getting support in the form of just being told that you're not unreasonable? OP doesn't have to take on every piece of shit advice that everyone is duplicating from upthread, having already explained multiple times why the "solution" won't work for her context.

Best of luck OP with getting your appointment.

I've been there before - in the end I stumbled into the GP surgery with a high fever, barely able to see in front of me, only to be turned away by the receptionist. I was in tears telling her how much in pain I was. I ended up collapsing at the pharmacy down the road and had to visit A&E. All could have been avoided if they had given me a bloody appointment sooner.

OP could you not just request an appointment by carrier pigeon? That's what my surgery does.

Can you not book into a well-woman / menopause / sexual health clinic?
YABU to call 200 times because it hasn't worked. All it's done is make you frustrated and then prompt you to start a thread on MN; shore up all the anti-NHS privateers and take up more of your day writing posts - none of which bring you closer to getting an appointment.
Fwiw as lots of PPs have said, a Monday morning is not a good time to call a GP's surgery for a non-emergency appointment and you would have been better calling this afternoon and discussing the different options for you. That would have been much more worthwhile than arguing on here which won't be helping your anxiety or blood pressure if you are peri-menopausal.

@Grrreatt haha I may try that! Who knows it might work.

That is really awful, and I can't understand surgeries who only do same day appointments (or calling in the morning to book one). How is that more efficient than booking people in advance for regular non urgent appointments? It must cause so much street for everyone including staff. I can only assume that they are far too over subscribed (I know there's a massive shortage of GPs) and this rations access. I do feel for you OP, and the only thing I can suggest if you would like to go private is something like Thriva (which I've just done for the second time).

@Grrreatt

OP could you not just request an appointment by carrier pigeon? That's what my surgery does.

How modern!

With mine, you go to the nearest large hill and light a beacon. I can't believe that wasn't your go-to.

@FranceTeam

Time to privatise the NHS.

Ironically, most GP practices ARE private businesses! Their "income" is based on how many patients are on their books, not "per treatment/consultation", hence why they're happy not to see patients. If funding was based on consultations/treatments, you can bet your bottom dollar, it would be easier to get appointments.

Pre-Covid, lots of surgeries let you book in advance for regular non urgent appointments because those appointments aren't usually with the GP.

@SpindleWhorl you've just reminded me of one of the most ridiculous problems I've ever had with our surgery. One of my DS's has a rare, lifelong condition for which he is under the care of a specialist in a hospital hundreds of miles away. For a while he was prescribed a drug which is normally used for asthma. This was an off licence prescription which the specialist would normally have taken responsibility for but because we live so far away she arranged for the GP to do the repeats. So far so good.
Until I got the Medicines Manager on the phone saying the prescription was going to be stopped because I'd not booked DS in for his asthma review. I explained the drug wasn't for asthma and that there would be correspondence in his notes from his specialist. That worked initially but the same issue came up every few months.
In the end I gave in and took the path of least resistance and booked the asthma review. (He does have very mild asthma.) The nurse was very pleased with him and told me that the drug was doing exactly what it should be and that she was glad I'd finally understood the importance of hetting him monitored regularly. I smiled and nodded and we continued with this charade for several years until his Consultant decided to change his medication. What a bloody waste of time and resources. The failure of the practice staff to understand the situation didn't exactly fill me with confidence either. I wonder how many times nonsense like this is repeated across the country and how much waste occurs as a result?
I have had quite a few problems with getting treatment he has been prescribed by the tertiary centre continued actually. I don't expect the GP to know a lot about his condition, it's rare and even the paediatricians in our local hospital don't have experience in it, so it would be completely unreasonable to expect a GP to. But I also don't expect them to override the advice of his Consultant or to waste time on pointless medication reviews.
Sorry, I've gone off on one a bit there.....it's been a battle over the years to get proper duagnosis and treatment and it gets me quite angry once I start talking about it!

@Leftbutcameback

That is really awful, and I can't understand surgeries who only do same day appointments (or calling in the morning to book one). How is that more efficient than booking people in advance for regular non urgent appointments? It must cause so much street for everyone including staff. I can only assume that they are far too over subscribed (I know there's a massive shortage of GPs) and this rations access. I do feel for you OP, and the only thing I can suggest if you would like to go private is something like Thriva (which I've just done for the second time).

There was a thread on MN a year or two back where a GP admitted that the 3/4/5 week wait for non urgent appointments was deliberate to "put off" those who don't really need appointments. Apparently, the number of "slots" they opened in 3/4/5 weeks' time depended on current waiting times, so if people were starting to get slots earlier, they'd reduce the number and if waiting times were getting longer, they'd increase the number of slots, so it was carefully planned to make patients wait for the requisite number of weeks. Very cynical way of working indeed.

We should be able to opt out of the NHS as there is no care from it for many of us and get a massive tax rebate in return. We are just pouring tax money down the drain at present.

In relation to ours my son tends to try to go there physically as they still have an open desk / reception and you get attention much faster even though you have your petrol and parking cost, so ends up in a sense cheaper and quicker than telephoning.

I've been trying to sort this since May. Ironically, the GP says "just call" after your coil is changed. Then had a total runaround getting that done as the GP was very mysterious about the clinic and I got nowhere ringing to arrange it. Got round that by seeing the Sexual Health Clinic and now on my millionth call to the surgery. I'm wasting so much of their time. If my MH was worse or I was demented, as most of the locals are due to age, I'd have gone screwy by now. I've been told off for emailing, did resort to a letter last week but the GP didn't read it, despite it being scanned into my file...

They really, really need to sort out primary care. No wonder the hospitals are overrun...

[quote MsHedgehog]@LukeEvansWife How are people wasting time when you can’t even get through in the first place? You have to keep pressing redial until it finally connects, and then you have to wait for ages for a receptionist to answer.[/quote]
And then apparently get the GP involved before realising that she had the wrong surgery. Time that could have been taken up by someone who needed it.

@ElizaDarcysDeeds

Can you not book into a well-woman / menopause / sexual health clinic? YABU to call 200 times because it hasn't worked. All it's done is make you frustrated and then prompt you to start a thread on MN; shore up all the anti-NHS privateers and take up more of your day writing posts - none of which bring you closer to getting an appointment. Fwiw as lots of PPs have said, a Monday morning is not a good time to call a GP's surgery for a non-emergency appointment and you would have been better calling this afternoon and discussing the different options for you. That would have been much more worthwhile than arguing on here which won't be helping your anxiety or blood pressure if you are peri-menopausal.

Can you try and understand that at some surgeries ringing in the afternoon will either have the phone just ringing and noone answers, is only for test results or you are told to ring back the next day between 8 and 10. It gets you no where to be grumpy with the reception staff as they are not at fault. It makes no difference here what day of the week you ring you have to try many many times before you get through. It is a FACT. Not all surgeries are the same of course.

@welliesarefuntowear There are always ways to contact your gp surgery online. It's in the contract.

How is that enforced? Just checked our surgery website, there is no email address. Just checked their patientaccess app, the only thing you can do online is order a repeat prescription- no facility for online appointments and no "contact us" either.

The only thing on the surgery website is an "contact us" form, which says at the top it's for "suggestions only" and a comment at the bottom that individual "suggestions" won't be responded to.

Do, no, there is no way to contact the surgery online for anything personal, i.e. to request an appointment or a call back etc. Just a list of phone numbers for each branch surgery.

@Xenia

We should be able to opt out of the NHS as there is no care from it for many of us and get a massive tax rebate in return. We are just pouring tax money down the drain at present.

In relation to ours my son tends to try to go there physically as they still have an open desk / reception and you get attention much faster even though you have your petrol and parking cost, so ends up in a sense cheaper and quicker than telephoning.

Great idea Xenia, can I opt out of Cabinet Ministers giving contracts to their friends? And the aid budget being diverted to defence? Individualised spending plans for the government is definitely the way to go

@Grrreatt

OP could you not just request an appointment by carrier pigeon? That's what my surgery does.

@Grrreatt I prefer to send a barber-shop quartet. It adds a lovely sense of occasion.

@Xenia

We should be able to opt out of the NHS as there is no care from it for many of us and get a massive tax rebate in return. We are just pouring tax money down the drain at present.

In relation to ours my son tends to try to go there physically as they still have an open desk / reception and you get attention much faster even though you have your petrol and parking cost, so ends up in a sense cheaper and quicker than telephoning.

I don't think tax rebates are the answer. But, I do think that there should be some "contribution" towards the costs if someone goes private. By going private, you're saving the NHS the "internal cost" of whatever service/treatment you would have got on the NHS, so as the NHS is saving that money, then at least some of that should go towards the private treatment.

My OH had a private MRI scan for his cancer. Apparently, under the NHS internal market, that would have cost around £200. He went private and paid £1000. Surely, the NHS should have paid £200 towards it, leaving us with paying just the difference?

Likewise with GP appointments. If a GP appointment "costs" say £50, then someone who has a private appointment instead should have £50 of what they pay, paid by the NHS instead being the amount saved by the NHS.

@Viciouslybashed can you try to understand that the OP said she would get through later but there wouldn't be any appointments left? My advice was based on the information OP gave about her surgery - not about your surgery or my surgery. Talking to the reception staff can be helpful. Much more helpful than complaining on here. As can going to a specialised clinic as I suggested.

@LukeEvansWife learn to read. I spoke to the reception and had the confusion with them, not with the GP...