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

I have just sat and read through the last few pages of comments. As I said in an earlier post, we have to stop dismissing women and telling them to stop being silly. We all have different experiences, different medical histories, different symptoms and different levels of capabilities of managing it.

I think as women we are so often told to just accept it and that it’s natural, so we don’t question it. I think women put themselves through unnecessary suffering which shouldn’t happen because the rhetoric is ‘stop whining and deal with it’

This way of thinking is detrimental not just to women but to society as a whole. I would hope that if anyone I knew came to me to talk about something that was making them unwell, whether it be a normal part of womanhood or something different, I would listen and support and not judge.

To reiterate a few things:

I do not want an emergency appt
I do not want an emergency blood test
I do want a conversation with my GP
I do want to be able to book an appt which could be in the next couple of weeks
8am at my surgery is for ALL and ANY appt not just emergency
I am the only person, bar my GP, who knows my medical history

Also I am not menopausal, overtired and emotional. I am not precious nor demanding. I am aware of the strain on GP’s and it is awful and I want there to be a solution. But I do want access to basic healthcare as I have said over and over and I have a right to it.

Funnily enough, just had a phone call from our GP surgery asking me to phone and make a review appt with the diabetic nurse. I asked if they could make an appt there and then, but no, the person phoning me apparently didn't have access to the appts system! She said I'd have to phone back and ask to make an appt! I explained there's not point having the review appt without me having the usual HBA1C blood test beforehand, and seeing as they're not offering "routine" blood tests at the moment, that can't happen. She said the diabetic nurse wanting the phone consultation anyway. I refused and re-iterated it's a waste of time without the blood test. I'm not wasting my time trying to get through to their phone lines (no other option for making appts) between 8 and 10 in the morning for a pointless telephone conversation. How stupid that they're getting their staff to phone patients telling them to make appts without access to the appts system!

Our gp is the same. There is no option for booking appointments in advance you have to keep trying in the morning just to be triaged, then a gp might phone you back sometime in that day, then if they think you should be seen they will book an actual appointment

I didn't get the impression you were demanding or unreasonable, iamadancer (are you really?).

Have you written your GP a short letter yet? I think I said earlier that I did that and got a 'phone call not long after.

@IAmADancer
This is MN though. Last week I was slated (by some) because my ear was blocked and knowing my medical history I know it doesn’t respond to self help, though I do still try, and was shocked that ear syringing or a more up to date alternative is not easily available on the NHS. Apparently I was selfish for even wanting help for my severe earache and deafness.

*Some of the posters on this thread - is it International Dickhead Day? confused

That certainly summed up the thread yesterday, and we’ve had more of the same today.

There have been a lot of supportive posts, too, though, and it’s clear that the OP’s surgery is by no means unusual in how difficult it is to get an appointment. I’m sorry you’re having such a hard time getting through to your surgery, OP, it really shouldn’t be that difficult.

[quote Spidey66]@IAmADancer
This is MN though. Last week I was slated (by some) because my ear was blocked and knowing my medical history I know it doesn’t respond to self help, though I do still try, and was shocked that ear syringing or a more up to date alternative is not easily available on the NHS. Apparently I was selfish for even wanting help for my severe earache and deafness.[/quote]
Yep....I pay £100 every year to get my ears micro suctioned...really should not have to do that on top of the £350+ I pay in national insurance every month, and £200 for private therapy. But God forbid you ever complain about the NHS or expect any kind of preventative healthcare.

@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.

Ours doesn't work that way. If it is engaged it just beeps and knocks you off. There is no queue system in place.

And like in the OP, there is just the telephone system. You call at 8';30am in the hope of a in appointment time. If you leave it too late you have to call again the next day.

We did have online booking for about a year. Covid then arrived and it was disabled and it's not been put back online.

We don't have the messaging services that some posters talk about.

We've felt our GP surgery has been behind the times for a while now. Covid had highlighted this hugely.

Unfortunately you didn't seem to be able to just switch to a different surgery - all round here seem to have a 'catchment' type system.

@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.

Or, like my surgery - that's the only option right now and has been for a while, certainly all the way through the pandemic! You can no longer book appointments in advance, unless the doctor does it as a return appointment during a consultant on.

We used to be able to. Now we can't.

You have no idea if it is the case or not for the Op.

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

For appointments?
Someone needs to tell my surgery then.
There is a generic email contact somewhere online, along with the telephone number.
But the email contact does not allow you to make appointments through it, or to request medical treatment, blood tests, etc.

@Lulu1919

Doubt you'll get a blood test....all non urgent ones have been cancelled due to lack of test tubes !!!!

I had a routine blood test on Monday last week.

Re blood tests. Depends what you mean by 'routine', anyway.

I had one today because last week a GP asked for it to be done by end Sept. Apparently that makes a 'routine' blood test 'not routine' and I was asked in.

Used up 4 vials of different coloured tops. I think my GP's finally twigged I'm really not very well.

I really appreciate all the positive, helpful comments and suggestions from people. I will definitely be following up on some of those.

In relation to the blood test, I’m not asking for an urgent. If it takes 4 weeks to get one, then so be it, but at least then I know where I am and how long I need to wait.

Its taken me 3 months to get a doctors appt. i also want a menopause blood test done but you cannot self refer at my surgery and have to get the gp to say you need one.

Mine is on sunday at 9.30am.

I darent think how many times i have phoned. Buckle up for the long haul and manage your expectations.

I also cannot get my coil swapped which is overdue. Noone is doing them. But they will happily prescribe me the pill in addition to an old coil! Why would i want that.

I've been trying to call for an HRT review before I can get my next prescription. My GP refuses to put it on repeat prescription. So once every 3 months I have a call, I tell him my blood pressure, he asks me if I'm happy to continue and he sends the prescription to the chemist.
You used to call and get in a queue. I've waited over an hour before but at least you got through. Now it's recording saying "all our lines are busy please call later" and it cuts you off.
I've completed 2 econsults and no one has contacted me.
So today I saw a private GP at the cost of £80 plus the cost of a private prescription. I can't afford to do that every 3 months.
In the last 10 years I've been to the GP for routine smear tests and HRT. Nothing else. I'm not a heavy user of the NHS and when I do need it I feel let down.