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

@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.

Our surgery make you ring at 8am for everything

Routine appointments, medical review, emergency…the lot

I think its the shittist idea ever…but there is fuck all i can do about it

@RVN123

A previous poster said that you could not be seen privately because this is a pre existing medical condition? I'm sorry but this is not true at all. You can be seen privately for anything you want if you are willing to pay! (at least here in Scotland). I've been seen multiple times for things I'd already been to my GP about. Not sure how that would even work as you usually need to have seen your GP to get a referral letter anyway so then it becomes a 'pre existing' complaint! OP if you can afford it and you need the reassurance that everything is ok, go private.

Maybe I wasn't clear in my post, I meant if you go private with bupa or another health care insurance type thing then they won't accept it but I'm sure there's private practices who will accept you if you're willing to pay (or have the means to pay) unfortunately I don't have spare ££££ for my issue meaning i tried to get insurance which was rejected even though I don't have a pre existing condition - I apologise for not being clear but yes, a private practice would help but would be expensive.

I’ve really tried to avoid bashing GP’s but after waking up covered in a rash in the week they refused to even look at pictures of it to advise me and just kept telling me ‘we’re full. Try again tomorrow’. The end result was urgent care over the weekend where a doctor was horrified at the state of me and I’m now on a cocktail of medications for an infection that’s run wild and was close to sepsis. Can’t help but feel if they’d just listened to me in the week then I could’ve avoided A) being so ill and B) taking up 111 time and an urgent care slot.
I know I’m not a special case but surely a sudden and fast spreading rash counts as urgent?!

iamadancer

I hope you get this sorted 💐

GP surgeries do not all function the same way. The NHS is separate businesses in the uk for a start. Then each business (England/Wales etc) has its own model. Then you have different healthboards (in Wales) which again have different rules.

IF the OP lived where I do she would not be allowed to have a blood test for menopause. It was listed as non essential on social media along with a lot of other things. She would not have the opportunity to wait for the phone to be picked up, as not everyone has the luxury of free calls and ability to wait for an hour plus for the call to be answered so that was removed because people were finding themselves unecessarily wasting money they couldn't afford just waiting and listening to recorded messages. She would not be allowed to book for anything other than an emergency from 8am daily (after around 8:10 all appointments are gone). Not allowed to book on another day under any circumstances - emergency only and call back only from nurse, not GP as nurse decides if you need a GP (waste of appointments in my opinion). Need a repeat? They now require five working days minimum. She would need to wait in her car in the car park for a call to come to the door where she would undergo questions about her health in case she has covid, her temperature would be taken, questions about holidays etc anything remotely suspicious of covid (and there's a long list now of possible symptoms) not allowed in even with a clear LFT. She would go straight in and out. Not allowed to use the toilet or talk to anyone under any circumstances except person on door.

IF she turned up in person she would be turned away.

IF she was seen coming to surgery in a taxi she would be turned away, same goes for if she was given a lift due to covid risk.

A&E is via 111 or 999 triage only. Turn up in person you're told to ring 111/999 for them to book you in. My sister lost her baby on the steps of A&E because she just turned up after not being able to get through on 111 or 999.

It's not just my surgery it's ALL surgeries in the area.

Livi will get you a gp appointment for £29 I think, and presumably they can refer you somewhere for the bloods.

If you have the bandwidth please complain about your GP to NHS England, www.england.nhs.uk/contact-us/complaint/complaining-to-nhse/ and/or to your CCG (who are responsible for paying for GP services locally) www.nhs.uk/Service-Search/other-services/Clinical%20Commissioning%20Group/LocationSearch/1 and/or to Healthwatch www.healthwatch.co.uk/your-local-healthwatch/list?gclid=CjwKCAjw7fuJBhBdEiwA2lLMYeYYlDrRy4g-zs4Ms_2xtJRHXjMvenn0DoG53_P7isXSkv5s8hPSGRoCVDgQAvD_BwE. Your GP should be doing much better than this (although I echo trying different days/times to get through).

Aren't your surgery signed up to the eConsult service? I can't rung my surgery anymore either, but I have found the eConsult service very efficient. When I submitted my symptoms and requested an appointment, a doctor rang me back to arrange an appointment. I've no complaints about that, I prefer it to the old system really.

@itsanamechangetonight It depends on your policy. The ones I have through work always cover pre existing, except one I was given when I worked somewhere small.

@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.

Many surgeries are only taking appointments on the day you call and when you get through finally, they're all gone, so you have to call back the next day. Rinse and repeat.

I find it more helpful to ask for the nurse practitioner, I get an appointment easier and if they need a drs input they go and find one.

*Except person on door AND person they're seeing (obvioulsy!)

@Becca19962014 I am so sorry to hear your sister's story - please please please do put in a formal complaint, it's horrifying and not how things are supposed to happen

It’s shocking how many people dismiss the OP as unreasonable and are prepared to accept the absolutely abysmal care that the majority of people receive from GPs. My friend in Germany phoned up and had a blood test an hour later for a similar thing last week. Do any other first world countries have to phone at 8am for hours on end to get through to someone? No! Why do people defend the NHS to the bitter end instead of seeing it for the pile of absolute shit that it is.

OP, I understand your position but blood test are not necessarily reflective - they are merely a snapshot of the time your blood was taken. (And fwiw, not all GPs even know how to decipher female hormone blood panels properly anyway)

GPs should prescribe based on symptoms, but I know only too well that if you're outside the typical menopause age-range, they probably will not take you seriously. In this instance, it is essential you read the NICE guidelines and go prepared.

Before I was taken seriously, (or to be precise, before I took myself off to see a private specialist as the myriad of GPs I saw were useless), I was lucky to get more than 45 minutes of sleep across the entire night. I was exhausted, barely able to function, so I do empathise. While you are waiting, buy yourself some melatonin gummies and some CBD mint tea (the latter of which is available from Body & Mind Botanicals as both will help you sleep.)

Also, if you can afford it, see a menopause specialist as it sounds like you need more considered care. In this instance, find a specialist who will send your prescription to your GP to dispense.

@LakieLady

Unfortunately the current admin staff at most surgeries do not seem able to think outside the box or sufficiently engineer a more efficient practice for dealing with their work stream and this incompetence is letting the patients and the NHS down

Unfortunately, the staff at my practice are so run off their feet that they barely have time to think, either in the box or out of it.

@LakieLady Yep, it's the admin staff who design the systems.............?????

E-consult was removed from surgeries in my area.

Is there a reason you're calling on Monday morning rather than Tuesday, or Wednesday? Monday morning is always going to be the busiest time of the week. In the same way that Tesco is busier on a Saturday lunch time than Thursday 8pm.

Also as others have said, there is a national blood bottle shortage. Our local phlebotomy service is only doing urgent bloods this month. And by urgent I mean chemotherapy monitoring, cancer test bloods etc.
Also there isn't really a blood test for menopause. FSH gives a rough idea but mainly it's symptoms that provide guidance on whether or not someone is menopausal.

@IAmADancer if you want a private specialist thebms.org.uk/find-a-menopause-specialist/

@Becca19962014

GP surgeries do not all function the same way. The NHS is separate businesses in the uk for a start. Then each business (England/Wales etc) has its own model. Then you have different healthboards (in Wales) which again have different rules.

IF the OP lived where I do she would not be allowed to have a blood test for menopause. It was listed as non essential on social media along with a lot of other things. She would not have the opportunity to wait for the phone to be picked up, as not everyone has the luxury of free calls and ability to wait for an hour plus for the call to be answered so that was removed because people were finding themselves unecessarily wasting money they couldn't afford just waiting and listening to recorded messages. She would not be allowed to book for anything other than an emergency from 8am daily (after around 8:10 all appointments are gone). Not allowed to book on another day under any circumstances - emergency only and call back only from nurse, not GP as nurse decides if you need a GP (waste of appointments in my opinion). Need a repeat? They now require five working days minimum. She would need to wait in her car in the car park for a call to come to the door where she would undergo questions about her health in case she has covid, her temperature would be taken, questions about holidays etc anything remotely suspicious of covid (and there's a long list now of possible symptoms) not allowed in even with a clear LFT. She would go straight in and out. Not allowed to use the toilet or talk to anyone under any circumstances except person on door.

IF she turned up in person she would be turned away.

IF she was seen coming to surgery in a taxi she would be turned away, same goes for if she was given a lift due to covid risk.

A&E is via 111 or 999 triage only. Turn up in person you're told to ring 111/999 for them to book you in. My sister lost her baby on the steps of A&E because she just turned up after not being able to get through on 111 or 999.

It's not just my surgery it's ALL surgeries in the area.

You must live near me. That's exactly how our surgery is operating too.

@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.

Thst depends on the system. When the queue is full at my GPs you get the engaged tone. No point hanging on then.

"Maybe I wasn't clear in my post, I meant if you go private with bupa or another health care insurance type thing then they won't accept it but I'm sure there's private practices who will accept you if you're willing to pay (or have the means to pay) unfortunately I don't have spare ££££ for my issue meaning i tried to get insurance which was rejected even though I don't have a pre existing condition - I apologise for not being clear but yes, a private practice would help but would be expensive."

Must depend on area or individual policy then. Every time I've had a referral it was for BUPA for a pre existing condition. Weird.
DH has BUPA cover through his work and we've never once been questioned by them if it was a pre existing condition. DH had an ongoing problem with his knees (he's a runner), back and forth to GP. Eventually referred to BUPA, tests done, operation done within the week.
Never realised this was a thing, I'll do more research.

Although, having read the PFB thread, with parents rushing their kids to GP/A&E because their ear looked funny, and other "hilarious" anecdotes, its not hard to see that a barely funded NHS is going to struggle even more in those circumstances.

for @TheWeatherWitch for being such a hero

Learn to adapt ffs.

@Staryflight445

I find it more helpful to ask for the nurse practitioner, I get an appointment easier and if they need a drs input they go and find one.

OP has made it clear that she can't get through to ANYONE!

At my surgery, if you finally get through, your only option is a nurse practitioner phone triage appointment later in the day, anyway. Then if you're lucky a GP will call you back.

More proof this country has gone to shit.
Honestly if we are told of for wanting to access something as basic as healthcare then it worries me for the future.