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

@RVN123

"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.

Oh I called them and asked about it and they were like "nope" even though I haven't had anything done for my issue, maybe it is different for everyone or maybe I was just fobbed off - sorry for posting incorrect information, I was just going off what happened to me.

Hope you get it sorted op.

Also I had a blood test on Friday, not life or death - at least I hope not!

GP arranged on same day, no mention of a shortage or the need to wait.

@GreenFingersWouldBeHandy

Also for those saying it’s not urgent, no offence but you are not me

Well, no offence but you do not need an emergency appointment. You don't have a life-threatening condition. You're not ask risk of injury or dying. You're just tired and pissed off.

Does your surgery have a website/online options? Otherwise, just wait until it's quiet and you can speak to someone.

GPs are not for injury or dying either. They are for normal, routine healthcare.

@KingsleyShacklebolt

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

Perhaps in England but not in my part of the UK. No email on the website. No online form. No online ANYTHING, you even have to ring up for a repeat prescription. Once during lockdown I was asked to send a photo by email and the address was something like [email protected] - hardly user friendly.

The reason for the email address being like that is hacking.

My GP surgery was using [email protected] despite being told it was 100% secure a quick standard google of the email address showed copies of emails online. It was quickly removed but only after I pointed it out - I no longer work in IT security in the NHS but it was standard when I worked there to ensure everything was secure before publicising it, it didn't even take two minutes. The data has now been removed from google searches, however, doesn't mean it's not still online. Names, addresses, condition details....

Whilst NHS email accounts may be secure (clearly this one wasn't encrypted at all) it doesn't mean that patients have secure email addresses.

Try Medichecks. Very good service, then at least you would know whether to keep pushing for a GP appointment or could leave it a bit

Hope you get somewhere soon

Mine surgery is like OPs. You ring hundreds of times at 8am or you don’t get an appointment. My DH got through last week at 8.25 and all the appointments were gone ‘oh try again tomorrow.’ It’s an utter farce that we have to put up with this shit. Then for the OP to be told she doesn’t need an appointment or a blood test. She wants to speak to her GP and should be able to. Not all surgeries have online access or emails either.

[quote Purplewithred]@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[/quote]
She has.

@IAmADancer

I find it fascinating to read some of the comments that say as a woman, I should just get on with it because it’s normal. I also find it incredibly sad that women are constantly told this and we accept it.

We have a right to basic healthcare and that covers women’s reproductive health. Menopause impacts everyone differently but regardless of that we should be able to access the support/medication that we need in order for us to continue as healthy functioning adults.

It infuriates me that we dismiss and belittle women into feeling that we are taking advantage of the NHS when it is a valid and necessary medical need that requires medication. We need to stop making women feel bad for wanting help and we need to stop judging people for needing help. How about supporting and encouraging people. It’s not just about the NHS. If you are struggling, be it with menopause symptoms or other issues that only women face, it has a wider impact. The more women not able to work the less money goes back into the economy which in turn means less money going into public services. Whilst one woman won’t have that much impact, hundreds of thousands of women will.

It makes me very angry that women are treated this way and it needs to stop.

But you making demands won't stop it.... so don't upset yourself! The NHS is on its knees. And it's not just women being treated this way.

Wait til midweek to ring. Perhaps a slightly better chance of getting thru given Mondays are the surgery's busiest time.

ANDcomplain to your MP.....DON'T let it go.
GP service needs fundamental reform but equally the public could be more considerate.The sense of entitlement is astounding.

Everyone has gotten used to INSTANT everything. Amazon delivery in 24 hrs has a LOT to answer for.....I want it now now now!

I've had 2 blood tests for peri menopause symptoms one 2 weeks ago and they've both come back normal.Its hard to pin point hormone levelling a blood test apparently.

My doctors is the same op
Impossible to get appointments I feel so sorry for the millions of people that will no doubt suffer with undiagnosed problems.
The healthcare system right now is a shit show it was always bad but since covid its dismal.We need a better system or to have a tax that we all pay that goes straight to NHS .

I find it baffling that some GP surgeries (like the OP’s) put everyone -regardless of the urgency of their enquiry - through the same ‘funnel’ of having to call every morning. Yes, the OP’s problem may not be ‘urgent’ in the way that someone with, for example, mastitis or a urinary infection is urgent. She could probably wait a few days for the blood test. But the point is that her GP’s system forces everyone into the same queue so she has to call up alongside everyone else.

Our GP surgery has a slightly different system - you ring up in the morning for a appointment and the receptionist decides whether your problem is urgent or not. You then either get a phone call same day, or if your problem isn’t urgent then you can have a pre-booked appointment in 4-5 weeks.

The problem with that system is that lots of medical problems can be non-urgent (ie don’t need a same day appointment) but still can’t wait 4-5 weeks.

I saw a post on the Times yesterday ostensibly from a GP moaning about unrealistic 18-35 year old women.

I was shocked at that, but what can you do when other women belittle women when they want to see a GP about their female health concerns.

As for wanting everything "now" - healthcare usually is urgent-ish unless it's something very routine like a dentist check-up.

levels not levelling

Theses are the same GPs that will see you face to face if you booked private consultation. GP practices have used the pandemic as an excuse to cut back on services. It disgusting.

@IAmADancer

Just to answer a few questions

When you call my surgery it goes straight through to busy tone so you can’t hold in a queue and wait for a place. You just have to keep calling back until it clicks into the actual surgery system where it gives you options to go through to various departments.

My surgery is not taking advance bookings, only bookings on the day. They used to release appointments via the nhs app to book but have stopped that.

Also for those saying it’s not urgent, no offence but you are not me. I haven’t slept properly in over a month. I am exhausted and struggling to function properly. Being able to access something as basic as a blood test to find out what’s happening shouldn’t be this hard. Not sleeping is debilitating and due to another condition that I have I need to speak to a GP to be able to discuss what the best way forward would be.

Why don't you got with a private appointment with one of Dr Louise Newson's consultants? I didn't have any bloods done, they usually go with symptoms alone and then can prescribe the best HRT for you, which doesn't have to be expensive even with a private prescription.

Sympathies OP, (and shame on some posters here!).

Rang my GP back in May to ask for a non urgent spot as I had a painful lump on my foot that was growing. Didn’t need an urgent same day one, left my number, they never called me back.
My running physio wrote a ‘referral’ letter for me that the receptionist accepted as equivalent to seeing a GP (?) that progressed me to a telephone call to the hosp.
I rang them, to be told they’d book me in to see a foot specialist, that was July.
No news since then.
Lump has disappeared, but they don’t know that!

Also, trying to get eligible 13 yr old a covid jab - my GP is no longer doing any vaccinations as their shared site has closed. (119 won’t sort out younger teens) I know it’s closed anyway as I was volunteering there. The new site is yet to open, so currently impossible for anyone to help.

The NHS isn’t ‘going to struggle’, we haven’t ‘saved’ it. It is failing, a lot of people, right now.

I don’t know what the answer is either, but hope some of the alternative suggestions on this thread can help you 💐

Who are all these other people getting through before you though OP? Seriously.

Or do you not want to wait in the queue?

My GP surgery is the same. Can only ring up at 8am for same day appointments. Booking a non urgent one for a week or two later is not an option. It is ridiculous. I only got the appointment I did because I had a meltdown on the phone and they somehow magicked me up an appointment that day.

I feel you, I had to ring over 100 times this morning to cancel an appointment due to sickness over the weekend (HV appointment, wasn’t going to bring my child who had a bug in for one and pass it around other kids).

It’s really irritating. In my GP you can’t get through to the other lines until you ring the main one first, so you’re waiting close to an hour just to get put through to a line with at most one person in the queue in front of you 🙃. And while doing so, blocking the line for someone wanting to make an appointment. Completely defies logic.

@RB68

urgent care for menopause symptoms - are you for real. Just book an normal appt at 10am and wait your bloody turn.

at my gp's it is impossible to do this.,....the only way to make an appt is to phone in the morning to be seen that day. I have no idea why but if you call at 10am and all the appts have gone for the day they just tell you to phone back in the morning.

@cuparfull how is trying to get a gp appointment making demands?

I am not asking for a same day blood test. I am asking to speak to my dr, who knows my medical history, discuss the next steps and be referred for a blood test.

That’s not making demands. As I have said over and over, it’s about basic healthcare access, which EVERYONE should be able to access and not be made to feel that they are selfish for doing so.

urgent care for menopause symptoms - are you for real. Just book an normal appt at 10am and wait your bloody turn.

Since when were GPs only for urgent care? If they are it's because people have to wait so long that by the time they can get in a routine thing has become urgent.

And all of the "menopause is a breeze" brigade: when you're on your knees because you can't sleep plus all the other symptoms (which nobody seems to know about until it hits them) have a word with yourselves.

Good luck, OP.

@placemats what queue? Are you generalising or are you be specific about the phone system at my surgery, for which there is no queue option.

Waited an hour 45 today myself got through waiting for a call back now from the hub whatever that is

I am staggered by the amount of people chastising the OP for trying to access basic health care. All surgeries are operating differently at the moment. If you are lucky enough to have a surgery who are offering routine book ahead appointments you are very lucky. Our GPS isn’t - like the OP. Ring at 8am, all appointments will be gone by 8.10. Receptionist will then say tough, call back tomorrow. It’s an absolute nightmare.