No GP appointment

[DyingForACuppa]

I have a non-urgent-but-totally-fucking-my-life-and-making-me-suffer medical problem.

I have been phoning the GP whenever I can (between work/looking after small children) for days. Most days I don't even get through.

Today I got through at 2pm and was told there's no appointments (not even phone appointments in a month kind of thing). 'You're too early, the next appointment slots haven't been released yet, try in an hour'. I point out I have been trying for days and am picking up my kids in an hour, but apparently nothing can be done. Pick up children then call back, wait on hold for an hour, then an told, 'sorry, all slots gone now, try again tomorrow'.

I am just totally filled with despair. I'm pretty sure that with the right medication I could be fine again, but I have no way of accessing it.

I realise that there aren't enough GPs and the system wasn't working but it seems all so sudden. Pre covid you could see the doctor if you needed to. So why has everything gone so bad all of a sudden. Same as so many other services.

My GP friends who are so- called part time are doing 14 hour days 3 or 4 days a week, working flat out and seeing a huge number of very complex patients as well as following up all their tests and all the hospital letters. It is completely wrong to call this ' part time' when they are in reality working more than any regular full time job. I have nothing but respect for how they are soldiering on in very difficult circumstances. (And let's not forget,GPs delivered the majority of Covid jabs too.)

My friends who are GPs are the same, all work part/time as the hours are very very long and demanding, however it is also true that their last pay deal was pretty favourable and so working 'part/time' delivers a very good wage for them at least (not in the early stages of career), so they have no need to push themselves to work 70 hour weeks for the extra money. They would rather have better working conditions though.

It is completely wrong to call this ' part time' when they are in reality working more than any regular full time job

It's the same in every well-paid job, though. You can't demand to be paid on a level with the best-paid in the private sector whilst also wanting the flexibility and clocking-out mentality that goes with a MW job.

If I had a quid for every one of DH's GP colleagues who'd said "some lawyers earn £1m a year and we "only" get x", I'd take early retirement of my own! There seems to be little understanding of the frequent realities of life at those salary levels: no weekends, uncertain/cancelled holidays, never see your kids and get out after a decade to avoid having a stroke at your desk (as happened to one of my colleagues when I worked in the City).

Even now, earning a good wage but less than when I was in practice (and less than a GP) I am expected to do admin and catching up outside of work hours. There are plenty of people working their backsides off (and complaining less) for a fraction of a GP salary and it's this tone-deafness that rubs people up the wrong way.

It wasn't sudden

Pre covid on MN you can find threads about lack of GP appointment- I remember because our area wasn't affected at the time

It's a problem that has been getting worse over time and now more people notice

I why should anyone be expected to live only for work though ?

If we expected that all doctors would be prepared to sacrifice their lives to the job then we would have even less of them

Speak to the Practice Manager and tell them what's been happening. It's not good enough @DyingForACuppa , you should be given an appointment.

I second this! LIVI is a life saver.

Dies your area have an overflow GP out of hours. I got an appointment with them when my GP was full. Had to phone on a Friday afternoon, got an appointment for the next day. It was very efficient.

I why should anyone be expected to live only for work though ?

It’s it a trade-off for being well-paid ime.

If we expected that all doctors would be prepared to sacrifice their lives to the job then we would have even less of them

There is no shortage of young people wanting to be doctors. There is a shortage of medical school places and as a country we have not created enough of those (with the BMA’s support and encouragement at one time).

There is a shortage of people wanting to be GP’s. We should be thinking about which bits of the job can be done better/cheaper elsewhere, which should be possible given the quite extensive protocols that now (thankfully) dictate secondary referral criteria.

No I don't think we should accept that you MUST work extremely long hours to earn good money

There is actually a massive shortage of people wanting to specialise be that in GP or any other specialty. Tie that in with the fact that we've made this country very hostile towards immigrants and we're heading for real trouble

I think the Tory governments over the years would prefer private health over the NHS which hasn't helped

I live in Cornwall but rarely need to use the surgery, but have had call backs from the drs when needed and prescriptions provided. But I need surgery and this means a 90 mile round trip, which is too far for me to drive now.

It's a problem that has been getting worse over time and now more people notice

I think the reason more people notice is because they weren't used to it being the norm. It definitely HAS gone worse since covid, from when doctors more or less closed their surgeries. I'm sure telephone appointments weren't a thing before covid.

Email them.

Tell them your health problem. Then tell them how often you've tried to get an appointment etc. Then tell them it's getting you down!

No I don't think we should accept that you MUST work extremely long hours to earn good money

Ideologically, perhaps not. But I think that ship has already sailed. Employers want to reward those who add the most value which is inevitably linked to productivity. It’s typical for executive employment contracts to require commitment of the (uncapped) number of hours needed to fulfill the role. (I’ve never had a contract without this clause).

Do they have an online booking system too? My surgery has started that and it is a pain but at least you can detail what's wrong and when is a convenient time to call you to discuss

Thanks for all the replies, been busy but just caught up. First the good news - thanks to a cancellation I got an appointment in July! The receptionist was apologetic it was so far away was and tried to suggest I could try calling again next week to get something sooner, but frankly I was so relieved to have something.

Just to answer all the people who asked - no e appointments/online booking here. And you can't walk in to the surgery, you have to be buzzed in which only happens of you have an appointment. I didn't want to call 111 or say it was urgent because that takes the resources away from people who need it more, but as I said if the mental impact got bad enough I would have had to.

I definitely don't think the receptionists or GPs are slacking (!!), it's so obvious they are stretched to the limit. I thought it was bad before covid but it just gets worse and worse. I want to support the NHS but I already vote with that in mind so there's nothing more I can do.

people making unnecessary appointments which they can self manage (ie buy hayfever medicines) or see order health professionals, eg, pharmacists for minor ailments.

I hear this so often but I (mostly) disagree. There are a few things that people can handle but most people don't have the medical expertise to know how serious something is.

I was once lectured by a medical professional for not seeking help sooner - except the thing I thought had happened was a pulled muscle, and everybody knows you don't dash to the hospital for a pulled muscle. But it was a DVT/PE and I did need urgent hospital care.

At my old medical practice they would always ask if I needed a GP or a Nurse Practitioner would do, to which most of the time I could only answer 'I don't know', because not knowing what was wrong was the whole reason I was contacting a doctor, and even if I did know what was wrong I have no idea what a nurse practitioner deals with or not.

I am a practice manager and we have never been as busy. We used to receive around 300 calls per day before covid and now is around 2000. I have three GP vacancies that haven't been filled for the last 6 months. All the practices in the same borough have vacancies. There are no appointments because there are no GPs. If the problem is minor try a pharmacist. The GPs that still work are doing nearly the double. Currently they see 40 patients per day and deal with another 20 patient's queries -this is about medication or fit notes or whatever.
Blame the government. Not the staff at the practice.

We used to have a great sit and wait clinic from 10-12.30 which they got rid of. No there's a triage system where you need to ring at 8 and you can't even queue you get cut off and told to ring 111. If you do manage to get a call back from a doctor they call back anytime during the day which is hopeless if you work.
They had fantastic nurses and 4 of them were prescribing which was excellent but you can't book appts with them now at all.

A lot of these issues started pre Covid so I'm not convinced it can just be blamed on that.

It's got to the point where people can't get through and go to urgent care instead. I wouldn't ring 111 ,I'm still waiting for a call back from them from last year🙄

Two people who were unwell phoned my surgery today and a face to face appointment was booked for them to see a GP. They didn't turn up.

Perhaps they died of shock actually getting an appt?!

Some of these stories are shocking.

I did e-consult at 3om today and within half an hour had been sent an appointment for Tuesday next week.

I then went down to the surgery to collect my repeat prescription and walked in (as I have been doing for over a year) with no mask required to collect.

Wating room back to normal.

I hope you get sorted op.