GP surgery only had 5 appointments available on Friday afternoon- how do I complain?

[AutumnApple]

GP surgery is an absolute joke. I already have to make a complaint due to a serious mistake in my DCs diagnosis of a life threatening condition.

On Friday afternoon, the Friday before a Bank Holiday, I rang at dead on 2.00pm for an afternoon appointment as I was sent a text saying to call for a telephone consultation due to an urgent query I’d raised with them. Phone message saying I was 2nd in queue. On hold for 20 minutes! then got through and told no more appointments left! Apparently people walk in and queue up for appointments.

Thing is DH had left the surgery no more than 5 mins previously and he said it was empty.

I asked how many appointments were available as it seemed odd they’d all gone already. Receptionist kept me on hold for 15 minutes to answer this and came back with ‘a handful’.

Also could not book a normal appointment as they had not released them yet so was expected to call back and stay in the queue for an hour. Tried this morning and 33 in the queue.

Lots of people complain about this surgery in our area. It is extremely badly managed. How can I get an official body to investigate it?

Indeed. I'm a GP. We have been unable to recruit new doctors for a couple of years. We have over 4,000 patients per whole-time GP (and before anyone starts, we work 12 hour+ days, so 3 days per week is the equivalent of a normal working week, and most of us do way more than that).

Nationally, the annual consultation rate is 5.5 per person per year.

So, in order to provide the number of appointments that our patients need, we would need each GP to provide 22,000 appointments per year. Even if each GP only takes 4 weeks of leave per year, that is 458 appointments per week, or 76 hours of consulting, assuming 6 appointments per hour.

If anyone can tell me how that is possible, I'm all ears.

And that's just consultations, which are only about half of what we do - there are also home visits/prescribing (over 100 prescriptions per GP per day)/blood results/referral letters/phone calls/e-consults/minor surgery and endless fucking bureaucracy and other compulsory crap inflicted on us by NHS England.

The OP was told there were 5 appointment slots left. There may well have been a total of 30 slots for the whole afternoon for all the OP knows.

Welcome to Tory Britain

Yes this! At my GP you have to queue at 8am to be then telephone triaged later. Ringing up at 8 is useless now.

If it’s anything like my surgery, you ring at 8:30am for same day AM appointments and then at 2pm for same day PM appointments. You can’t book a PM appointment if you ring up in the morning.

I find the best way to get an urgent appointment is to fill in their e-consult giving as much info as possible. A nurse will then call to triage and if needed, book a same day appointment.

Otherwise, if you phone up for an appointment, there’s nothing until October.

I'm in a similar position myself OP.

You must first complain directly to the surgery, via the Practice manager. They will have an email listed on their website.

You must then go through the motions and probably get ignored before you can then raise it with the Primary Care Trust for your district.

In my case, those first two were a complete waste of time as neither gave a stuff about the complaint. Despite it being a misdiagnosis and my having the backing of a Hospital lead consultant.

So I am now with the Ombudsman. It's a long process I warn you, but it depends how much you want to complain or how bad the cock up was.

It's a really sad position to be in, with you and the practice staff at the receiving end. In my area the local practices have resorted to repeatedly, and increasingly bluntly (good) sharing pretty much what you've said in your post to the local community Facebook pages, along with pleas for people to please stop abusing staff. But then all you see in the comments is everyone moaning further, because they each believe they are more in need of the hundreds of other people trying to get appointments.

My surgery still thinks we are in the midst of the pandemic. You can only get through the door if you've an appointment. Masks are mandatory (no problem with that) Chairs still 2m apart but nobody in there. Requests for anything have to be done on line, The receptionist is there to just open the door. It all has the air of the Marie Celeste about it. Not all surgeries in this area are like that but with regard to changing surgery - many are not taking on new patients and you have to be within the catchment area.

Not all surgeries in this area are like that but with regard to changing surgery - many are not taking on new patients and you have to be within the catchment area

GP surgeries are not allowed to close their lists to new patients, other than in incredibly unusual circumstances - one near us had a major fire, and was still only allowed to close to new patients for a few weeks, even though they were in Portacabins for months.

GPs have only ever accepted patients within their catchment area (although some participate in schemes that allow you to be seen at a 2nd surgery near your workplace). There is a contractual requirement to perform home visits, if medically required, which makes it impractical to have out-of-area patients, as you would not have time to visit, then be back in time to do the rest of your work.

Very few people in England (though more in Scotland because of the greater rurality) are only in the catchment area for one practice.

Are people not understanding how it works? They have 5 telephone appointments, but you cannot book ANYTHING in advance. So you have to repeat the same rigmarole morning and noon every single day until you hit the right point in the queue. You then get a call back AM or PM, no time frame, so if you're working, tough. Then, if the GP deems is necc, you may get an appointment within the next 24h.

It's not some wonderful system where she is super lucky if she can get an appointment within 3 hours. Mine is even more shit, in that Reception opens at different times in the morning, so if you are ill, confused or worried you still have to work out which day you need to call at 7.30am, or 8am, to sit in a queue of 33 fighting for 5 telephone appointments. Every, single, bastard day. And if you do get through, reception tell you it's only for emergency appointments anyway. Even tho you cannot book in advance. Practice Manager says 'computer says no' if you complain.

I realise I'm ranting about my practice and the OPs might do face to face with their 5, sorry!

Is this just another GP bashing thread with a non returning OP?

I think what op meant is that they had 5 appointments that are emergency - ie you call at 2pm and (if you get through) you get given one of them. So the lucky 5 emergencies get an appointment and everyone else can go die.

And I imagine because OP was on hold that she did not get one of the five. Instead people walked in to queue for them so by the time op’s call was answered there was nothing left for her

Where I live (London) it is always the same response:

The earliest a doctor can see you is in 5 weeks time but if you feel it is urgent then we advise you to go to A&E.

Does anyone else get this?

🙄

GPs are not contracted to provide an emergency service.

If it is an emergency, a GP practice is rarely the best place to be seen - and I say that as someone who is also an A&E doctor. Even with my A&E training, I am not equipped to manage most emergencies safely as a GP.

All practices reserve some appointments for urgent issues, but every appointment set aside for those urgent issues means one appointment less for other important work, e.g. end of life care, keeping frail, elderly people out of hospital, mental illness etc. Practices are constantly trying to juggle the competing needs of different patient groups.

There aren't enough GP appointments because there aren't enough GPs. I notice no one has answered my question up thread about how my colleagues and I are supposed to provide 76 hours of consultations per GP per week (which is what our practice population needs in theory). It's so much easier to slag off GPs than face up to the fact that most practices are close to going under.

Our surgery told me they can't get doctors to work on Fridays. Even the practice manager has Fridays off. I think they have to have one go in and the appointments are done by nurse practitioners. Who are fab. They're much more informative than doctors, seem to understan worries more and have practical advice as well as prescriptions.
But you can never get the same day appointment (unless it's an emergency) and never have been able to despite Tony Blaur making it a rule you have to be seen withing 48hrs. It never happened before he said and it never happened after he said it.
I think our surgery hs done really well throughout the pandemic.

I don't think it's the fault of the surgery. Ours is in special measures, it's almost impossible to speak to anyone. Stop voting Tory

Re your last paragraph @MissLucyEyelesbarrow, I live in a village of about 4,000 people and we are only in the catchment of a single surgery (based in the village, fortunately). Previously I lived in a village of about 1,500 people which was similarly only in a catchment of the local practice.

I'm interested in your definition of "very few" people only being in a single catchment as in my area (SE England) we exceed my definition of "very few" just in the small number of places I've lived in the last 3 years!

@MissLucyEyelesbarrow

I think our surgery has done well through the pandemic but they struggle getting gps too. We have a few practice nurses, I think they're called, and they're a really great addition. Do you have many of those to help do the appointments?

The rest of the appointments would be routine or followup appointments that have been prebooked.

I'm surprised you expected anything ringing at 2pm on the Friday before a bank holiday

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Our GPS are pretty good - phone at 8:30 and wait in line - usually book a call back then tell you to ‘pop in’ if they need to see you or prescribe over the phone
also have excellent nurse practitioners which helps especially with menopausal stuff - usually seen quickly

Totally unrealistic expectations unfortunately.