Refused doctors appointment - so annoyed

[hopelessmeringue]

bit of a rant here but I could bloody scream.

The doctors surgery was closed most of last week and the previous week and were only seeing emergency appointments due to sickness. I phoned on Wednesday and Thursday at 8.30 and all the appointments were gone. Asked if I could book in advance but no that’s not possible, it’s only on the day and there’s no advance booking. Phoned on friday and there were appointments but the receptionist said she will pass along my information to the doctor and they will just send a prescription to the chemist. I said I really would prefer to have an appointment instead, and that I don’t mind if it’s with the paramedic, nurse, doctor etc but they said no that’s not possible because it’s a problem I’ve had for years so they can treat me without seeing or speaking to me. It’s a pre existing condition that has been at bay for the last few years and now is starting again, so I would like an appointment rather than just a prescription of something I had 3 years ago. She completely refused to make me an appointment and said the doctor will send a prescription straight to the pharmacy. Unfortunately with Christmas etc, I won’t actually get the prescription now until it reopens after Christmas as the pharmacy don’t even have it yet and it usually takes 2-3 days for them to receive it from the doctor, then 3-4 days for them to make and check it. I asked if I could collect a paper copy for the chemist myself but that’s not possible either. Eventually she just hung up and I tried to phone back to speak to someone else and couldn’t get through. I tried to phone again today to check it’s gone to the chemist and also to ask again to see someone but still haven’t got through.

AIBU to be frustrated by this? I’ve taken the last week off work to try and get an appointment and I don’t have any more leave now until April. I genuinely have no idea what to do! I know I’ll get the prescription at the chemist after Christmas but it’s a condition that hasn’t always been easy to control and I wanted to actually speak to someone about it as it’s been at bay for a few years and now it’s starting again. And if it doesn’t work and i do end up needing an appointment it’s going to be a nightmare getting it off work- I’ll have to start the calling on the day thing all over again and it could take days to actually get through and get one.

I could bloody scream

Why don't you just go into their reception and sort it out face to face?

The prescription business is frustrating. When I was last in, I asked if they could just print it off and I'll take it with me. She said no, they don't like that. I know other surgeries do it and so does the walk in centre, so why can't I just have the prescription to take where I want?

I phoned on Wednesday and Thursday at 8.30 and all the appointments were gone

not that clear. But also if you’re this aggressive then maybe they’re not wanting to go out of their way to help you. Being polite gets you better results

They don’t book appointments in person unfortunately, the doors locked during covid and haven’t reopened to walk in unless you have an appointment. that’s why I had to rely on phoning

i should have gone in person last week to speak on the intercom when I was off but I stupidly decided to wait it out for the prescription at the pharmacy, and now I’m back to work and can’t because the surgery is too far away for me to get to after work, and it’s closed during my lunch hour. It’s so frustrating!

I'm never going to let myself get to that point again that's for sure!!

Do you have private GP access through work OP and can you afford a private prescription? At my last useless GPs I used to use this option sometimes through work and then they would fax the prescription to a local 24 hours pharmacy.

Not ideal and you shouldn't have to do this, but if you have the option and it gets you the prescription in time for the holiday?

Well it was apparently clear enough for everyone else 😊 I’m not aggressive in the slightest, but when you’re unwell and someone at 2am is accusing you of lying or making it up, yeah it’s a bit frustrating.

That's a rubbish service but I expect that most GP surgeries are swamped at the moment. They are just doing their best to prioritise cases that they consider most urgent.

The problem is that they simply have too many patients

They're still not open nearly three years on?! I think that's absolutely shocking! When are they proposing to get back to normal?!
My sympathies to you.

Definitely need to change your surgery.

I put a request in at 10am today for emergency meds for my condition, picked them up from the pharmacy at 4pm.

Although, I don't think you'll have to wait x days for them to do the meds. That's for repeats, for one time/emergency meds there isn't a wait.

Definitely look to change your surgery if you’re in catchment for another.

Mine - doors open, can walk in and talk to a receptionist. Can always get an on the day telephone appointment (do have to do the multiple rings at 8am thing, but normally get through by 8.15). Non emergency appointments generally available about 3 weeks in advance. There’s another surgery in the next town which sounds like yours - doors still locked unless you have an appointment, totally under resourced, keep putting out public messaging saying please don’t contact them unless you really have to.

Prescriptiosn though… my surgery takes 2-3 days to issue them. Then the chemist has a 4 working day service level, but at one point recently were running SIXTEEN days behind that. So if you ordered a repeat prescription from the doctor it could take the best part of three weeks to be able to collect it! I have my prescriptions sent to a different pharmacy who dispense the same day they receive them.

Mine has only recently opened doors and allowed face to face appointments again. I don't think people realise how crappy run some GP surgeries are. You're very lucky if you have one that doesn't require you to take time off work to sort out your or your children's me medical issue. I work from home but have to miss at least the first hour of the day for 3 or 4 days in order to get through on the phone to beg for an appointment. There are currently no bookable appointments either on their online service (EMIS patient access) or the NHS app. Nobody knows which you should be using anyway. So you have to pgone from 7.59 (can't get in queue before then phone system won't let you) and then if it lets you in (often won't as too many people) you're 49th in the queue at 8.02. So you then spend the next 45 mins or so on hold trying to get through. Very difficult when you're on the school run to drop kids to school at 8.30 or trying to get train to work. Then when you get through they say no appointments left please try again tommorow. Unless it's something serious sounding in which case they say go to A and E (happened to me recently because I had chest pains).

You really are lucky if you have a GP that doesn't turn a routine appointment into an endurance test. And GP receptionists shouldn't be making judgements on how urgently you need to see a doctor, or not, for the PP saying it's to do with how many times you've been to the doctor that year.

Ours has an email address for appointments and a general email address. I can email and leave a message for a GP. Maybe you could use something like this?

I have found they are really responsive, they will pass on a message to a GP who will text me back or there is also the option to make a telephone appt (these do go quickly however and sometimes need to wait a week or so)

problem seems to be with the pharmacy as much as the GP surgery.
I collect a repeat prescription monthly - I walk in, the pharmacist reminds one of the assistants of my name, I sometimes a few minutes wait for them to rummage in the baskets.
Usually takes a couple of days for a repeat prescription request to reach the pharmacy, but if I left the request a bit late, the pharmacist does an emergency prescription. One off prescriptions are ready by the time I've walked from the GP to the pharmacy, unless issued by a nurse, in which case it's the next day.

With regards to the appointment request by app, I think it might depend on what the individual surgery signs up to - my surgery has e-consult forms, a neighbour with a different surgery doesn't seem to have that option. Might also depend on the local NHS commissioning group.

In your position I'd be looking for alternative pharmacies that your GP works with - and possibly an alternative GP, NHS has reviews of different facilities in your area.

I don't really get why you took so much time off work either. Even if you have a demanding job which many people have, generally you can find time to make a phone call or discuss with your employer.

If you are making 200+ calls then change GP?

The NHS is at crisis point this week - lots of staff sickness, staff catching up post holidays, loads of winter bugs, far busier than average. They are on emergencies only.
Have you seen the huge number of acute trusts that have declared critical incidents??

Honestly they are on emergencies only. It doesn’t sound like your problem is this ( but perhaps we don’t have all the information) .

It’s not good care but the NHS can’t deliver that at the moment.

I also can't believe you took a week off work to make a GP appointment - that's absolutely insane.

It's reality. Booking GP appointments take hours here and you can't work at the same time as having your phone on repeat dialling.

@Paq I simply couldn't afford to take that much time off work. I wouldn't even be able to do it once, let alone for five days straight.

I suspect if most people called in to work and said "I can't come in, I'm trying to get a GP appointment and can't get through on the phone" they'd find themselves subject to a disciplinary fairly quickly

I've never ever worked a job where you could get away with that.

@whataboutsecondbreakfast OP took holiday, she didn't call in sick.

The difficulty in getting GP appointments is real, widespread and well known. Since covid lots of practices are only contactable by phone. And appointments are scarce. I called my GP on 20 December. I got through after 2.5 hours of trying and I was offered an appointment with a nurse on 4 January. I had symptoms of DVT!

This is why people are going to A&E. Or just dying.

YANBU to feel frustrated but the system is broken. If there was an appointment available they’d give you it. But there isn’t. Can’t magic more GP’s up from nowhere. Complain to your MP 🤷‍♀️

I’m a brittle asthmatic, had. Positive covid result on Boxing Day, started my rescue meds, phoned 111 as well as going on app to try to get antivirals I’m entitled too because of my health issues. Spoke to someone on 111 at 4pm, told him all my history, etc, told a doctor would call me back, 9pm a call from another non medical person who asked how I was…I had to repeat all the information again, even that I was covid positive as the previous person HAD NOT noted that down, tells me a doctor will call me, 2am another call by someone who tells me they are not medically trained and asks how I am, again does not have any of the previous information that I had disclosed, including the covid result….I eventually get a call back from a ?doctor, who did not have a clue how could get hold of antivirals, that might keep me out of hospital, at 6pm the next day….roughly 26 hours after I originally called!!! When the bank holidays were over I contacted the specialist nurse at the respiratory unit I attend for advice. The system is a shambles!

Yep, I would never have been able to take last minute holiday like that either my bosses would have refused and told me to get my arse into work

I'm not doubting the difficulties of getting an appointment - I just don't live in a world where I'd be able to take a week off just to phone the GP!

@whataboutsecondbreakfast where I work you can take your allowance without having to explain why! If you're owed holiday and you give enough notice and there's cover you just take it, whether it's to go to Skegness or sit on the phone to the GP.

OP didn't say when she booked her leave. She has a chronic condition which started to flare up which sounds like it wasn't urgent but she wanted to be seen.

We have a national health service in name only these days.

I have v similar problems with repeat prescriptions for my whole family. I now go and just sit in the drs surgery til they are sorted. I have asked both dr and pharmacy to please look where the systemic issues are, but they don’t. Despite giving them the 5 days early notice they need, the prescriptions are never there. I am caring for a v unwell child atm and it is these seemingly ‘simple’ things that are driving my mental health to the wall. I appreciate the problems with the NHS but if we accept and excuse it, how will it ever get better. During covid, I accepted it for dd - others need more help, scarcity of resources. However after a suicide attempt by dd thst lead to her being in MH unit, I realised it was actually us that needed that help all along. I will never forgive myself for not pushing harder for more support. So, if in the meantime drs surgeries and pharmacies could get prescriptions right, it might help cut their workload in the future with the pressures aim mental and physical health that this will lead to.

I feel your pain, my doctor's is similar. Have to start ringing at 8am or 1.30pm and it's so hard to get through. I rung 200 times one afternoon knowing that I wouldn't get an appointment but I wanted to try pre book (not allowed but I was going to try anyway) Gave up because it just kept ringing and I don't have time to keep trying.

Can't walk in because it's still locked and you still get quizzed about your symptoms. I don't know if they will even see my son because it's about a cough which I think is linked to asthma but it was a no no being seen with a cough due to covid.

It's got worse because we've had so many houses built so tons more patients and they can't keep up with the demand. Similar situation with a lot of surgeries round here because the town has been filled with house after house.

They don't faff about with prescriptions though, they are written and sent to the pharmacy almost immediately.

A friend in a different county has no issues, gets through ok, has open doors and pre-book able appointments. Extremely frustrating that it's so different.

Hope you got sorted in the end.

Can you imagine how busy they are right now? Holidays, scarlet fever, covid, flu. The system was long predicted to be at breaking point over this period, and it is.
A regular and controlled condition is not a priority right now.
Until we as a nation prioritise healthcare with more investment it won't improve.

Try private GP appointments if things are so bad you need to book a week off work to get an appointment (although making it xmas week was not a smart move from that point of view)

I'm sorry though, it is all pretty awful