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

Time wasters, i m friends with a recently retired GP, this is what he says, look at the waste with 999 calls?

Also, e consult still takes up considerable time.

Bottom line is there are not enough GPs or Pharmacists, this was recognised 8 years ago by Cameron,, who called a referendum instead, which has made the NHS worse, basically, we voted to make the NHS worse.

That surgery isn’t fit for purpose.

Can you change? I have and the difference was quite miraculous.

Hope you have your drugs by now OP. I’m really shocked at a pharmacy taking 3-4 days to fill a prescription once they get it. Every pharmacy I have even used has done them on the spot if you walk in with a paper one. My local one has the drugs ready for me within a couple of hours of getting the prescription sent through by the surgery.

Online pharmacies will also deliver quicker than that.

How on earth can your pharmacy justify this, and the surgery not give you a choice how/where to get the prescription?

With these private GPs they don't have access to your medical records though. Is that not a problem?

YANBU. The system simply does not work any more.

@ArcticSkewer Not sure where you get your info - in France, 25EUR to see the GP and majority is refunded by the social security and topped up by employer compulsory insurance fund.

Absolutely this.
Trying to run a health system like a business is wasteful and ridiculous.
Anyone who voted Tory needs to hang their head in shame.

floradora · Today 10:17

"@ArcticSkewer Not sure where you get your info - in France, 25EUR to see the GP and majority is refunded by the social security and topped up by employer compulsory insurance fund."

My friend who lives in France paid 25 EUR to see a GP and got back 17 EUR a week later.

I hear this a lot at work in a&e. Not all gps are like this though so do challenge and request at least a call back/phone appointment. As it’s a long term condition I’d expect a call to be fine. We don’t need to get to stressed about face to face unless dr needs to see something.

do you think the prescription would be different if gp saw you? Maybe they worded it badly but it does seem reasonable to say “let’s try what worked before and come back if it doesn’t work”.

I'm horrified that so many GPs still have the antiquated ring in the morning system. All the GPs round here (somerset) have online Ask My GP systems. You can write down your problem online and a GP will call you back that day. It works really well for me as I have chronic conditions that need regular medication changes. I cant spend hours ringing my surgery because I work 6 days a week in the NHS.

What is the point of the "ring in the morning" system?

Does it reduce the number of appointments that are missed?

@Bestcatmum we use econsult as do most places locally, but increasing numbers are having to suspend the service and we might have to next week if demand doesn’t settle down. There are just so so many of them coming though, there isn’t the clinician time to triage them all safely and still actually see / call the patients who need it most. There’s no point reviewing 200 econsults if there’s no doctor to see the palliative patient or baby who’s working hard to breathe.
There isn’t a safe or simple solution but practices will be doing their best, this week most places will have be on an absolute emergency footing, no one thinks it’s sustainable even in the short term.

I thought you meant that you couldn't call your GP at all. If you can in fact call them, and the receptionist will fill out the e-consult form, I don't see what the issue is? You'd then get triaged via e-consult just like everyone else. I think in our times of a severely restricted service, due to years if underfunding, it's a bit unreasonable to expect to be able to ring the practice and get an appointment, just because you want one. I don't include the OP in this, they clearly need a non-urgent appointment. The OPs experience would be much improved if their surgery operated just like this, as they should then be able to get an appointment eventually. Where's there's nothing like e-consult being used, as in the OPs case, getting an appointment is seemingly an impossibility. There does need to be some sort of triaging, as clearly some people make appointments who don't actually need them, and GPs don't have the capacity to see everyone. Ime e-consult works very well for this. There is an automated response that a Dr will contact you within three days, but when I have actually needed a same day appointment for my son, I've been called back with an appointment within a couple of hours of submitting the form. That's surely better than waiting on hold for hours on end for appointments, or repeatedly re-dialling?

Do you think France is the only EU country and that they pay €75 per head more for their healthcare in taxes? Nope.

They invest a lot more per head for their healthcare than we do.

You can also get a private GP appointment in the UK for around £50, I was just rounding up a bit. It's still a lot cheaper than op paying the equivalent increases in taxes plus co-pay towards a better UK healthcare system.

I work in a Primary school office. Just before the holidays we had loads of kids with colds, sore throats and coughs - absolutely standard for this time of year. Parents were continually telling me what the GP had said or “negative throat swabs”….

So whilst some people can’t get appointments at all, it seems, certainly locally to me, that people are wasting precious appointments for kids with colds…!

Essentially, what I am saying is ... if you want to compare with France, Germany, Switzerland etc and say how much better it is there, please appreciate that if you forked out an extra £100 you could have the same experience... still hugely cheaper per head payment than you would get if you actually lived in France, Germany etc where they pay £1000s per head more for their healthcare in government funding (that comes from taxes, maybe you don't pay those, plus co-pay per visit)

Pay peanuts, get a zoo experience

Well yes, because parents are concerned about strep A, as are GPs and the advice is to see the GP if the symptoms might fit

So the people who are literally following the NHS advice are now accused of wasting appointments 🙄

@BathshebaKnickerStickers or blame the schools who require confirmation that a kid is sick in order to justify their absence from school. Instead of a parent who can tell by just looking at them.

The system has been broken for a long time and misuse is not the main cause by a long shot. There are simply not a GPs.

The problem is that many people in the UK would rather pay more for the better services. In fact only 43% of people voted for the Tory party. It's a high proportion of the popular vote, but it is also a minority of people. Unfortunately because of our first past the post voting system, the Tory party had a big majority in Parliament.

However, it does mean that an awful lot of people voted for more taxes and better public services. Unfortunately I bet if you had a Venn diagram, many of the people who voted Tory are also the people that lie about their children having worse symptoms so they can get a GP appointment.

Also unfortunately you can't vote for personally paying more in taxes and getting a better service for your family. I wish you could, because I would. I also hate to see people who can't afford to go private struggling. It's awful.

I went into our gp surgery last week to ask for a blood test as I'd had a sore throat, I'm on a medication that can cause neutropenia and one of the first symptoms is a sore throat she sent me off with a flea in my ear saying haven't we all I ended up walking off and having a cry when I got in the car. Now while neutropenia is rare it does happen.

Yes I deed, my DM is forever complaining about her GP/hospital, yet she votes Tory. Drives me up the wall, I just want to scream at her that she was warned, yet she still voted for it, what did she expect? Did she think all the warnings from people working within the NHS before the last election were just fake news? Everyone who didn't vote Tory, knew this was coming.

@diddl we have moved to a lot more ring on the day (alongside e-consult) and it lets us manage demand / supply better - for example if someone calls in sick, or the whole NHS goes to shit like it has this week, we hopefully have enough capacity to prioritise and keep patients safe for the immediate term. If things are good on the day we can lower the threshold for who gets a same day appointment.
We just don’t have the capacity right now to be doing all the important routine reviews, HRT discussions, low level mental health / stress, and we don’t know if we will have the capacity in a months other so it’s a risk to book those people in to appointments routinely.
Our practice is muddling though quite well considering, we are well doctored and have good systems in place, but there is a strong suspicion that January could be a lot worse.

The ring in the morning system is the dumbest thing invented. I hate it with a passion.

My previous practice used it - I have a chronic condition which requires regular prescriptions and review, and I couldn't just schedule appointments in advance to manage my condition. No, I had to join the Hunger Games-style ring in the morning stupidity. There wasn't even a queue - if the phone was engaged, I had to hang up and ring again. The prize? The chance for a GP to call you back at an undisclosed time later that day.

I always felt the ring in the morning system was a way of punishing sick patients.

I have a nice, modern GP now where I book appointments online for when I need them, and with the correct type of medical practitioner. I can often see an advanced nurse practitioner or prescribing pharmacist instead of a GP for what I need, thus redistributing resources.

I'm so much happier and healthier for it. And this is still on the NHS, just proving that some practices are choosing to be shit. I didn't have to go private. I just had to move.

DP filled out an on-line form on the 20th December....he is still waiting for an appointment for an on-line call. You're lucky yours takes just 3 days.

Yes that's shit, but maybe he's been triaged and he doesn't need an appointment. When we haven't, we have at least been emailed though, so yours do sound rubbish. I haven't needed an appointment over the last week or so though, it was early December so for you it might just be bad timing. We all know that multiple NHS services are just ceasing to function over this Christmas period. What have 111 said? Presumably he's called 111 if he really needs to see a doctor now. If not, isn't it something that can wait?