Is your GP online triage system good? NOT bashing - mine is brilliant.

[Merryoldgoat]

I messaged today using the online portal thing.

Message sent at 8.29 with details of my issue. I had a call at 8.36 from the triage doctor.

She asked a few questions and sent a prescription to the pharmacy but told me to get back to them urgently if x/y/z and they’d want to see me.

She told me likely issue which I suspected but also the things to watch for in case it was more serious.

She also asked for a picture of an affected area to rule out something.

They still take triage calls and see you same day when needed and it seems like a brilliant system.

So many here complain about their surgery - are they still making you call at 8.00 if you need an appointment? If so
why haven’t they moved with the times?

2 weeks for non urgent/routine appointments but they’ll arrange follow ups for more pressing stuff within 2 days.

People don’t believe me when I say I’m seeing a doctor same day - feels mad.

Ours is the same. They generally triage my problem within half an hour or so - sometimes I just get a text saying my prescription has been sent to my pharmacy, other times it's a call or fact to face appointment but always there and then (and they call back if they miss you!).

This is good to know. We are implementing something similar in our practice and I worry that our patients will be complaining about it.

I'm not bashing my GP but they don't even have an online anything. Drives me mad.

Ours is literally amazing.
Sometimes I don’t want to be seen, I know what’s wrong, I’ve had it before and just need a prescription.
Other times, I need to get the children seen in person.

Always accommodated.
As long as I get online before about 9am.

Terrible 6 wks just fir a phone consultation 4.5hr window kept phone close never rang till 3hrs after I was given wasunable to answer phone quick enough so missed the call.

Ours is also really good. You can call whenever throughout the day and if it's an emergency you will be seen or have a phone call the same day. They also have a clinic where you can come down between 4-5pm and sit and wait to be seen.

We have a triage system run by the ANP's which guarantees patients' issues will be dealt with on the day. No cut off time. No limit on numbers. So if there are still twenty or more patients on triage mid afternoon for example, then GP's pitch in too and people end up staying late.
It's great for the patients. Not so much for the ANP's who are massively stressed and looking for a way out.

It was good, for a little while in lockdown. Now it's like they've picked a particularly stupid monkey to design it.

Mine is fucking awful.
You have to call at 8.30 for an appointment
You can never get through.
I once kept dialling over and over again, knowing I wouldn’t get an appointment but I wanted to see how long it would take to speak to someone.

I dialled the number 176 times. It was finally answered on the 177th time. I was put straight on hold for 20 minutes. Finally got through and the receptionist practically sneered at me “we have no appointments, call back tomorrow”

So I called 111. They agreed I need to be seen. They managed to get me an appointment to see my GP that day.

There is no online booking system. No advance appointments. Just pot luck.

sounds great. Ours is terrible. Appointments are only bookable, on the day. So at 8:30 everyone phones and sits in a huge phone queue, most often to find that all appointments are booked. You can then repeat the process the next day. And the next. If an issue that genuinely requires seeing someone that day a duty doctor will ring you back to triage you. So you generally get seen/ spoken to if you absolutely need to on the day. But your chances of getting a more routine/ general medical care appointment are more or less zero.

Mines great. Was great all through the pandemic and lockdown. Never had an issue getting an appointment. Managed to get face to face appointments no issue. I'm very lucky.

@amarante its honestly brilliant. They always operated telephone triage very and then patient access which was alongside but their own system is the best. Plenty of space to explain and it means loads of preamble is missed. Dr knew I had no tonsils, what meds etc before calling and it was an exceptionally efficient appointment.

@Weedoormatnomore that sounds really awful. It just adds to the anxiety and distress when ill.

Ours doesn’t have online anything, it’s stupid

Oh and the duty doctor call - that you've begged a snooty receptionist to give you before she hangs up following her robotic "no more appointments today, call tomorrow" - will ring any time during that day. If you happen to miss it, tough. There is no do over and no excuses. Once they've dialed your number you are struck off the list.

Mine too. It feels so wrong that there’s such a disparity in the offering.

This is what my childhood surgery was like 40 years ago.

I was often unwell as a child and I have memories of sitting for hours in a surgery.

You can even email questions that are non-urgent.

I know I could do the online thing in the morning and I'd get a call from a Doctor within a couple of hours and they would get me in for a face to face appointment before they close. Hope I've not jinxed it for myself bragging 🤣

My recent experience was excellent.

I called first thing on a Monday morning having just found a lump in my breast and was given an appointment that afternoon with a lovely helpful female GP. (I go to a practice and don't have a fixed GP - it's just whoever is available.) She gave me advice on who to contact about a mammogram, which was scheduled within a fortnight.

There was a more extensive follow-up mammogram and ultrasound a fortnight later.

I can't praise the NHS highly enough for their care and helpfulness.

Don't have one. The only way of getting in touch with my GP surgery is by telephone, between 9am and 5pm Monday to Friday. No email, no online consultation.

Absolutely useless, no surgeries round here do online anything. And we're not some rural backwater, we are in suburban Glasgow.

Mine is awesome. Just book appointments on the app. No triage. Always appointments and you can choose your doctor.

Ours used to be econsult, which I found actually worked pretty well. Now it's the ask first app, which has one huge glaring problem...I can’t use it to book appointments for my kids. Its a total pain.

So many here complain about their surgery - are they still making you call at 8.00 if you need an appointment? If so* why haven’t they moved with the times?*

Fuck knows. Ours has no online system at all. It's still "ring at 8 and hope for the best".

Not for anything other than bog standard conditions. My doctor misdiagnosed an aneurysm in my arm as a cyst and refused to look at it when I told them that there was no way it could be, it had a pulse and got bigger when my arm was in certain positions. It could have easily killed me. It took months for me to persuade someone to look at it in person, rather that by photograph.

Yes - used mine today for a chest infection. Got an appt within 20 mins for a prescribing pharmacist. He took me through a 111 style set of questions, sent a prescription for antibiotics to the local pharmacists and sent me a link to book a face to face appointment with a GP in the next few days. Very impressed

Shocking. Call at 8.30 and see if you get lucky enough to get a slot. Even then it's a phone call. I haven't seen a GP face to face since before covid. Every time I've called for my 7 week old I've waited until after 5pm for a call and by then the prescription can't be collected until the following evening.

I called when she had horrific constipation caused by baby gaviscon and was screaming bloody murder. That went on for 24 full hours before I could collect her prescription to help her

God forbid you have symptoms that need looking at. The phone calls basically consist of you telling the doctor what's wrong and they prescribe something. Last I checked I didn't go to medical school