..to be blamed for missing a telephone appointment with a GP?

[Sandflea9900]

Bit of background to my situation. My job involves a LOT of overseas business travel, to the point where I’m away every week except two between now and Christmas. I have three medications on repeat prescription, one of which is for my heart which stops me having angina and a heart attack.

I normally request my repeat prescriptions online on the weekend and have the, delivered by Pharmacy2U so they arrive by the following weekend. Last weekend I forgot as I was travelling abroad on the weekend for work. I remember on Thursday when I got home, log in online and find that I am blocked from reordering as I need an annual medication review. I phone the surgery and am amazed to be told that a GP will ring me between 10am and midday today (Sunday) to do the review. Since there is mobile reception at my home, I explicitly asked that they call me on my home landline, which the receptionist agrees to.

This (Sunday) morning I am horrified to see two missed calls from a local number I don’t recognise on my mobile, 10 minutes before the start of the two hour window for the call. I immediately phone back, to be told that they didn’t get the message about the phone line and that it’s my fault for missing the call. The receptionist (it is a different surgery doing the Sunday calls, not my own) says I have been removed from the call list as a result and she cannot reinstate me on the list, and can suggest nothing else.

I am now in the situation where I will run out of medication by the end of next week, but I fly abroad on business at 8am tomorrow, so I can’t phone my own GP surgery or make any alternative arrangements. Whilst I’m back on Thursday evening, I’m then abroad for the next five weeks. I’m panicking as I don’t have enough medication and seemingly no way to get any more. I’m struggling to see how this was my fault. Help!

Not easily when you are in the Far East with an 8h time difference…

Ultimately it is the Sunday service GPs who have called early & failed to read the booking notes? The Practice Manager at OPs usual surgery will have no control over how they work. All she will be able to do is give feedback.

OP, how overdue is your med review? At our surgery, you have to be 6 months overdue before items are moved from repeat to acute & therefore unable to be ordered online. If your review is only just overdue then it seems like your surgery are making uneccessary work for themselves not to mention the inconvenience to patients.

I'm glad you've managed to sort something out for today. I'd also suggest sending an email to the surgery asking how they suggest you resolve the situation. Are you unable to take a call abroad?

But not impossible presumably. Even if you had to be woken up by the call by putting your phone on full volume. You can set calls from selected numbers to “break through” any do not disturb settings you have for night time.

So the OP has to be woken in the middle of the night because they cant get their act together Why are people accepting this

The GP service is broken! I have to send retired DH to the surgery to queue for a telephone appointment because I have to work and by the time I get to work and call, all the appointments are gone!

I have the same issue re mobile signal at work and always ask that they call on my work number but apparently they can only use one number! I work in the NHS and if I were that inflexible, I’d be drowning in complaints! When I don’t answer my mobile as I can’t get a signal I fall off the list!!

I go private for HRT for this reason and given your circumstance op, I would recommend a private HP, easily found online and likely to be much more flexible,

Yes, it is that slight sense of astonishment that you’re not just sitting around waiting for the difficult-to-predict call, that life is varied and complex, and that you may also have important responsibilities despite having a health issue.

that's more than frustrating, OP.
I also live in a village with zero mobile phone coverage. And i have taken my mobile number off my records at the GP and dentist because they kept calling my mobile despite me telling them not to (and the GP being in the next village with equally patchy mobile coverage)

I can, but usually only on my work mobile. I realised today that this is not recorded on my account, so I went to add it in and apparently I can only submit it, not add it myself 🙄

My meds are blocked a little after my last annual review I think, but with no warning and with no advanced appointments I can’t easily preempt it and get an appointment lined up.

I’ve emailed the surgery to explain what happened and to ask if they can find another solution, but I’m not feeling very hopeful at the moment 🙁

So sorry to hear that so many others of you have had similar issues. Thank you all for sharing, it’s been really enlightening to find out how wide a problem this is and for so many people.

If the issue is that you're out of the country a lot, so much as to affect routine med reviews, they may well ask questions to establish your entitlement to NHS care? Hope you get it sorted.

Do you have private medical cover with your job? If so it might include private GP. We used ours recently and it was so good

On ours, we can put a message if we're ordering earlier than the due date for a particular reason, such as being about to go on holiday. During lockdown they were happy to accept "so I can collect the prescription at the same time as another one to reduce pharmacy visits".

Not that it will help for this year given you say it is an annual review it wouldn’t exactly be difficult to set up a reminder in your phone to book the review approximately 11 months after you manage to get this one sorted. While the NHS should be giving people notice unless you are incapable of organising your own life these things should not really come as a surprise if you know that they are annual.

I agree this wasn't your fault. It's a miscommunication and you're paying the price. I do however think you have unreasonable expectations of the NHS. To say the only time you're available for an appointment all autumn is a couple of weekends is ridiculous. You can't expect the surgery to accomodate that.
If you intend to continue to be out of the country for so long would it be worth seeing a Dr in your host country so you can at least get input in an emergency. Could HR/OH help.

Glad you've got the immediate problem sorted, but given the lifestyle you describe you need access to private GP services, online appointments now included with many of the private healthcare plans. Honestly I would say your employer should not be expecting this much travel without providing private health care.

Glad you got the meds sorted. I'd now make a complaint to the practice manager about the mistakes and then the rude receptionist blaming you for it.

This isn’t a crap NHS story it’s a @Sandflea9900‘s very specific needs not being met. I’m frankly amazed that a GP was prepared to call you on a Sunday. And that amount of travel your work should pay for private.

Rubbish she doesnt live outside of the country, she travels for work.

I agree User183642, the individual has some responsibility for their health care surely and a timely appointment for the annual review would have been useful.

I missed one because they rang me at a time I'd already told them wasn't convenient as I'd be in a call. Needless to say I had to piss around the following day trying to re book an appointment. I have also missed one but that was my fault. I'd blocked all unknown numbers on my phone completely forgetting they ring with no caller ID I did ring the drs back up and explain what had happened and the dr rang me back after he'd finished all his other appointments.

That is easier said than done. My surgery doesn’t offer advanced booking for appointments. It’s the 8am scrum only, and so very difficult for me to get an appointment on one of the rare days I’m in the UK in the autumn.

I do have private medical but not private GP appointments, and even if I did, they can’t do a medication review and release my online repeat prescription, so at best they could only do a one-off prescription.

To those who have questioned my entitlement to NHS treatment, I am here enough that this is not an issue. It’s just bad timing with the annual review, which has seemingly moved a couple of months each year we’ve lived here so it’s not easy to predict when they are going to block prescriptions.

To those who asked about seeing a doctor abroad, that won’t solve the underlying problem, and I am in a different country every week so cannot set up any more permanent arrangement abroad.

I too was amazed to be offered a call on a Sunday, and I was very grateful and appreciative. I just didn’t expect it outside of when the said it would be and on a different number.

If all your regular medications are available OTC as you say why don't you keep an extra month's supply at home?
But I agree with PPs that private GP may work better for you atm

OP it's ridiculous
I've been also been accused of missing a medical appointment on the phone.

I wasn't actually told that I had one! They said "you messaged and it was urgent so obviously someone was going to call you". I was in the shower! And no, it was not at all obvious I'd get a call.

I literally have no clue how my health situation is going to be managed going forward, I'm just told to message on the day.

Well, I only found out today that I could get my medication OTC as long as I have a photocopy of my repeat prescription.

God forbid you need to go to the loo or put the bins out or clean out the cat litter tray or any number of tasks meaning you dont have the phone glued to your hands or cant pick up straight away even if you heard it.

The stress involved in these call backs is awful, I work in a job where Im in meetings or court most of the day, I cant just have my phone with me at all times in case they ring back, I cant take calls that easily.