Caller number 31 in the queue?!

[tiredmama23]

On hold to my GP surgery currently. The automated voice just told me I'm caller number 31 in the queue 😲 Is it just me or is this a bit mental? I know phone lines are busy in the morning and I'm used to being number 10-15 ish in the queue at busy times. But 31?! I don't even live in a busy city either, we live quite rurally. Is this length of queue normal in other areas?!

And there in lies some of the problem. General lurgie should either be treated at home (there's a lot to be said for the passage of time, resting up a bit and some paracetamol) and for other minor ailments pharmacies are a good place to go.

😮
I give up at ours if I'm lower than 5 in the list. Although part of that is that half the time you never seem to move position in the queue.

What really winds me up is after the very long message suggesting you can do online stuff (not yet had anything where that is any help) or to call 999 if it's an emergency (do they really need to say that?) it then says "press 1 for test results, 2 for nurse appointments..... and 9 for a doctor's appointment".
They all go through to the same person. So it is a total waste of time because the same person picks up. You have to wait until the end of the list before you can press the button too.
It's not even as though the computer then tells the receptionist what the person is phoning for. It's just a ponsy way of looking as though they have far more people answering than they do.

Better than contacting British gas, I was 307th in the queue last week.

They're doing a lot to try and reduce it. Using Nurse prescribers, pharmacy prescribers, telephone consultations (because they can deal with A LOT) more patients that way. In my area we have 1 GP per 20,000 people funded. Have a week like the current one where they're receiving 9 times the normal level of calls (at the surgery I use. I asked them when I called today). Doctors working 70 hour weeks (for no extra money). More people with complex illnesses, an aging population. It's been a disaster waiting to happen. They're also bringing in other roles.

But unfortunately, the bulk can only be done by qualified Doctors. And you can't force people to be a GP. Medical students just don't want to become GP's. Good GP's what is needed. They've increased the number of places available at medical school, but they're still taking time to qualify.

Yeah get used to it. Primary care is imploding. I don’t think it will exist in 10 years time, perhaps sooner.

I work in it. I love my job but it’s horrendous and getting worse.

The last time I called I was 76, 45 minutes on hold during the school run, called as soon as phone lines opened, and it cut out when I got to caller number 1.

Absolute routine for a GP here where I am, in fact lucky to not be in the 50s seconds after the phone lines open at 8am, and has been the case for years. But that’s probably because the local plan in 2015/16 demanded 17,000 houses be built before 2030 - and they’re well on their way and on target for that - with another 13,000 to come before 2040, and that plan hasn’t included a single extra GP surgery, hospital expansion or school build. I’m not sure what anyone thought was going to happen tbh…

My practice has a 10-12 am slot for calling for urgent appointments and each one is triaged so it takes ages for your turn. They do have a call back system now though and last time I waited an hour. Sometimes urgent queries are solved then and there, other times I get a call back from a GP. Can’t get an appointment with my own GP for love or money though, which means no continuity at all with long term health condition and things have gone wrong sometimes. I consider myself lucky with my practice on the whole.

What's quicker to hang on for 29 in the queue or get a call back?

Whoever voted Tory / Brexit- you brought this on us. Thanks!

If it takes 9 years to train a doctor then you cant entirely blame it on conservatives. Labour should have been training more as it must/should have been clear that there was going to be an ageing population.

Queue number 148 this morning 🙄

I rang for my son earlier. One call ahead and have an appointment for 10am. Feel quite lucky reading some of the replies.

Yep. I work in the NHS but for reasons that are totally unknown to me as a lowly band, my Trust doesn't use the same IT system as the GPs and acute hospitals around here. Therefore we can see bog all of information held by GPs etc... and we have to ring up and ask for this information and sit in the same telephone queue as everyone else for a lot of practices.

There are weeks it seems like half my working life is spent sat on hold to GP surgeries!

You can try to get an emergency prescription using this service:

111.nhs.uk/emergency-prescription

But if you are due a review then they may not be able to do it

@dreamingofsun. Tories have been in power 13 years. It is them. And everyone that voted Tory is responsible. Own it. You voted for this mess.

Sorry but I'm beyond angry. How anyone voted Tory in 2017 and 2019 is utterly beyond me. They actually said we are bringing in Austerity, the only thing they actually delivered on, and people voted them in!! I cannot believe it. Can't. 🤯

I spent 3 weeks trying to get a repeat prescription for an extra month as I am travelling. For meds I have been on for 3 years. Email, phone calls, econsult, finally a phone appt with the practice pharmacist who can't prescribe. Today I caved in and got a private Px. £64. But if I don't take my meds my chronic condition will flare up and I will be really unwell. Luckily I had the money to pay. What happens to people who can't?

IT is a nightmare. Everywhere. Did you used to be able to see it all on one e system?

You can get repeat prescriptions on the nhs app.
Have you registered?

How about, for a start, GPs covering a 7 day service? Including late nights and bank holidays? May not be popular amongst GPs but people are not sick Mon - Fri only. Closures over the christmas period cause an enormous amount of pressure on the emergency and community services, I know because I work in it last winter was hell on earth.

Yes. I needed an extra month due to travel. Not possible using the usual channels.

I think this system of having to call at 8am is absolutely mental. I don't understand why you can't make non urgent appointments in advance. For some things I wouldn't mind having to wait a couple of weeks for an appointment so why do I still need to clog up the 8am queue?

I am actually very good at getting appointments. I have a system and I know exactly which numbers to press and when to make sure that at exactly 8am I'm in the system. I'm usually in the top 5 in the calling queue. However, I feel so bad for people who can't do this. I know plenty of people who just never get an appointment. For months. My parents, for instance, are just not quick enough and usually I make their appointments now but what about all these people who just don't get appointments? You shouldn't have to be able to game the system to get an appointment.

The other day my phone hung for a few seconds. I was still in the queue before 8:01 but it might have been 8:00:50 or something and I was called number 14.

This all started with Tony Blair when he said everyone should be able to get an appointment within a day. GPs responded by changing the system so that people couldn't book ahead because the way the data were compiled made no distinction between the reasons for the length of waiting time.
I remember him being challenged on a TV programme by a woman in the audience and he just looked blank. It was clear that nobody had thought it through.

It's because each individual Trust, or GP surgery are basically set up as a separate business and each one procures their own system. When the NHS was broken down into Trusts they became much more self governing.
The patient information system used in GP surgeries will be very different to the ones used in acute care.

A number of years ago there was an attempt to join them all up, and at a minimum data share, but there was an enormous outcry from the public and then the budget exploded.