Can't even phone to book an doctor's appointment anymore, what is happening?

[GPbloodyWha]

Recieved this text from GP.

Can no longer phone them to book an appointment.

So what happens? You send them a message and have to wait and hours and hours for them to decide if you're allowed to see them or not?

Is a GP sitting there reading hundreds of messages to see if they should allow a patient an appointment an improvement on their use of time??

Is this an econsult system? If so, my gp uses it & its fantastic.

You can do an econsult at anytime between 8am & 6pm Monday- Friday. They are trudged and you are contacted as appropriate. For urgent issues (wirh me & DC), I've been phoned within 1 hour of submitting it & either given same day appt, referral to another service or medication faxed to pharmacy.

For less urgent things, yiu will be contacted with 2 weeks, which is completely fine by me as its not urgent.

It is a much better system than telephoning. I'm either working or on a school run at 8.30am so was never able to get through on the phone.

My gp surgery has many faults, but only contacting the gp through econsult isn't one of them - its been a game changer for us.

I feel its really tough for older non-tech people, who are the people who probably need the appointments the most of any age group!

It works really well at my doctor’s. I just email at 7am and they usually reply with either the help I need or an appointment for the same day pretty quickly.

My surgery has been doing a similar system since the start of the pandemic. It actually works quite well, although if you've got a real non A&E emergency you can ring for an urgent appointment. But you get triaged by a receptionist doing it that way, whereas the econsult is reviewed by a doctor.

Our doctors have the same system and it works really well. I message them through the app and they reply straight away. If it’s a rash or something I can send a photo and they’ll just write me a prescription and I pick it up that day. If it’s worrisome they’ll get me an appointment that day. If it can wait they will send me an appointment for a week or so.

it’s honestly so much better than ringing.

My GP have done this and its fantastic. I always get an appointment and don't have to sit in a bloody queue on the phone all morning only to find the appointments are gone.

There's still the option to call if you can do the online form though.

I don't actually understand what was wrong with asking for a routine appointment within 2 weeks. Why is this no longer possible anywhere? We don't always need a same day appointment, that's for urgent matters.

It's better than having to ring 200 times at 8.30 trying to get through as you do school run with kids or commenting to work

My GP does this and it's fabulous.

It's much better. I've also found that my non medical queries are also answered much quicker so must be more efficient for people behind the scenes.

I've also had an appointment within 3 days of request and can receive blood test results online.

My old surgery did this and it was wonderful. Like others have said it avoids the need to wait on phone (sometimes for around 5 hours at mu current gp) only to then be told there are no triage slots left or just simply cut off.

If done well, online is much more accessible especially if you are working and clears up the phone lines for those who really need to use them. Plus triage by a medical professional rather than a receptionsit should be better too. I think all GPS should be going it tbh.

Family member of mine has to either phone or send a message to their GP between 8 and 8.10. After 8.10 no more web messages will be accepted. It's an utter disgrace.

We have this and it works REALLY well. When I’ve had something seriously wrong, they’ve arranged face-to-face appointments within hours. When there’s something less urgent, they do same day or next day phone calls and if after speaking to you, they think they need to see you in person, they’ll bring you in that day. If you need a doctor’s note renewing, you can request it online too and they’ll text you the fit note as a pdf. If it’s something that isn’t urgent, they’ll see you in a few days. Honestly, it’s miles better than calling at 8.30am and fighting to get through the queue then begging the receptionist to be seen.

I don’t understand- this is effectively eConsult which have been in place since Covid- and actually more time effective for triaging peoples issues, and designed to red flag any serious issues so that these are either redirected to A&E or a walk in centre, repeated prescriptions can be issued if safe to do so based on the information you have provided. There are safety nets built in as well with this system to prevent anyone not being responded to. No system is perfect of course and human error is always a possibility, and it’s not ideal for anyone sight or hearing affected or the non tech users amount the patient population. It is becoming increasingly common and is often very effective. Try it and see how it works for you before deciding that it’s rubbish maybe?

Our online service is shit. It's full by around 8:30 am so you can't submit an enquiry if you are late. Then the response is a text saying you'll get a text or phonecall two weeks later. Two weeks later a text arrives. There's no chance to discuss whether things have got worse or better. No vocal interaction with anyone medical.

Loads of people are saying this is brilliant. Hope my gp gets it soon! Would be so much better as I start work at 8.30 usually in meetings so cannot call and wait around for ages only to be told no appointments.

@Towerofsong ours is the same. It used to be econsult, now it's patches. Econsult would accept requests all day, Patches only until all slots are full. We normally end up at a walk in centre that refers us to A&E.

This happened to my mother who is in her 80s and can't do much online. I spoke to the practice manager and asked how they were ensuring that GP services were accessible to all including the elderly and vulnerable who have limited internet access. In the end she agreed that my mother could book appointments in person at the practice and put a note on her record to this effect. It seems to work ok with the odd blip which is easily resolved.

My mums doctors does this, I guess it frees up receptionist time and saves patients holding the line which is frustrating. If it’s urgent you should still get a same day appointment or call at least to discuss. I guess they are trying new ways of working as people’s top complaint re their GP surgery is ringing and ringing and can’t get through. Often at an inconvenient time. There’s no more money right now for more staff to answer and moving to an online system seems sensible. How it will work in practice remains to be seen but my mum has gone a same day appointment through the new system there when it was urgent. None urgent you’ll be given next available appointment

We also have this sort of system, with a choice of doctor/practitioner, you can upload photos of rash/swelling or whatever and request a face to face appointment, email or phone call. It’s usually answered within a couple of hours with some solution. It’s worked really well so far.

It’s discriminatory to people unable to access the internet for one reason or another. Very ill thought out. Not to mention literacy as a barrier.

id ring them and say I didn’t have access to the internet as I don’t have Wi-Fi. So ask them for how you contact them.

I would also complain to the local authority who regulates the GPs.

I hope they are going to keep phone calls for elderly or vulnerable people or those who don't have access to internet.

I personally would find it easier than making a phone call, but I'm sure there will be some that will struggle.

Ours recently introduced same , but we can submit from 6am! It gets triaged by a member of the team , not necessarily even a hcp!

We have this system and it works much better for us. Whenever we called the surgery at 8am opening time we would sit in a queue for 1hour whilst trying to get children ready for school etc and then by 9am when we got to the front of the queue all the appointments had gone anyway and the only option was to submit one of these forms. You can give a really detailed description of your problem and add photos and when the GP calls you back they've had time to think about your problem and look back at your history. I found that for us not only does it cut the time waiting in a queue but also resulted in a more effective consultation with the doctors. Obviously there are issues with accessibility for certain groups of people but I would like to think requests for exceptions can be made.

It’s great but there need to be exceptions for those who are not able to use online services or have complex queries