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??

our GP has similar system - except you fill in the form and no one rings you . Last week my daughter had an allergic reaction to something that made her face feel like it was burning and started getting puffy although not to the extreme or I would have called an ambulance . Took her to the pharmacist to get some anti histamines , pharmacist took one look and said to see her doctor

So we walked straight next door into the GP’s and explained. Daughter standing right there , but no , we have to take photos , then email them to this email address , then someone will look at them and call us back . All day we waited for the call and nothing . By evening , she was worse . NHS 111 gets called at 10pm , takes details and says out of hours will call sometime between midnight and 6am . At 2am they call - and suggest we either try to get an appt in the morning , or come now . So at 3am , we are at the out of hours , getting different anti histamines , which eventually seem to do the trick over the next few days.

Can’t get an appointment for love nor money, but they keep badgering me to go for a bloody health check. I’m not bothering . Even if there was something wrong with me , it’s not like I’d get to see a doctor .

I remember when it wasn’t this difficult .

Our surgery introduced an Econsult system just after Covid. I have found it brilliant. You can still ring for an appointment but will wait for ages on the phone and often find that there are no appts left once you get through. Hopefully if enough people use the Econsult, it will free up the phone lines for those who can’t use the internet.

Like PPs, I usually hear back the same day or within a couple of days if it’s something routine. Often it’s just a case of letting you know they’ve prescribed something for you and which chemist to collect it from. Or they’ll say they want to see you or will do a phone appointment with you, or they’ve booked you in for a blood test or what not. Saves a lot of unnecessary appointments I think. I used it a few months back when I found a lump in an intimate place! Filled in the econsult in the morning and was examined by a GP later that day.

It helps that my surgery has joined forces with several other local surgeries so now if they decide they definitely need to see you, they can book you in at one of the sister surgeries if they can’t fit you in at the local one.

We have an online triage form - but it can only be used during opening hours - by 8.30am they usually shut it down as they have reached their clinical capacity for the day
If you are unable to complete the online triage form you can ring but all that does is that someone will complete the form on your behalf - so if full then they just tell you to ring 111 or try again tomorrow
There are no pre bookable appointments either unless for things like smears, asthma or diabetes reviews etc
More than once I’ve had to ring 111 who have then forced them to offer me an appointment
I have tried to change practices but there is only one other nearby (rural area) and they said they are full to capacity

As I said in a different post, I struggle with completing forms, so it takes me a lot longer than most people would take. It's also a very long form with multiple pages, not dissimilar to the 111 online form, as a previous poster mentioned (sorry, I forget who).

This 100%. It's impossible at my GP as well, the choices are call at 8:30 and try to get an appointment on the same day whenever they can see you, which is impossible to plan for (I work full time starting from 8) or wait 5 weeks for a "routine" appointment, which I'm not sure what is for,, but it's way too long for me, once I decide I need to see someone, because I dread calling and explaining to the receptionist why I need to be seen so I put it off as much as I can. All in all, I hate the current GP system and I wish I could hook online to see the GP in 2 weeks.

This is the case for those in some of the country already. They do still allow for people to ring who don't have access to IT/elderly etc

I'm not the slightest bit surprised - as I said in one of my earlier posts this is an absolute disaster waiting to happen...

Exactly!

Oh yes, I love the Patient Access website. Unfortunately, they have thrown the baby out with the bathwater and removed the ability to book any appts that way, whether urgent or routine. It was so easy to book routine appts on Patient Access - I could select the doctor, day and time, with no complicated form and without having to battle with a receptionist on the phone. Luckily, I can still order my repeat prescriptions that way, and pray that they don't remove that too!

Ah, that's what it was, Patient Access! No notification that it was no longer in use either. Was v good.

We have that system and have done since before COVID

I agree, that's a great system and please bring it back! But that is not what we're complaining about. You can't see any appts on this new system. You have to complete a really long form and hope that someone gets back to you at some unspecified time/day to offer you an appt. It's worse if you just want to book a routine appt, for 3 weeks' time for example.

This sounds amazing!! I've been trying the 8am rush for an appointment every day this week so far!

Indeed. I kept looking for routine appts on Patient Access and it kept saying none were available at this time. After a couple of months, I contacted the surgery, who said "Oh yes, the new Klinik triage system applies to both urgent and routine appts" 🙄

We have this system now. You are given a time for the Doctor to call. I had a telephone appointment after completing the form. It was supposed to be between 9-10 am on a particular day. Call didn’t come until 12.00 by which time I was in an area with terrible signal. I don’t know how people who work full time manage as you can’t now pre book an appointment. When I was working, if it wasn’t urgent, I’d just book the earliest appointment in the day I could get even if it was 3 weeks away and then go into work. You can’t do that now. You just are given a day/time by text message if it is deemed you need an appointment after completing the form.

We have this and it works superbly. Best thing they did. It means that people who need the appointments actually get seen.. Dr's can also prwscive what you need based on symptoms etc.

I'm sorry but it's not true that the new system is more accessible for those with disabilities. Lots of fairly common conditions, both individual conditions or co-morbid ones, can cause someone to have difficulty with completing forms and also have trouble making phone calls. For example, depression, autism, anxiety. So if you can't access the online form for whatever reason, phoning the surgery is not necessarily an accessible alternative.

My GP has had this for over 2 years now - you have to use a platform called AskMyGP. But you have to be very quick off the mark because once they have x number of requests it closes for the day automatically.

However what they don't tell you is that if you do not have computer access you CAN still telephone. Otherwise they are breaching the Equalities Act for those who have protected characteristic, such as the elderly, by not making reasonable adjustments (the reasonable adjustment here being allowing phone calls).

I was unable to sign by elderly parents up to AskMyGP so when they need an appointment I just telephone, or they do. Although the recorded message that you have to listen to before being put through to a human also tells you that you cannot make an appointment by phone, you can.

I quite like AskMyGP, in general it's worked well for me and the DCs, you can attach photos and there's space for an explanation and it often allows them to sort out what you need without an appointment.

I had a similar experience to @plominoagain.
The pharmacist couldn’t help me and told me to see a doctor asap. I walked across the street to my doctors, stood at Reception near to tears as I was in a lot of pain. The Receptionist told me that I couldn’t make an appointment in person and I had to go home to book an appointment online. Bonkers.

I'm pretty sure you can make in-person appointments at our surgery still.

My gp surgery is great, our phone lines are open for 2 1/2 hours in the morning and again in the afternoon. You wait in the queue and speak to the doctor directly over the phone. We are kept informed of our queue position while we are waiting and I have never waited longer than 15 minutes. Most of the time if you need antibiotics or something they just leave a prescription at reception without being seen and if you do need to see the doctor , you are seen the same day.

I have always said I might have been dead now when just telephone appointments only were offered, with this new way of doing things I now think I actually would have died, I have posted this before so will be brief, basically I had been unwell two GP appoints hadn't helped first said reaction to anti biotics second a week later said virus, 5 days after the virus diagnosis my DH took me to A&E the triage nurse refused even to let me see a Dr and threw me out, I got an emergency appointment with the practise nurse who immediately fetched the GP the same one who had seen me less than a week before, because I was in front of him he could immediately see how much I had deteriorated got me back to A&E, I had SEPSIS my body was at the point of shutting down I nearly died.

A phone appointment would not have alerted the GP to how much worse I was, he wouldn't have seen how much weight I had lost in less than a week it would have been even worse under this scheme.

I did read somewhere that if a GP doesn’t allow phone appointments as well as online form then they are breaching their GP contract with the NHS. The thing is I don’t think they openly say you can phone. They do try to funnel everyone through the online route.

My elderly uncle would be capable of learning but why should he? It would involve buying a laptop or tablet and paying for internet/data that he would only use to contact the GP.

You can message on behalf of someone else so you could message on behalf of an elderly relative.

Why should the elderly have to share their medical information with someone else? To use my Uncle as an example, he's 88 and quite capable of sorting out his own appointments without sharing information with me.

My mum is the same. She doesn't even own an internet connected phone, ipad or laptop. She;d have to ring me and ask me to fill the forms in for her.

I think adding the option of online appointments or similar is a great thing. Having it as the only option is not a good thing.