To wonder if other Drs surgeries are as shit as mine

[Ohmegerd]

I've been unwell since January. Horrible hacking cough, burning lungs and i suspected it's a chest infection. Managed to make a doctors appointment at the time but they could only offer a phone consultation despite me calling at 8am sharp after being on hold for 45 minutes. Was told GP can ring anytime between 12pm and 8pm. Not ideal to be worrying all afternoon incase I miss the call but hey. GP did indeed ring and prescribed antibiotics, advising cough will improve slowly itself. Antibiotics made a slight difference and I muddled through a busy month of Feb in the hope I'd start feeling better.

Over the past few days I'm struggling again. I fall asleep but suddenly awaken gagging and unable to swallow. It's freaked me out and then I'm too anxious to go back to sleep. Horrible spluttering cough which leaves me feeling lightheaded. Chest hurts. Bladder seems to have given up on me and I'm leaking atleast once day after an episode. Rang GP yestrday but to no avail. Re-attempted this morning 8am sharp and after 25 minutes on hold again offered a phone consultation. I insisted on a face to face app but none left. I feel so fed up and upset. It's an absolute shitshow. Wtf will it take to be able to actually see a doctor??

Try your urgent treatment centre in your area

TBF, there's a lot of it about. I've had it, I'm asthmatic and it's shit, but you've got to ride it through.

… and yet you get to the GP surgery and it’s like a ghost town! Nobody there except the receptionist.

To answer the question in your title, no, not all surgeries are the same. The surgery where I am a patient and the surgery where I work both offer a better service than this. I had to go for an appointment this week and the waiting room was nearly full.

@Gingernaut yes I've been trying to but it's just not shifting and I feel awful. Going to see what GP says on the phone, and if unhelpful I will go to the urgent care (even if it means sitting there for 6 hours!) Tbf the surgery GPs are decent which is why I haven't switched surgeries. nobody locally seems happy with theirs so there doesn't seem much point in switching either.

@EmilyTjP exactly! I remember the days the waiting room would be filled and we'd still get to see the GP on the day.

Same here. Get the odd person so see the nurse but absolutely nobody to see any GP.

They just be snowed under making phone calls at mine I think.

Most GP practices are telephone appointments first then they will bring you in if they need to. Mine are and I have never had a problem. Most appointments are just talking anyway and if they want to check anything in person they can then organise it. It's not a bad system, it's just new.

My mother died because she was unable to see a doctor in person, or to get any tests. She was constantly told, for over a year, by a GP on the phone that her painful chest and breathlessness was due to a pulled muscle. It wasn’t. It was terminal lung cancer. The outcome probably would have been the same, but she needn’t have been in pain for so long.

@Aydel that’s awful, I’m so sorry.

Our GP practice is currently refusing to answer the phone as it is trying to get everyone to use the app. Which means that elderly patients who don’t have smart phones will never manage to get an appointment. Apparently they can get someone else to do it for them.

Yes, ours is the same. GPS seem very uninterested. I feel that there's no actual GPS in the surgery. You phone at 8 and hold. This is for a telephone appointment. It is possible to book a nurse appointment online. That's it. No follow up, even for DH who is chronically ill.

Mine has an econsult system. The dr then calls and invites you in if needed. It all happens on the day you just need to complete the econsult before 11 am. I find this a really good system.

Please pay to see a GP if you can afford to as a one off. You sound unwell and need urgent treatment. It saved my mums hearing when the GP told her she had arthritis Fucking idiot

Also make a complaint to PALS. If everyone was doing this the service would be overwhelmed and something would be done.

I'm really sorry to read that.

thats awful and should be challenged.

I'm so sorry @aydel it does make me wonder how many people are unnecessarily suffering or their condition has worsened because of the ballache that seeing a GP properly involves.

At ours you can phone, but they triage you and if they think you need a doctor they will give you an appointment or they will refer you to a local pharmasist.
if yor unhappy you should insist on an appointment or go down to the surgery.

In my surgery the phone consultation doesn't lead to a face to face. If the GP feels the need to see a patient for more investigation they tell u to ring the next day or if serious to go to urgent care/a&e.

For me the waking up choking/gagging/unable to breathe was acid reflux caused by a hiatus hernia. It was absolutely awful. And irritated my lungs terribly the next day, I assume I was aspirating some of the acid.

I take medication for it now, and lost a lot of weight, and it rarely happens now. Definitely worth asking about.

Doctors at my surgery pick their hours and none of them work a full week - 1 or 2 days a week is common. With the increase in number of people registered at surgeries it is no wonder that there aren't the appointments available.

Thats interesting, I have family history of gastric issues and reflux. I will definitely keep that in mind. My cough wasn't a result of a cold/flu, I seemed to develop it out of the blue one day in Jan.

Can they prescribe you things over the phone?

Their system sounds shocking 🤦‍♀️

My GP's is great. Rang up today for DD9 with earache, seen by 11:15am with a prescription. I'm asthmatic and get frequent chest infections. I dont ring up everytime, just try to power through some of them but the times I have rang up I've been prescribed steroids, antibiotics or both over the phone.

The dysphasgia - inability to swallow - comes as a result of the persistent reflux. Mine all came to a head when my oesophageal muscles went into spasm one night and I couldn't even swallow my own saliva. Had to be admitted to hospital and given muscle relaxants by IV.

After that I had a barium swallow and was given Lansaprazole.

Yes I was prescribed antibiotics in January. He wasn't certain if it was a chest infection but suspected it may well be.

I had bronchitis last year and had issues with urine leakage too. It took 4months for the cough to go and to build up my stamina again. No issues with leakage since.

I phoned for an appointment at the time it was a phone in the morning situation. I got an appointment that afternoon with a nurse practitioner which pointed to viral bronchitis. Chest sounded clear but they ordered an x-ray anyway as i had had the cough more than 6 weeks

The surgery has since moved to an online form we have used it twice. My partner got an appointment with a physio the afternoon after phoning with a bad back. My daughter was seen 3h after filling the form in with a query UTI. Both started after 8.00 am and with the old system all the appointments would have gone and we would have had to wait until the next day. We also have a pharmacist at the surgery which has resolved several of our problems without any needing a GP or nurse appointment

@OneBigShenanigan did you have excessive phlegm build up aswell? I have always had post nasal drop and forever clearing my throat. But this is next level.