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??

Data published by NHS England shows that for the year to October 2023, there were 50.9 million additional general practice appointments delivered when compared to October 2019.

My entire point is that activity is being inflated by pointless additional contacts with nurses and other staff, brief telephone appointments which need to be repeated, etc where in the past one in person appointment would have resolved the issue.

I work in the NHS and I've seen this in other areas. Activity looks great but in reality the situation is shit.

There are not enough GPs. Allied health professionals are needed because of demand, and the government are incentivising surgeries to employ them. Perhaps you have needed to see more than 1 HCP but there are a lot of people who can be managed effectively by other team members.

The rhetoric that GPs are fobbing people off when patients don’t get exactly what they want is damaging. If we dish out antibiotics to everyone then we’re irresponsible and contributing to antibiotic resistance, but if we don’t we are fobbing everyone off. Can’t win, and I can totally see why my colleagues are leaving the NHS in droves.

I had a really bad chest and sinus infection last October. Rang the surgery at 7.55 and finally got in a queue at 8am. I was 17th in the queue
gets to 8.40 and 3rd in the queue. Phone line cuts off
Rang back and 16th in the queue. Finally got answered at 9.10 to be told no appointments and to ring back the next day
tried nhs 111 online. Filled in the form and it came up with ‘someone will call within the hour’
I got a call at 10.10PM. So over 12 hours later.
They arranged for the surgery to call me the following day and I got antibiotics prescribed over the phone by the gp who called at 9.20am the next day.
Changed GP surgery that day as I was fuming. Moved to the one my parents are at

Had another chest infection in December. Phoned new surgery at 8am and was seen face to face at 9.20am that day.
Have some ongoing issues with something else that has flared up in the last month so did the online consultation last Wednesday. Had a text link to book on Thursday and saw a gp yesterday and meds issued. Cannot fault the new surgery at all. GP was on time, really listened, had a look at a couple of things I’d mentioned as I don’t think he was familiar with the issue, had read my notes so knew what the hospital had suggested regarding pain relief and told me what wasn’t suitable and what he suggested and how it was a safer option. Never had an appointment on time before at the old surgery. Always at least 20 minutes late and I even got missed at one appointment and sat for two hours begging someone saw me.

wish I’d changed earlier

Your symptoms sound like whooping cough to me - it’s ripping through our local population like wildfire. Waking up in the middle of the night feeling like you can’t breathe is classic WC 😢

This is why I wanted to be seen face to face. So GP can listen to my chest, check my temperature etc as fuck knows really what it is. I hinted at a reflux possibility and he wasted no time clicking away a prescription for antacids!

Sorry about my language 😣I'm sat here coughing my lungs out and feeling extremely annoyed.

I accept that they are under great pressure, but I don't think telling patients they are not receiving a shit service is the way to go. And I also am not convinced all the extra activity by nurses etc is productive.

I have the opposite problem to a previous poster – the surgery refuses to use the app so if you want an appointment you have to ring up and wait in a queue until you get cut off, then ring again and wait and wait until you give up. It's such a waste of everyone's time, including the practice staff.

Once I actually get to see my doctor she is lovely!

Practices are more relevant on nurses as there aren’t enough GP’s to cover the appointments.

We are getting the service that the government has made provision for. It’s highly variable depending on location and the intricacies of how each practice is run. Unfortunately when the practices are overwhelmed and firefighting each day there is no capacity to implement changes.

This! I've been with my GP surgery for 25 years. It was one of the best in my city back in the day. Now it's the 6th worst rated in the COUNTRY!

Oh wow I'm so sorry. I really hope you spoke to at least one of those GPs afterwards and informed them how wrong they were? So that they can be more responsible in future

Use the econsult on their website, fastest way to get seen at mine

So they say and yet no real life person sees this in real life.

Bit of a rabbit away imo. Figures on a screen mean fuck all when people are dying who may not need to die. Gp waiting rooms with tumbleweeds dont say more people being seen.

My DC was prescribed antibiotics for a cough over the phone; the worst thing was that I didn't even speak to a doctor, it was the receptionist who said she would get the GP to prescribe them!😮DC had had the cough for five weeks and it wasn't improving, so they may have been clinically appropriate, but I'm not sure I even gave that much information to the receptionist who didn't have the ability to make that decision anyway

My old gp was great. Inner city but if you called at 8am the sensible reception staff would triage you for face to face or phone. I always got an appointment. Non serious stuff you could do an E request and got an appointment or answer.

new GP failed to put my medication on repeat as they wanted a blood test. 3 months of me asking how before my medicine ran out so I was organised and someone in the surgery forgot to ask me to get a blood test first. I was without medication for 4 weeks as they didn’t seem to want to help. I complained and the practice manager told me they wouldn’t prioritise my important meds as I disengaged with the service months ago. Not true.

finally got my meds after I went in and spoke to someone higher. Turns out they tried to cover their mistake by lying. Terrible service

My surgery doesn’t have E-consult! It’s call at 8am, be on hold for over an hour if you don’t get cut off first (so only possible if I’m not in the office, and I’m only allowed to wfh twice a week), then be told there are no appointments left. If you call before 8 you get a recorded message telling you the surgery is closed. I need a blood test from the nurse to check for vitamin B deficiency, a private online GP told me so, but they can’t do blood tests so I have to go back to the NHS. I got hold of a receptionist one afternoon and was told that they can’t make any appointments with the nurse until I’ve seen a doctor and that the private GP doesn’t count. Even if I eventually get through on the phone at 8, I know it’s not as urgent as other requests so I won’t be triaged early either.

Massively unimpressed with my surgery at the moment. I’ve had pneumonia a number of times , and I know exactly what it feels like every time. Did the patient triage thing , eventually get called back 6 hours later, and grudgingly given an appointment . Turn up, and the woman says to me “well what do you want me to do ? “ - and dismisses me home with the “its the virus everyone has got , there’s nothing I can do “ - went home feeling thoroughly dismissed . The next day , I was driven to A and E by work, because I couldn’t breath. Surprise surprise . Chest x ray showed pneumonia , and ended up in hospital with some heavy duty antibiotics. When I complained to the surgery , it turned out that the Dr , I saw , was actually a paramedic . At no point was I informed of this, and I do wonder how many people are walking round thinking they’re seeing doctors , when they’re not.

Sorry you're feeling so bad.

I phoned mine recently to be told there were NO appointments at all in the next six weeks. This means I will have to stop the tablet trial I'm on (because I can't get a repeat prescription without seeing the doctor first).

I now also need my cholesterol levels checked fairly urgently. I've got an appointment in 5 weeks' time to see the doctor just so he can order a blood test -- then another 5 week wait for an appointment for the results... (the receptionist wouldn't let me just have the blood test first).

This type of thing USED to be done and dusted in a few days, not 3 months!

Yours is far better than mine. At ours:

• can’t make same day appointments
• don’t do phone consultations
• e-consult (where you fill out a form) either isn’t put on everyday or runs out at 8:01 from the 8:00 start time
• if by some miracle you get an appointment it’s never with a gp it’s with a guy who can do some stuff but not mjcj

essentially you need to pre plan being ill and predict your symptoms to be bad enough you’ll actually get to see a doctor.

Whilst of course they may well have been needed it's by no means certain even at 5 weeks. You were obviously absolutely right to seek medical assessment for a cough not improving at all at 5 weeks duration, my thought is thought that they should have been examined not just prescribed to over the phone.

It can be a bronchitis, which normally lasts in the region of 3-4 weeks buts it's not uncommon to last a week or 2 longer - antibiotics only shorten symptoms by 1 day (of an average 21-28day infection), and sinusitis which is generally expected to resolve in 12 weeks (but can last longer) and is also not routinely managed with antibiotics. Could also be allergies, asthma... of course the consultation so it's possible to get a good idea of what's going on over the phone, but there's always occasionally surprises when you see them f2f - there's certainly been a few occasions where I've brought a child in following call with parents 'just needs some antibiotics cough won't go" who sounded mildly unwell in the call, only to see them and they're actually really unwell not maintaining their oxygen saturations/need hospital care.

It's increasingly important to only issue antibiotics when indicated and we need to see a big reduction in their use as evidence shows they're still very much over prescribed in this country, although we are doing better than many.

I've been having issues with my blood pressure - several backwards and forwards with me sending in readings and new medications or dosages prescribed.
I finally found out how to send in my latest readings as requested, so sent them in yesterday (after my latest dosage increase to see how it was going). I had a reply to ask for an appointment, so duly requested one today.
The reply? We're busy. Ask them another day. I'll try two more times (not easy for me as the surgery opens when I'm travelling to work so will be way down the queue by the time I get to work). Then, I'll send a message to say I've tried and if it's that important, they'll have to contact me. The whole system has gone down the pan.
And my local pharmacy which is usually brilliant is massively over-stretched, so has been working two weeks behind due to another one locally closing (my next nearest is a twenty-five minute drive away), and has now managed to get to ten days behind. They don't answer the phone to tell you if your prescription is ready as they are so busy, so it's a lottery as to if your prescription is ready.
It's shite.

They're still a little behind in these things. We can use the app for ordering repeats, checking blood test results etc but for appointments it's the medieval method of ringing early morning and listening to that awful music as we wait in line. They changed the surgery number recently and now we don't even know what position we're in.

There is also the whole controversy about PAs being used in some surgeries and being given WAY more responsibility than they should. Came across some of it on twitter aswell by some concerned doctors. That is another worry.