Doctor’s surgery is now using AI for appointments- not working

[Cnthnfne]

my GP surgery will now text a patient a form if they want an appoint. You need to fill in the form explaining why you need an appointment, it will be reviewed by a doctor and a receptionist will phone to arrange an appointment.
it is now not possible to book an appointment with a receptionist.
sent in a form early yesterday morning and I haven’t heard back. I will now need to phone them to chase up.
would take 3 mins under the old system. Plus, no allowances for people who don’t have mobile or don’t know how to use the internet: the elderly or the most vulnerable.

Our GP uses PATCHS and it is shite! Receptionists cannot make you an appointment anymore. The system is usually unavailable due to "reaching capacity" and when you do manage to fill in the stupid form in the style of a chatbot, you might hear back in a couple of weeks for an appointment 2 weeks on from that. Totally shite.

Except where they don't.

I had to ask 3 times via the online form for a medication (an ointment at a moderate strength) that had mysteriously disappeared from my 'repeat' list.

Eventually I got a call from a 'care navigator' to say a GP would ring me. Ten days later a GP rang me. The GP didn't know why she was ringing me. I explained, and she prescribed the medication.

Or so she said.

I've just checked systm.online and it's completely the wrong medication.

And so we start all over again ... wasting so much professional time, theirs and mine. All for a tube of fucking ointment.

This works well at our GP - I especially like the fact hat you can add photos, specify a preference for who you want to see, and specify preferred times/contact methods.

The only thing I don't understand is why the triage form is closed when the surgery is closed, but that may have been answered elsewhere on the thread.

Anecdotally it's much quicker to get an appt at my surgery, where we have this system, than at my parents' surgery, where you call for an appt and usually have to wait at least 1-2 weeks, and the lines are always busy

Except of course if you are registered with a surgery where you can't specify a particular GP, or preferred times and contact methods! And where the system has 'reached capacity' 4 minutes after it's opened. Like mine 🙄

Well exactly, @BatshitCrazyWoman - that's why I said it works well at our GP,, but I can understand it must be very frustrating if the right functionality isn't there. Do you have a patient liaison/focus group you could lobby?

This is a rubbish not very inclusive system but its not AI