NHS and emails - what is the issue???

[Starlightshine]

I have a rather rare medical condition. Not life threatening but chronic and painful. I managed to track down the leading consultant in the UK with regards to this condition, we had a private consultation over video call, he suggested a course of treatment but said the GP should do x, y, z blood tests, try these drugs out etcfirst to check for other conditions / easier treatments. He wrote all this down and emailed it over to me.

I call the GP practice to arrange a telephone consult to discuss, asked what email address to forward the email to to be told that they don’t have an email address, to find a printer (mine isn’t working), print the email, put it in the post, wait a few days and see if they have scanned it into my notes.

Is this normal? Surely it’s insanity???

Ours won't email. And then the hospital that my consultant is based at will insist on snail mail. The GP invariably doesn't get the letters or fails to scan them in. I offer to copy my copy, but they want an original. Drives me batty.
My Dad's appointments come by post. Again letters don't arrive or they arrive after the appointment date. This I suspect is the main reason for "no shows" not the fault of the patient.
Edited because I can't spell!

They might not have a generic email for the practice but the practice manager and reception staff/care coordinators will have their own NHS email.

Mostly email correspondence is from clinician to clinician not patient to clinician. That will open up a whole can of worms.

When reception staff contact patients it’s normally through AccurX text system, not email.

Print the email, if yours is broken then use a local library. Or ask the private consultant to email his requests directly to your GP.

I’m a healthcare professional who often needs to send referrals to GPs. Trying to get a surgery email address is like trying to get blood out of a stone.
My guess is they don’t want to give it out in case lots of people got hold of it and inundated them with messages since nobody can get through on the phone.

Our surgery don’t accept emails unless they have requested info and then they give you an address. If you screen shot the email can you attach it to a request for an econsult?

That's mad. My NHS GP had a secure messaging and document system. They text you a link and you can use it to upload or download messages, photos and letters. My GP recently used it to upload a referral letter I needed to see a specialist, I saved it to my One Drive and as I was seeing a private specialist I simply uploaded it on to our work health insurers online platform.

My surgery are brilliant - for decades now they have done phone consultations, and are very happy for you to email admin (not for appts or anything clinical). But I have just had my prescription renewed through email. (I am struggling to get the NHS app set up and they are fine for me to handle the repeat prescription by email). South-East England.

Yep! I was on an extended work trip in Asia when I found out I found out I was pregnant. I called my surgery to let them know I was pregnant and abroad. They advised I would need a 12 week appointment but I couldn’t select a date. Told them I wasn’t scheduled to be home until I was 14 weeks, so could they email me when the appointment came through and I would change my flight. The receptionist asked several people if this was possible. It was not. The postal service was the only means of correspondence (it was pre-NHS App). I just phoned them every few days until it appeared on their system.

They will have an email address, but some surgeries prefer to use emails for business emails only. Thus is to stop patients emailing in with their concerns, rather than book appointments through the official channels.

If you saw the consultant privately, then the gp may not carry out the blood tests if he seems it as a private blood test. They would expect the private consultant to arrange this.

However, if the gp is willing to discuss these alternative treatments, then that should be fine.

However, if it is an unusual condition, and outside the gp’s knowledge, , you may get referred to a consultant. Some medication is hospital only, partly due to the ongoing monitoring associated with it.

Yes this is very frustrating, mine is the same. When I had a letter requesting shared care the receptionist told me 'if they're a doctor they'll be able to find our email'

It's bizarre when there are clearly other GPs that do this! My GP has an online system for booking appointments, so I don't know why they can't do something similar and have an online portal for messages. Dark ages.

Because emails create a liability issue.

99% of people don't misuse an email but some do.

I've had people email me out of hours to say that they are going to kill themselves, people spam my email with abusive comments, leave incredibly important emails that get missed

If I miss an email of someone saying they have cardiac issues then I'm massively liable

If you call in then you either know your message isn't received and get a voicemessage explaining how to call 999 etc, or you're triaged by a receptionist. If someone calls in with something urgent then they'll get advise, passed to someone free etc

With an email it might wait for me to come back off from being sick, the person has no idea I haven't read it

Mine have an email system and a text service to send photos, it works really well.

In my area GPs have sent text reminders for appointments for a few years now.

Local hospitals now have an app and all appointments are on there, not email or text and no snail mail used. The app is not very user friendly. I would rather have the appointment times in a text rather than just a text telling me to look at the app.
Prior to the app, appointments were by text and clinic letters by email.

Nope, not just you and yes, agree it's crazy in this day and age.

I wanted to use the Right to Choose option for a private referral and had been having email correspondence with the private provider. The GP originally said they couldn't do the referral (another story about their general incompetence), so I wanted to forward them the email from the private provider which set out the process for the GP.

Obviously nope... So I had to make a special trip into the office on a day I usually work from home to print the damn email, then literally hand-deliver it to the GP 🤯

Also, they don't use e-consult nor the NHS app so there's no way of doing anything/finding anything out other than ringing the surgery.