Dr's phone calls when you work

[Hateam]

To get an appointment with my GP I have to log onto a website at 8am and hope to get a phone call sometime that day.

What do people who have jobs where they are not allowed to take personal phone calls do?

I'm a teacher, my neighbour is a bus driver.

AIBU to suggest this system doesn't work for many working people?

I'm not a teacher. I'm a dental hygienist. I don't have "holidays" like that. At my practice they usually request I give them at least 3 months notice for holiday dates because the diary is booked up with patients at least 3 months in advance. They are fairly understanding though. If it was urgent and there was nothing I could do they would reluctantly cancel all my patients (who tend to complain a LOT when you do that short notice as a lot of them have taken annual leave to see me). I don't get sick or holiday pay as I'm self employed so however I took it it would still be unpaid. I do however have one day off a week when I try to book all my appointments in. But as is the point of this thread, the doctors will not listen to you to see you on that day off. Even if you tell them you're happy to wait weeks.
As a self employed person I have no employment rights. Should I piss off my practice enough with short notice days off, they can just tell me to leave and I have zero rights to keep my job.
I was once "fired" after I took time off after a miscarriage. Obviously the practice owner didn't phrase it like that. But it was still why.

But my surgery has removed those options except for take a day off I'll.
My only option is to fill in a form at 8am and then wait for a call.

I can't book it a few weeks ahead.
I can't request it after 4pm.

For multiple good reasons many schools would not allow this.

Oh come on..

I'm retired too, and wouldn't dream of comparing my situation to that of those with jobs where they can't have their phones with them etc.

I'm a busy pensioner too, and one of my volunteer roles is in a secure facility where I don't get to have my phone with me. But it's just one or two half days a week, so I either fit doctor's appointments around them, or phone in to the organisation to say I can't make it. It's not remotely similar to when I was a full time teacher.

YANBU, I'm also a teacher and totally feel your pain. As has been acknowledged, it is also the same for a lot/most working people.

My surgery got rid of online consult because it was overwhelmed (because getting through on the phone is like trying to get an audience with the pope!).

So, if you want a same day appointment, you have to ring at 8am. It typically takes 40-60 minutes to get through.
Except I can't do this because my school starts early, the kids line up at 8.10am and I have to collect my form group. So, I then have 30 children in front of me and cannot make/take calls.

I tried, several times, to explain this when I have rung later in the day but it doesn't go in and I just get told 'well, you have to ring at 8am'.

Luckily, I am not often unwell! Last time, a few months back, I knew I had infected tonsillitis as I could see it. I realised mid morning on a Friday. Didn't even bother trying to GP - I did 111 online at lunch as I knew the call wouldn't come before I finished teaching. Managed to get a call back and prescription sorted really easily.

Similar issues with less urgent appointments. I rang a few months ago as I needed an appointment to discuss a long term, complex spinal issue. I got an appointment but it was 5 weeks away!

My dad is at the same surgery and has a repeat prescription. He has now been told he cannot ring for it, he must use the NHS app ( which he didn't have - technology isn't really his thing!) Or he would have to go to the surgery in person and request it that way! I downloaded the app for him and showed him how to do it, but not everyone will have that support.

As an ex-teacher (secondary, not primary - but hardly ever with a TA or other adult in the room with me), I think this is what I'd do if I had to. And if the school didn't like that the next time I'd take a day off to do what was needed, as suggested earlier.

Our surgery has a similar system. Ring at 8 and hope you get through before all the appointments are gone. The alternative is to rock up at 8 and get an appointment straight away.

Well the bus driver could still take time off if he knew when his appointment was - that’s the issue the OP has. You’re not told when you’ll be contacted now - it’s ‘you’ll get a call back today’. Scheduled appointments around work is what we want!

If there was a punch thrown when you were making the call, what would you say if you were accused of not supervising your class?

'I was outside the classroom with the door shut making a private call on my phone.'

Also, you say you are an ex-teacher. Safeguarding has moved on a long way in recent years recent. Nobody's any safer, but there are more hurdles to fall on. A teacher making private calls in a corridor during lesson time is a idiot.

The answer to your question when did this change is during Covid.

GPs had to move to telephone consultations and have never moved back.

It was probably drifting this way for the previous 10 years but Covid pushed it over into what we have now.

TeenToTwenties which private GP do you use, is it online?

@hellhavenofury35 The private GP I use is just a small private practice in my small town. I see the same doctor each time.

I used to work in a school and had to be at my desk before 8am so if I needed a GP appointment I had to call in sick.
Bloody ridiculous system and basically excludes most working people from primary care in the NHS - the very people that are paying for it!!😒

On our form which you submit at 8am it asks when you are available to take a call and when you are not. So as a teacher you could say eg not 8-12, not 1-3.15pm. But I am available at lunchtime 12-1, or after 3.15pm , until surgery closing time.

Not all surgeries have that option. Those that do are not always able to stick to those times.

Same at my surgery. I have told them in the past that my job also involves booked appointments and therefore I need to know a time for the GP appointment but they just say they can't give a specific time.

I don't understand it - before everything was online/ on telephone, we had specific appointment times. We didn't just turn up to the surgery at 9am and wait, in hope, until 5pm. (Well not often!).

This why people use 111 and go to A&E.

You can usually choose on the website via the nationwide (more or less) Patchs system, or via the NHS app how you would prefer to be contacted, emails, texts are both an option. There's an option to add notes so you could explain that you're a teacher and cannot take calls at xxxx times. There are numerous jobs where taking calls is simply not possible.... 'not being allowed to' sounds very school like and childlike, just explain the situation to whoever the phone police are. Again, there are many situations when you may need to be contactable urgently during the working day

Assuming you can even get a signal in your school... we can't ... not that we're allowed our phones out anyway.

Is there anyone who does not have prroblems with GPs? Ours is 4 weeks wait for a routine appointment with a doctor (even telephone calls). The surgeries are at three locations two of which I cannot get to, yet can see the on in our village from our back garden. Recently injured my leg and ended up with an ulcer which needed change of dressing two/three times a week and had receptionists telling me there were no nurse appointments available at all, and being directed to a walk in centre - despite the fact that the walk-in centre does not dress ulcers.
I said this has to be done, otherwise I could lose my leg, and they just shrugged.

Smilarly my DP has missed out on treatment he needs because he cannot get to the other surgeries. £40 per taxi ride is just not sustainable.

In a Monday I was triaged by a 'care navigator' who said yes I did need an urgent appointment. I was put through to a dragon to book my appointment. She made me go through everything again. And decided not urgent.
So I had a phone appointment booked for the next Friday. When I asked for the time, curtly told " After 9:30 am.
By the Friday I was very ill. I thought after 9:30 would mean, maybe 10am. Noon at the latest.
By 4:30 pm I was at my wits end & managed to call to adj, had I missed the Dr.'s call?
No. After 9:30am means anytime until 6:30 pm.
So if you are at work & have to make special arrangements to take a phone call, tough, you're just the patient.
If you're ill and anxious, you'll stay that way.
I thought the point of the NHS was the patients.
Maybe onc, not now.
It's targets, priorities, paperwork and meetings.

You can usually choose on the website via the nationwide (more or less) Patchs system, or via the NHS app how you would prefer to be contacted, emails, texts are both an option. There's an option to add notes so you could explain that you're a teacher and cannot take calls at xxxx times.

Usually. My practice uses both apps but you can't do any of those things.

Yeah…also if you are sick…you aren’t next to your phone ready to tchat…🎅

I'm a teacher too and agree completely! We have to ring at 8am, sit in a queue of up to 20 people (only allows 20, anything above it cuts you off). My previous school started at 8.30 and there have been a couple of times I've had to hang up as school was starting and still in the queue!

I always tell the reception staff when my free time is in the day and ask for the call to be then. The standard response is that they can't guarantee - but I've always had the calls at the right times.

But if you're sick, you're also not feeling like getting dressed and trying to get to the surgery where you'll still have to chat. either, . Having your phone best to you is barely a hardship.

I'll admit that they've been times when I've been very grateful for phone appointments, and not having to drag myself out of bed.

Our practice you can fill in an online form any time so could do it day or night. You can say at the bottom when & how to contact you back. Eg a teacher might list out break or lunch times for a call back. Or they can also do it via text. They will offer some calls into early evenings.

You fill in all your symptoms etc on the form so there's not much to say when they ring "can you see dr at 4pm?" or "we'll put you for the nurse clinic next wednesday morning" or "dr looked at the photo of the rash and said take over counter anti histamine & wait a week and then ring again if it doesn't go on its own"