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 work in a surgery. Our system is to phone on the day and, if you're lucky, you might get an appt for that day.
If it's not urgent and you can wait we work a two week advance diary so might* be able to offer you an appt (usually in two weeks time).
My own GP surgery has appointments for on the day urgent care but if it's not urgent you can fill out a form which is triaged and someone will call you back within 5 days. They do ask on the form if there are times you can't be reached.
*Probably can't as these are usually snapped up pretty quickly

I sympathise OP.
I had all this nonsense at my old GP, could never get through on the phone, they might eventually phone me back at inconvenient times, like when I had screaming little grandbabies in the car. Useless at making referrals. etc etc.The final straw was when they actually kept their door locked!
I asked around and moved to a practice where there are enough doctors to get an appointment very quickly. Sometimes on the same day. I do live in London and appreciate this might not be possible in rural areas or small towns.

YANBU.

at our surgery they’ve just changed the system - one of the three surgeries takes all “I need an appointment today” kind of calls and have triage, so at least there’s no 8am rush anymore as you’ll be triaged any time you call. However, then there are the same problems. Talk to receptionist- put you through to medical receptionist. If they deem you worthy of speaking to a GP one will call you that day, but at any time. If you need a follow up it’ll also likely be a phone call, they’ll give you the day, but no time - not even morning or afternoon.
I can usually manage (though it’s still awkward in important meetings) but DH has got a job where he can’t take calls.

For non-urgent stuff we also need to do the e-consult online and they might call you out of the blue in the next three to five days. Well, in theory.

My work place had zero service fir mobile.phones. I can't get any calls. So don't bother with GP and go to walk in centre if I need too

The walk in centres are excellent.

However I shouldn't have to use them when I need to speak to my GP.

My GP only allows online bookings. Even if you go to reception, you're told to book online. Once you've requested an appointment, they will phone you back but it takes upto 48 hours!
My issue is discussing my medical issues in front of my colleagues as we're not allowed mobiles on shift.
It's even more ridiculous that they don't give you a time when they'll call like they do with face to face appointments.
Nightmare for Nightshift workers too. It's like the equivalent of a GP phoning you in the middle of the night!

Ours same day appointment literally states on their website for people who struggle to make the standard appointments. But you ring and they ask if it's an emergency they can add you to the list. Every time my answer is it's not but I work and this is the only way I can guarantee I can come. You do have to wait for a call back but I luckily can get permission to use personal phone.
They did start to do later appointment but it's so difficult to get one.

Covid nudged them to phone consultations, but the sheer impossibility of getting appointments has been happening for 25 years. I remember it starting around the time we married back in 1997. Before that I could go to the daily drop mornings in where you waited in turn, or pretty easily make an afternoon appointment a week or two in advance. Then it all went tits up with them stopping the drop ins then the delays started going up to several weeks and then we started getting the receptionists asking triage questions and then the having to.phone at 8 nonsense. All before covid!

Oh the dreaded redial!! My Dr’s used to be like this!

Phonelines open at 9am. You used to just have to keep redialling to get through (think 132 was my record 😂), but now they have implemented a queuing system. And appointments will either be a callback or face to face. The call back you are given a specific time for however, so you’re not having to wait around for hours.

However what my GP’s also do is online booking (they stopped this during covid and it was a total pain!), but if you register for the online system, then you can go online and book appointments with the GP’s or Nurse and those slots go as far as the next 3-4 weeks, so if it’s a non emergency it allows you to book in when it’s convenient for you around work and you are able to say whether you want a F2F or telephone appointment. (Online system you can also request medication/repeat prescriptions, check test results etc).

Much better system than it was years ago!

Yes, that's the risk you take. But claiming to be ill when one isn't (even for what might well seem to be a good reason) is also risky - staff have been sacked for it.

My GP surgery asks you to note on the online form what time you can take the call that day and they try their best to call at that time. They also give you the option for a text rather than a phone call.

Yes, my friend, also a teacher, isn't allowed to leave morning meetings at 8am to book appointments or take calls during the day, so they phone in sick and take the whole day off just to get/ attend GP appointments, including telephone appointments. They're not taking the piss, these have been essential appointments.

My practice won't give a time for a phone appointment. It's absurd, if you have a face to face appointment they wouldn't expect you to sit all day in the waiting room.

I agree with a PP.. we need multiple points of access.

• All surgeries should operate an e-consult or equivalent. In 2024 it shouldn’t be optional to have an online contact.
• Calling an 8am may work for emergency appointments, but shouldn’t be the only option for routine / non-urgent queries.
• All areas should be served by walk-in clinics, it shouldn’t be a postcode lottery.
• Where a telephone appointment is deemed appropriate, an approximate time should be given.
• Ultimately, we need more GP’s though.

This is probably down to your own GP. This issue should have been fixed nationwide by now. I was IT in a GP practice for eight years, and we started offering online consultations and appointment bookings back in about 2016, and we were nowhere near the first in our PCT (in London). Since I left in 2018, my own GP has offering consultations through their app (although this particular app is because they are part of a large medical group), where you can even upload pictures if there is a visible part you want the doctor to look at. They will usually call and follow up and see you in person if need be.
This just demonstrates that the facilities are there and would be freely available for you to contact your practice, if only your practice enables it.
You may have to change GPs, it can be unfortunate if you have a good rapport with a favourite doctor, but it was previously quite difficult to get appointments if you were working, and much has been done to get around that.

My city has a population of 140,000 plus. We have one GP practice made up of several they've swallowed: there is no option to change.

I've even tried moving to the practice where I work, but they won't allow it.

Same in our town. No choice at all as all the practices have merged or been taken over. It shouldn’t be allowed.

Here in the US we have a system called MyChart. Pretty much every doctor's office in hospital in the country uses it. When you go to the doctor you can download the app to your phone if you want and you can utilize the app to do things like request prescription refills, ask simple questions, or schedule appointments.

At my doctor's office when you want to make an appointment you have to choose from a drop down menu and you can choose from things like "I'm currently sick," or "I would like a medication review," or "something else."

Depending on your answer, you then are taken to a list of available appointments so for instance if you're sick the appointments are usually available the same day or the next day whereas if it's for something else like a physical then the appointments are further out.

It seems like with the number of people utilizing the NHS at a system like that would be valuable for you all.

ETA: One thing that I really like about it is if you have something going on and you feel like you might need to see the doctor but you're not sure you can just ask a question and someone from the doctor's office will respond and either answer the question or say we need you to schedule an appointment to come in. I would imagine a lot of the people who are taking up the appointments that you all are talking about are ones that maybe don't need to see the doctor but they don't know that they don't need to see the doctor or they're not sure.

Haven't read all the responses so apologies if this has already been said.

I'm a hospital doctor and completely take on board people's frustration with accessing primary care/NHS services in general. I'm lucky in that I have a fab GP practice and it's quite straight forward to book appointments (can phone any time of day or use e-consult) but I know this is a rarity.

That said, we need to be realistic about how flexible GP surgeries can be especially given lack of resources. I've got two kids at a state primary school and whenever there is a parent-teacher meeting (twice a year) or I have wanted to meet one of the teachers outside of this to discuss my children, or I have wanted to see my kids in a school play etc. I have had to take annual leave to do so - I would not expect teachers to be able to make themselves available just at times that suit me because that's not realistic.

Admittedly parent teacher meetings are easier to plan/foresee than sudden medical issues, but surely if we're going to expect GPs to be more flexible we should also expect employers in general to be more understanding of their staff's need to get routine medical care?

It's not just them phoning back at random times. They aren't even using the "preferred" phone number option. Whenever I book a call for routine reviews of a long term chronic condition (so not urgent), I specifically tell them to use my mobile number. Almost every time, no call, but then when I get home, there's a message on my landline answerphone! It's so annoying that they can't even do the simplest of things right. Then because of their error, you have to go through the whole rigmarole again and wait another few weeks for the phone call. I've even started to phone reception a couple of days beforehand to "remind" them I need to be called back on the mobile and they confirm that's written on the notes, but even then, sometimes they still call on the landline. It's maddening. Not only that, but it's wasting the surgery time too, i.e. wasted appointment, then wasted receptionist time booking a new appointment, etc.

What has happened is the GP's surgeries have decided what is good for them and tried to implement it. The specific appointment phone call is fine in theory BUT they almost always never call at the agreed time. They call when it suits them.

I rarely use the GP but when I do I find they call when they call. For people like teachers, retail workers it really doesnt work.

Everyone loves to moan about GPs.
But not one single person on this thread has come up with a viable system that would work for everyone.

Every post has either been “my GP surgery is crap because xyz”, or “well I would want this that etc”.
It would be the easiest thing in the world to establish a system that suited one person. Or even 100 people. Or even 1000. But try finding a system that suits 10000 people, of all ages and lifestyles.

Until someone proposes a system that would meet the needs of everyone, I will continue to roll my eyes at these GP bashing threads. In my 25+ years as a GP I have worked harder and harder with every passing year, and read more and more moaning on MN. Pointless echo chamber of angry people who just want to whinge, and have no desire to make sensible suggestions.

The answer is obvious. Fund GPs better so there are more GPs and more appointments available so the 8am rush for appointments is no longer an issue.

No one is saying GPs don't work hard; this is a 'system' bashing thread not a GP bashing one.

Not "obvious" at all. Give them pay rises and they may choose to work fewer hours. That's already what is happening. Despite having lots more GPs than 20 years ago, we have fewer GP "hours" because most now work part time!

It's exactly the trap that Blair fell into 20 years ago when he "cured the GP shortage" by paying them more and letting them opt out of anti-social hours. We've been suffering the entirely foreseeable consequences ever since.

I'd suggest a graduated pay scheme, where they get more "wage per hour" for working more hours. So, say, the first shift per week, they get £1,000, the second shift, £1,100, the third shift £1,200, ..... the tenth shift of the week would earn them £2,000, to "incentivise" them to work more shifts. Obviously, at the same time, change the stupid tax cliff edges so that they wouldn't have to pay a stupidly high marginal tax rate on the higher shifts (i.e. scrap the loss of personal allowance and free childcare on wages over £100k per year) and change the rules of the lifetime pension allowance tax penalty (all of which have just encouraged GP to work fewer shifts as the "marginal" benefit of working more has sometimes been tiny, if not negative!).

I didn't say pay them more, I said fund them better (ie pay more gps, not pay gps more)