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?

That covers a whole lot of people. If the patient gets to surgery in the drop in time and is willing to wait, they'll be seen.

And if more people turn up than the clinic has capacity to see? Are you suggesting that people can still join the queue one minute before the clinic ends? And continuity with one GP for those with chronic conditions presumably doesn't matter...........

Sounds good but the devil.is in the detail.

Which Dr's will work on weekends?

If somebody told me I now have to teach one Saturday a month, I'd tell them to sod off.

What happens to the patients that get turned away?

Do they simply not have a GP?

There simply aren't enough GP hours to meet demand no matter how they are scheduled.

No idea which GPs will work weekends, but I'd assume they would get a day off in the week to compensate or even an extra day AL or both.

The patients that get turned away and this could easily be me one day if I move surgeries, are left without a GP so have to use drop in centres, and a and e. Or go private, and for the last several years I've gone private for small matters because somehow I manage to get an appointment time without much fuss and at a time I can make it face to face or a call when I ask for it.
And while they are at it, lobby their MP.

The drs surgeries are being paid an amount (I forget how much) per patient on their list. So provide a service for everyone on your list. Or stop taking on patients, you cannot have it both ways, paid to serve but not serve.

So, a totally unrealistic, unworkable and immoral solution then.

My surgery won't even let me fill in the online e-consult form outside of office hours. I tried to fill one in the other evening after work and I got a message saying the form would reopen at 8:30am the next morning. I don't expect them to reply until office hours but why police when I can submit it? I think that's really odd. I was sending the results of a hearing test they had asked me to send via the form so didn't need a response immediately but I had to do it during a short break at work instead when I'd rather have been having the break! Stuff like that is frustrating and I just don't understand it.

"ooh, that's the doctor on the phone. I'm just going to step outside for two mins, please continue to do what you're doing".

What if they don't decide to carry on working and start running around the room?
Can the kids take important calls too?
What if I don't want to discuss my private medical problems in a public corridor?
What if it's a 10 minute call?
What if....

The official reason is that you might have something serious that needs to go to A&E.

The actual reason is that they don't want a mountain of forms to look at when they come in.

Of course, if you're not comfortable with it then it's not a viable option.

I teach secondary and trust all my classes to behave for two mins whilst I talk on the phone. I tend to know the nature of the call I'm expecting, as someone who is chronically ill.

Equally, if one of my students was expecting a call from the doc I would absolutely give them permission to step outside and take the call. This has happened before with no issues.

I mostly teach seniors so maybe that's where my experience differs rom yours?

I only teach ks4 and 5. It makes no difference - I am not allowed to have my phone in my classroom.

And I would expect a disciplinary if I allowed a student to use their phone.

We must work in schools with very policies and values. I'm sorry yours is so inflexible for you, that must be hard. Best wishes.

I have this too. I can’t submit an online request until 8 and once a certain amount of forms have been submitted the facility closes again until 8 the next day. I’m in work, in a prison, from 7:15 each weekday so can’t use this. I can’t have my phone in work, I’m not sat in front of a computer or near a phone. It’s unworkable for me as even if I could submit a form, I can’t be available for a phone call that might come at any time within a 48 hour period.

Call in sick for 2 days.

Over 300 posts in and nobody has come up with any other workable solution.

If you tell work that's the reason you're calling in sick would they not come up with a workable solution? For example, come in, step outside the classroom whilst you take the call, give clear instructions to the class on behaviour, and tasks to be done beforehand.

No. We are not allowed to use our phones in or near classrooms with students.

That might be how your GP Practice works but many others do not work this way including all the Practices in my region. Since 2020 appointments can not be booked online and patients must phone at 8am. Then at some point that day a GP or APN will phone back.

Another example of this..
My GP contacted me for a medication review. I scheduled it for my day off (I understand I’m lucky to have one midweek) a couple of weeks in advance. I then received a phone call today telling (not asking - telling) me with less than 24 hours notice that it had been rescheduled for X time tomorrow! I have managed to make it work by rearranging some things, but they seemed surprised that it might even be an issue
I wouldn’t have agreed, but without the review they won’t continue to prescribe essential medication, so I really didn’t have a choice.