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 suppose in the old days, the bus driver would have had to take time off to go and see the GP in person.
Phone appointments are a recent thing and we all assume we should have to fit them in around our job - doctor appointments never used to be fitted around jobs! We always had to take time off for them before. When did this change?

you send in a message, it is triaged and then a decision made whether an appointment is face to face or by phone and the time given.

But the driver would know in advance the exact time of the appointment.

Today you might get a call at some time in the day.

No, that would require some organisational skills at the GP practice. Sadly that doesn't happen at mine. They genuinely have no idea how to manage anything. They hope patients will just go away.

That's how your GP surgery works. Ours often call back at any time in the day, no way to predict it.

they text you and tell you when the call will be
simple

i admit it is very hard without those without access to a smart phone who will have to make the call and they receptionist will do it for them

My GP sort of has this system. You can pretty much always get an appointment the same day if it’s urgent, but you do need to wait for a call back. Strangely, it’s harder to get one for 2-3 days ahead.

I wfh now but when I worked in an office it was impossible as we weren’t allowed to take phone calls and even if I asked we had to go outside (open plan office so no privacy) and there was very poor signal so I was always getting cut off.

Yes, but for a job like bus driver, that would still have likely meant taking a day off for it.
My office is so far away from the GP surgery that a face to face appointment would pretty much mean taking a day off, or a half day. I'd imagine many are the same.
Phone appointments help some, but not all depending on their job. But the expectation from employers seems to be that we must work around appointments these days, I think employers need to accept that some need time off for appointments just as we used to.

My GP has online triage form that must be done at 8am otherwise the form shuts down when ‘clinical capacity’ is reached then they will call you within 3 working days!
The bus driver would potentially need to take a few days off just to speak to someone and stay nearby in case they say we need to see you can you come down in next 30 minutes
I live in a rural area and cannot change GPs so have had to go private

The practice of a call or visit within a large time window is something that should be ended. If you consider jobs where you cannot necessarily answer a phone at any time, or those where you cannot work from home for a visit, look at who the bulk of those in such jobs are. Disproportionately women and in the case of jobs such as bus drivers, certain ethnic minorities.

Even if not the case it is saying 'at my convenience not yours', which is not service in my view.

I wish! After you have sat in the phone for anything up to 50 minutes, once you’ve persuaded the receptionist that it is important, the surgery just says the doctor will call you back, so you hang around all day waiting until you absolutely have to go out, and then try to field a call just as you have got to the checkout in a supermarket…

Ours is the same and it's utterly shit for the vast majority of people who, surprise surprise, actually work standard days.

My DP works 13hr shifts so has to wait until he gets a night shift to be able to fill in the form when he gets home - unfortunately that's closer to 9am, meaning the appointments have already gone by the time they get to his form.

I have to take the day off work to go through this process. My leave days are kept for childcare so then I have to drag my kids with me too 😑.

The last time I wasted a day's leave to visit the GP (saw a nurse) I was told my already diagnosed chest infection was reflux and the constant snot was post nasal drip. Funnily enough the omeprazole did nothing as I've never suffered from reflux in my life. The previous nurse had told me I needed a chest x-ray if it continued but this nurse knew better. My chest still isn't right months later but I'm not wasting another day of leave.

Also, if your form doesn't sound urgent then you have to wait days by the phone for a callback. So when you don't pick up the phone because you're working, you're back to square one as they knock you off the list.

The whole NHS is like this nowadays. It’s geared to people who don’t work.

Navigating the Byzantine process of getting an appointment is a full time job in itself.

I’m sure you will not be the only one at the surgery. Have you tried speaking with the practice manager to see if u are able to get a call at a specified time due to your work?

Mine is call 569 times at 8am for a phonecall appointment with the nurse anytime until 6pm, who will triage whether you can have a phonecall appointment with a doctor. It's the only GP practice in catchment so I guess they can make their own rules up.

No mine don't they just call between 12 to 5pm..... so you have to be glued to your phone.

Put on the econsult that you are a teacher and need a phone call after 4.00 or in your lunch hour.

If you work, you just pay for other people to use the NHS and have to pay privately when you need healthcare. See also, surgery. If you need (e.g. a hysterectomy) within the next two years so that you can actually carry on working, you’ll need to stump up privately. I speak from bitter experience.

I'm in education too and just can't see a GP. I see them for immediate illness where I am ill enough to be off sick anyway. That is always in person, because I am always so ill they want to physically see me, so that's easy. That is all. I am not allowed time off from work for non emergency medical appointments.

I have a problematic chest (not quite asthmatic levels, but lung damage and very, very recurant chest infections) that I am meant to be on inhalers for and have reviewed. I no longer use the inhalers, as I cannot get an appointment to have a review, because I cannot access my GP for routine appointments. All my local GPs use the same system, so no point swapping. It's very annoying.

yes put it on the econsult that you are at work and can take the call after 4 pm, good idea

At our practice the 8 am appointments are emergency appointments for more serious things so really if you were at work you don’t need these day of appointments.
Then you fill out a form for a response within 2 days for more of a routine appointment.

My practice is a bit better. It uses an app, which opens for messages from 6am daily, so most people can register a query. The app has lots of free text areas, so you can note your availability. I've had a few issues solved with an exchange of messages checked in breaks, not needing a telephone appointment at all.

those who teach, cant you give the number of the school and the receptionist will come and find you?
i sometimes have to call, usually sencos, and this is what they do

I’m a GP and my patients can request calls after a certain time, if they can’t take calls at work.
If it’s any consolation, I struggle to take calls at work too, unless they happen to come between patients.