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?

Even if you don’t work the system is a nightmare - I’ve had to call at 8, be on hold, whilst on the school run. Nowadays you do an econsult in the am, but they are triaged on a first come first served basis, so if you wait until after the school run, you are 100th in the queue… and then they call you back when you have the kids in the car at pick up. I love my kids, and encourage openness, but I really don’t want to discuss my incontinence or worsening depression and anxiety on speakerphone in the car outside the school…

ETA and then there are the continual blackspots where you lose signal, which is mindblowingly enraging if you’ve been on hold for 15mins…

No. We need significantly more people with the right qualifications and experience to work as GPs.

The efforts they went to during the mass vaccination for COVID worked because they got twenty quid per jab.

A massive restructure of the GP system is needed so you can see someone quickly as needed.

YANBU

I used to work in a prison, so aren’t allowed your phone on you and can’t really leave the men on their own.

I asked to come in later and leave later so I could sit in the carpark and ring. It took 3 days to even get an appointment and then it was a video call which I couldn’t do!

I ended up having to take annual leave just so I could be home to make an appointment.

I have a mole that has changed shape and colour.
Its such a minor thing but I do want to get it checked out but the thought of having to go through that process all again is actually putting me off, especially for something so minor and which they’ll probably say is absolutely fine.

There has to be a better way.

They don't do that at my surgery.

It doesn’t have to be this way, I don’t know why GPs can’t learn from the flexible ones.

Our practice have an online form open from 7am-1pm every day. You get contact within 24h of putting the info in (if urgent I’ve always heard within a couple of hours). You can request a text or phone call, you can put in times you are available. I’ve often sorted things via message, received a text with appointment details, etc. Phone appointments are much quicker because the practitioner has read what I’ve put (lots of free text boxes so I can write everything in), I don’t have to start at the beginning again. If you cannot use the online form you can phone them. It’s not perfect, and there can still be a long wait for a non urgent appointment but it’s pretty flexible and seems to work for most people.

Ours is good in that you don’t have to call at 8. You fill out the online consult (although this now only seems to be open between 8 and 3) and someone triages you and if you need an appointment they try to call. If they can’t they text you with details of how to call them. Not perfect but at least they don’t give up if they don’t get through the first time.

They’ve got a good text service where the doctor can ask questions securely as well which I like- gives you a chance to pop in photos or clarify information without having to speak to them.

They intro’d this at my surgery, but the econsult window has got smaller and smaller over the last few years - 8-11am mon-fri; 630-8pm sun-thurs. The evening ones probably work ok for working people, unless you are a commuter (my husband) or you get distracted by feeding/bathing and putting the kids to bed and only realise the time after the window has closed.

Yes ridiculous. I filled in a form they didn’t come back to me for 4 weeks. When I called them they said the GP had made a referral already to the Paediatric CAHMS team, I said to them about what? They said the info you put in your website note. I said ok, didn’t anyone want to speak to me about my daughter before making the referral? I also said did anyone want to tell me the referral had been made? I also said what about telling me what you’ve referred for as it’s only a short form.

Anyway I now have an appointment in October for a doctor to call me.

When I was teaching and waiting for a GP call back, I went that morning and spoke to my line manager who said I could have my phone turned on in lessons that day, that I could inform the students (KS3/4) that I may have to take a call and had permission to use my phone, and that I could just go outside the room to take the call when it happened. My room had windows from the corridor, so I could still watch the students but they couldn’t hear the conversation. I think my manager realised this would have to be the option or I would have to go home to wait for the call all day. This compromise would not be ideal if it was a sensitive issue, but met my needs that day. I appreciate not all teachers have understanding line managers. I also had the same permission when I was buying a house and waiting for a call back.

My GP you have to do this or you are given the option of a f2f appointment on the day when you call, or you can book online for everything non urgent but that's usually about a 2 week wait. They are open 7 days a week though, Saturday 8-5, sun 8-1 , Monday Tues Thurs 8-8 weds and Friday 8-6. So I think the system plus the hours they are open make it work. I've called on a Tuesday and been given a f2f appointment for the same day but at 6:30pm I was in court all day so couldn't take a phone appointment

It says on my surgery's form that you can put a preferred time, but they might not take any notice. And they never have taken any notice of the times I say I can take a call.

We also have to fill out a form on line and then you will get a call back within 48 hours. I'm sick of trying to book DD an appointment for that day and always having to end up ringing the surgery.
DD has had 3 operations on her left ear and has been told by the consultant that if she thinks it's infected she has to be seen by a GP that day. It's on her notes, I remind them online but I still have to phone up.
Only good thing is when you say to the receptionist the consultant said, they find you an immediate appointment
But call back is rubbish if you work and it can be anytime (they have the nerve to say keep your phone on you) which is great if you don't work.

We can book appointments online weeks ahead. That seems to work well.

I once had to call my GP surgery 76 times to get through at 8am... To be told no appointments. Now I do the online form. More often then not I get a call back the next day though.
Thing is they don't specify a time. I work in healthcare and have patients and I can't just answer my phone. I wish they would specify a time too

How would you resource it better to fund an improved system?
Fee per consult
Increased taxation
Private insurance system as per US

Bus driver would have been able to see the GP on their day off or before a shift or between shifts. A scheduled appointment.

Yanbu - not just when at work, I get so stressed when the GP calls unexpectedly without an appointment. I remember she called to discuss my general anxiety disorder but I felt so rushed and not in the right headspace as I hadn’t had time to think about it.

We just get given a day for a telephone appointment. Anytime up to 6pm. The last time I was on a bloody bus. If you don't pick up it's registered as a missed appointment, they don't call back.

My surgery does timed appointments for calls the same as for face to face. Obviously they can run late but it works much better. I can’t necessarily leave a meeting just because the phone rings, even though I have a more flexible job than say teaching. It’s madness.

I’m a teacher. I have to give my phone to a member of the office staff with the instruction to answer it and then beg the GP to stay on the line while they run around the school trying to find me.

We have a similar ridiculous system, with phone only to make same-day appointments (no online or in-person option) and if you manage to get through, you are offered an appointment within half an hour (or told no appointments left - call back tomorrow). Sort of works if you're based at home or off sick but no good for routine appointments for anyone who works outside the home. As a result I haven't had a smear test or asthma review for over four years - I get reminders but what am I meant to do? Take a day off on the off chance I get through and 'win' an appointment? I wonder how many times early diagnosis of serious health conditions has been missed because of it.

We are not allowed to switch GP practice either as there are only two in the town (I've asked, the first few times I complained). If we were, there would be a mass exodus of patients to the other one. And as they keep on building more and more houses, the caseload at both practices continues to increase and the likelihood of getting an appointment gets less and less.

It's bonkers, isn't it? My doctors have recently had an improvement to the booking system:

You phone from 7:45am, and you are placed in a queue, and you have to stay on hold until someone gets round to taking your call. You then tell the receptionist what's wrong with you, and she decides if you are worthy of an appointment. Appointments are for the same day, which of course is fine for everyone because hey, who has commitments? Just drop what you are doing, you won the appointment lottery and have to be there in 45 minutes. If all the appointments are taken by the time you get through, no problem! Just try again tomorrow!

The way this is an improvement over the old system is that they didn't have the tech to put people in a queue before. So what you would have to do is start phoning them at 7:45, and then keep trying every time you got the engaged tone. Success was more likely if you did this with your mobile and landline simultaneously. I once phoned them over 200 times 😬

The NHS does seem to run like it's the only part of society with something important to do. These kinds of systems are being forced on all patients with no consideration for patient groups like teachers, police officers, and other parts of the NHS! You'd have thought they'd have come up against it themselves as a problem. Some flexibility is clearly needed for some groups.

I’m lucky to be able to accommodate it most of the time but mine will sometimes give a 4-6 hour window and then ring outside of it!

If you miss it, they’re supposed to ring twice more but mine do so within 1-2 minutes so if you pop to the toilet or whatever, then you’ve missed your chance and have to book another call.

It’s so frustrating!

I'm a teacher, in situations like this I am allowed to have my phone in a pocket on vibrate and then hand over to TA.

At times when that wasn't possible I requested to be called after 4 on the form.