Gp telephone appointments

[TwinklyFawn]

I have a telephone appointment with a gp tomorrow. It doesn't botheer me having a phone appointment as it is just to discuss the results of a blood test. The thing that bugs me is that there is no time slot for the appointment. I get that they can run behind. I am just paranoid about talking to the doctor if they phone when i am doing a number 2.

If we need a telephone appointment we are given the choice of having the call in the morning before 12 or in the afternoon.
They will call twice if you miss the call.

@alexalisten it does/did

Yeah i know it says that but what I said was it doesn't mean anything. If you have a telephone appointment at 11 its not like a f2f where you will be seen around that time. Iv had telephone appointments that have said 10am and they ring at 6.30 pm or telephone appointments for 4.30 pm and they ring at 9.am.

They could at least give an approximate window like couriers do for deliveries. 2-5pm.

Or it could be good if you got a text when you're the next-but-one to be called so you've got 10-15min warning. (If they could set up the IT so the doctor could just click a button.) That would probably save the doctor time overall as you'd be ready waiting for their call and so you'd pick up quicker and be ready to talk.

Again like deliveroo does an automated text "your takeaway is due to arrive in 5 min". They do this so you're ready to grab it immediately, it saves the courier time.

I like a phone appointment. I missed one before but they called me back. This means I don’t have to go into town, take time off work/pay for parking for things that can be discussed over the phone.

Of course i asked for a time slot but i wasn't given one.

The gp still hasn't phoned. I am bored.

I won’t accept phone calls from medical professionals anymore after a hospital appt said 4:30 and the phone call eventually happened at 6:45 - they aren’t the only people who are busy and I’m not hanging around for people . I also find it’s easier to get fobbed off or forget what you actually want to achieve in a phone call so now I request in person appts .

Have you pooped 💩 yet 🤣

This is the downside of socialised health care. It’s not always convenient by my god are we lucky to have it.
there is an alternative. You can still take out insurance like in other countries and go private. We are lucky that we have the choice.

The fear is real OP! I completely get it! If I have a phone call appointment with no rough time they’ll call, I’m just on high alert all day, paranoid I’m going to miss it. I won’t go for a shower, to the loo for anything more than a quick wee if I really can’t hang on…. Same for deliveries with no set time! Luckily work from home so it’s not such a big deal.

I get why they don’t give a time - they rarely run to schedule in person as it is! So I guess if someone doesn’t answer they might phone the next person early to give them a slot ack later on to try the first person again, otherwise they could end up with no free time to try 10 people who didn’t answer! I wonder if it would be helpful to implement a system when they give you an earliest time they’ll call - so if they have 6 people on the list for 9-10am (and these were the first slots of the day) they say “not before 9am” to you. Person number 15 would be told not before 11am, or maybe 10:30am to build in contingency for ringing early. I definitely don’t understand why they can’t tell you morning or afternoon, with the understanding that a morning call could end up being early afternoon if they get behind schedule.

Not that this helps you for today! I think, if you really need to go to the toilet you just have to go, take the phone with you, and be as fast as possible! If it rings, answer the call but don’t flush until you’ve hung up.

Good luck!

Tes and i decided to do some housework. The gp still hasn't phoned. I know that they are busy. It is like waiting for Christmas.

I meant yes.

I know i absolutely hate waiting and I dont get very good phone signal so have to be in a specific part of the house why I wait 9hrs for a call

That's very annoying, our GP practice books in a time slot but of course, this can be earlier or later than the actual booked time depending on whether they were able to get through to the other patients, or calls ran over etc. But to not have a pre booked time or even an AM/PM slot is insane!

Ours give a Time but they've often dont ring until 8/9 hours later. It really annoys me because if it was f2f you wouldn't be waiting in a waiting room for 8/9 hours. Telephone appointments should be treat the same as f2f.

Exactly. My gp surgeory was excellent before covid. You could always see a gp for none urgent issues. Now you only get to see a gp face to face if it is urgent and you get a phone appointment for none urgent matters.

The gp has finally phomed.

Yay 🥳

Yes I agree with this, telephone appointments should run like F2F as closely as possible, with obvious caveats like getting through at the right time and calls running over.

You could ask the receptionist to change it to a face to face appt. if you would prefer that. The reason they don’t give a time for tel appts is because they fit them in between patients, so if a patient doesn’t turn up or has a very short appt they will make a call

But i think this is what a lot of us are saying telephone appointments should be the same as f2f they shouldn't just be slotted in when the dr gets a chance. It should be an actual appointment just like if you where in the surgery.

Yes I understand and I get asked this a lot when at work. It’s the only answer I have though. It’s only so the drs can finish and go home early tbh

🤣🤣🤣 to be fair I dont blame them.

This pisses me off too. I often wonder why if you have a face to face appointment at the surgery,you are allotted 10 minutes at a certain time,but when you get given a telephone consultation,it's any time between 4pm and 6pm? It's got to the point now where if I have a phone appointment,I barely let my phone out of my hand as I've missed 2 appointments this way because I left my phone in another room for 5 minutes and of course,they phoned at that exact moment.