To think that (GP related)

[AmIHumanOrAmIAYeti]

if there are 5 surgeries in the area (fairly remote with patchy phone signal) and my appointment can be at any of them (closest 5 mins drive, furthest 30) and all appointments are during working hours, the least they can do is have WiFi so that I can work during the inevitable delay in being seen?

Isn't it great you can access that care, free at the point of use, with no other inconvenience than a requirement to travel to the appointment and set aside the time to attend it?

Woops missed that, but regardless no they shouldn't provide WiFi and ridiculous to even suggest it. Waiting is a pain but it's life, especially when a service is free.

Bring a book to read? Or if you want to be product, being an industry journal or some paperwork. Or just use the time to sit back and think about some element of your work.

I have a chronic condition, needing lots of appointments is a bit source of stress. But I wouldn't really see it as appropriate to have my work laptop out in a doctor's waiting room anyway due to data protection/commercial sensitivity

I had a lot of Drs appointments a while back, I got a privacy filter to stick on my laptop screen from Amazon. Makes your screen visible only to someone directly in front of it.

Like GP's and doctors then. I've had 90 minute clinic waits and my mother has had surgery cancelled at the hospital. That's the trouble with useless doctors, compounded by the fact that they snd their staff rarely apologise.

I'm a director of an organisation that employs 1000 staff and provides services to thousands. DH was self employed for years so I think I understand quite a lot about running businesses thank you. In any other sector there are dismissals if staff mess stakeholders about.

I'm not saying they're not at fault too, their processes let them down but fundamentally it's people not turning up to appointments (even surgeries!) and them not being able to do much about it. If people were held accountable for not turning up for appointments you'd see a very different service. That's the public sector for you.

guess reading isn’t your forte?
OP has no phone signal……

@Isitreallysohard "If you ran any sort of business you'd understand as you'd experience it firsthand."

Just reminding you about the unacceptability of assumption. Your rudeness is unacceptable. May I ask if you work for the NHS? Its most significant issue is that it has forgotten the "useless" public pay for it.

In just a few posts you have referred to useless people and made a sweeping assumption that I have never run a business. Just as HCPs have a tendency to assume patients are inconsequential subordinates.

I've had experience as a patient and it was appalling, but as I've worked in Business Process Improvement, as well as done volunteer work, and worked in public sector including health I can see how and where they go wrong, and I sent them some feedback (12 pages with recommendations) and as a result had a meeting with one of the directors about some improvements that could be made. Patients ie customers are much more difficult to deal with when the service is free, it makes everyone's jobs harder, people become less motivated. It's a circle of apathy. Yes the public pay for it, but if they paid out of their own pocket (and knew it), I'd bet people wouldn't be late or miss appointments. When your customer base includes the lowest common denominator that you still have to deal with it's a very difficult "business model". You're in a very fortunate position if you run a business yourself and this is unknown to you.

@Isitreallysohard with respect, this useless patients pays from their own pocket, via tax and national insurance. Funnily enough when I make a private appointment and pay by direct transfer, the doctor is very rarely late and if it happens, I am advised whilst waiting and there is a profuse apology.

I also have a home in Frsnce where healthcare is head a shoulders above that in the UK. Because there is a payment via social insurance, the public are not regarded as useless and the system is different, more respectful and better run.

@RosesAndHellebores
Funnily enough when I make a private appointment and pay by direct transfer, the doctor is very rarely late and if it happens, I am advised whilst waiting and there is a profuse apology.

That's exactly my point! Better patients leads to engaged staff. As I said earlier it's the circle of apathy. There is also a thread talking about how hard it is to get rid of useless staff at the NHS. Dealing with the public who don't give a shit even when their health is concerned will break even the most motivated and caring person. As an example, can you imagine working in A&E where you still have to treat drunk, abusive and violent staff? I have alot of respect for people who choose that as a job

What are doctors supposed to do if one of their patients has a medical emergency or something complex going on? Tell that person sorry, you need to piss off now because I have to be on time for the next patient at all costs? Please let us all know if you come up with a good solution that involves every single patient having their needs met and the doctor always running on time, because nobody in the world has yet managed this.

That's an aside. Yes OP, perhaps a GP surgery could have some WiFi, and/or not be running a full hour late for the first patient without giving some sort of indication that there's a delay. The private GP service sounds fairly pointless too.

Make an appointment outside of work hours like those of us who work in schools have to.

You're lucky to be able to get an in person appointment with a time. We have to do the online consultation then if its deemed worthy we get a phone call (2 weeks later) with no specified time just 'Mon am'. I then have to ring the receptionist and explain that as a teacher I can't just have my phone on and leave my class.....so then they will put a note on to say after 3.30.....but that could still be any time. I could be cooking dinner, at sports practice with the kids etc. It's such a ridiculous system.

No, I don’t think a gp survey needs to operate like a co working space to enable you to work there.

There are obviously different reasons for being late. Some more understandable than others but there should always be an apology.

@Isitreallysohard I am as reliable, polite and intelligent a patient whether I attend a private or a public hospital. The issue is that in the private hospital I am treated with respect. In the public hospital it is variable on a scale of being treated like Sh1t, being treated with contempt, being treated without respect up to being treated well. The issue does not necessarily lie with the patient and you have summed that up by calling us useless.

With respect, I think you're being overly sensitive and blowing things out of proportion and I think entirely missing the point of what I was talking about (which I have now forgotten too). Of course not everyone is useless, but unfortunately in the world a few useless people ruin it for everyone else just doing their best. That's a fact. Good day 🙂

THERE IS NO MOBILE SIGNAL TO HOTSPOT FROM.

With respect, I think you need to reread the words you have written and think about what they mean. I hope you don't make assumptions in your role as you have made on this thread.

OP thinks she should get WiFi when she goes to see a Dr. I'd rather that money is spent on hip replacements. She needs to suck it up. HTH.

No other inconvenience? They make it as hard as possible to access appts. Can’t just phone for an appt unless it’s an emergency, have to do an e-consult and wait 48 hours for permission to ring for an appt. Then wait 4 weeks for a phone appt (which they insist is right even when you know it isn’t - eg trying to give my deaf father a phone appt when he needed to be seen for a hernia) with a 4 hour potential window (so you can’t risk taking calls or being distracted for half a day) only for the GP to say you should have been given an in person appt and to ring tomorrow where they tell you (after an hour’s wait and being number 45 in the queue) that you’ll have to wait another 7 weeks for that (and then the scenario that lead to my OP). All so that I can use the private healthcare that I daren’t not have because “urgent” in the part of the UK that I live means very likely 5-7 years of waiting.

I can think of other words than “great”, to be honest.

Move to America, it's private there and a much higher standard. I bet they have WiFi too 🙂

I didn’t have my laptop. I would have been very happy to be able to catch up with emails on my phone. I didn’t expect a full office to be provided!

As per the OP, they only offer appts during working hours.

(I have just checked that I didn’t write the OP in Martian to be sure given so many people have missed such simple statements.)

Please read my posts.

It took an e-consult, an incorrect phone appt and 11 weeks to get to the in person appt.