To be concerned about GPs new online booking services

[autienotnaughty]

So my GP and others that I’m aware of have adopted an online booking system instead of ringing at 8am.
So I have a chronic pain condition, I went online to book an appointment to discuss an element of it except you can’t actually book an appointment. You send a message and the GP gets back to you within 3 days.
I got a reply 2 days later ignoring my request for a face to face appointment it said “you have a telephone appointment with the NP for a medicine review discuss this issue then”
Now fine I can do that, except my doctors have a one issue at a time rule so there’s every chsnce she will refuse to discuss it. It’s also a telephone appointment and I wanted to be examined and I asked for doctor not NP.
This feels like an easier way of fobbing people off and making it harder to get an appointment.
Aibu to be concerned at this change of direction for GPs. It’s also happening at my dad’s doctors and he’s not online which means I need to request his appointments for him. I

What do you want examined? Any lumps or bumps? Did you point the reason you want face to face out in your online request?

Our GP has online booking. They won't call you in for a face to face unless there's a reason to. If you're just reporting pain with a chronic pain condition, they won't assume they need to see you face to face as its part of your already established condition. If you have any new physical changes that they can actually examine (I.e something physical that they can see or feel, not that they only know about due to you talking about it, which can be done on the phone) , you'll need to point them out so they can call you in.

It is to lessen the amount of face to face appointments, because GPS are horrendously busy and need some way of stopping useless face to face appointments.

YABU.

This solves the problem of the 8am rush to the phones. If you need a face to face, you’ll be given one.

I've had 2 experiences of my new(ish) GPs online booking system now and it's so so much better than the old. Perhaps try to be open minded? Sounds like they've dropped the one issue only rule.

A few weeks ago, I had had bad blepharitis for a few weeks and it had become infected. A detailed filling in of the form, along with attached photos and I got a detailed text within 2 hours to say there was a prescription for antibiotic cream at the pharmacy. Absolutely fantastic.

Our GP Practice has had this for quite a while now and mainly it works. In our online booking it asks if you want to be seen or is a telephone call ok. We never get the same GP and sometimes get sent to a community hospital, so I always put in I want to be seen at GP Practice. Face to face appointments are rushed, whereas telephone appointments in my case are better, but I try and write down questions so I am ready. OP if your Father doesn’t have internet, then he should be able to still ring up and they should do the online firm for him.

I got a two week referral pathway for a mole I uploaded a photo of at 8am. By noon the referral was made. I never had to leave my desk.

it can work brilliantly but they should have opt outs for the elderly who are not digitally competent. Or the very vulnerable. My GP surgery does. Has your dad talked to his?

So, you want to discuss the management of chronic pain, which is one issue.
You can discuss that with the nurse practitioner who will run through pain levels and taking your meds/dosage. Which is what the Dr would do. The NP can, I think suggest and adjustments and the Dr can sign it off.
Telephone appointment for what you need seems perfectly fine to me.

I much prefer this system than trying to call at 8am, when I'm driving, and I don't have to grovel to an obstructive receptionist. Most importantly, it saves MY time.

That said my local PCN wrote to me recently on behalf of my GP to offer me participation in a virtual support network to reduce time spent at my GP. I've been twice in two years and once was at the request of my GP!

The email was badly written, patronising and drafted by a comms team. It was sent because the IT team used the wrong search parameters. Evidently I might have found social interaction challenging and they were offering me lovely chats about crafts and over a cuppa with like minded people they would match me to.

I imagine this level of incompetence is reflected throughout the country's PCN's, 170 of them. Ours has a budget of £10m. It doesn't exactly indicate judicious use of resources and I'd rather that money was spent on more GP's and good quality clinical care, than cottage industries of incompetence producing data to justify their existence.

My GP practice has had this since 2020ish. The system only works during practice hours which is mad imo. Once they've looked at your request, if they decide a phone appointment is appropriate you don't get given a rough window of when to expect the call - just am or pm.

We had this uproar 2 years ago when ours introduced an online triage service. I find it amazing. I fill in a form at a time of my choosing, and have often had a call back or an invitation to book within an hour, whether it was an emergency or not.

Our surgery have made it clear that if you don’t have internet access you can still ring, but the number of people that affects is getting smaller all the time. They also ran a help desk at the start at the surgery where they’d help older people sign up on the computer there if they did have access at home but weren’t sure how to get set up.

My GP has this and I prefer it to having to call up and tell the receptionist about my uti or whatever! Yours might be different but I’ve found that if the online system doesn’t give you something suitable you can just call them and explain and they will sort it out over the phone. In theory at least, the online system saves a lot of time especially for routine issues so frees up staff to deal with more complex things (or people who can’t access online).

It is unclear from your message what youd hope the GP could do to help with a face to face appointment. It sounds like they think what you need is a discussion about your current prescription and whether it can be changed or increased, in which case, what they suggested seems appropriate.

Our GP has the same system (but you can also book appointments online in advance) and it’s never been an issue for me. If it’s something that needs a doctor you can get in with a doctor, other times I’ve been referred to a nurse or asked to send a photo which has then got me an appointment.

It’s worked really well IME and is way better than waiting ages on the phone only to be told there are no appointments left.

We use the online askmyGP system. You need to submit your info between 8 and 9.30am and then you get a phone call, message or GP/nurse appointment depending on the issue

I submitted one recently with a photo of a spot on my neck that had been there for a year or 2 and got referred to dermatology with no need to see a GP. Has worked well for me over the time it's been in place.

We have online booking and it works brilliantly, they generally get back to you by text pretty quickly, within an hour or two if it’s within surgery times and sometimes on weekends even, they offer a phone consultation or in person at that point usually but for simple things they trust me with they have arranged a prescription or asked for a photo. Much more efficient than having to go in when you know what the problem is

Agree with others, our online system is good for this (terrible if you want to ask about something else!). I realised I needed to consult a doctor for my daughter at about lunchtime, filled the online form in and within an hour has a text message to say an appointment had been made for a follow-up in 3 weeks but for now a prescription was ready to collect at the pharmacy and would solve the problem short term. Can't complain about that!!

So it was to see if I have a condition that would explain some of my pain. I stated I would need to be examined for this condition.

Leaving aside the online system (VG in my experience), if you’re taking meds for your pain condition and want them reviewed, then I would imagine that a NP is not the correct person to see you, because anything other than basic analgesia would be outside of their competence and prescribing authority.

I don’t see NP’s on principle though, so that might be colouring my view!

I put I wanted a face to face but it was ignored. I hope so with my dad’s gp, he went and asked but came away confused. He doesn’t necessarily want to tell me why he’s needing a doctors appointment

Presumably you’re not a doctor?

There’s a huge limit of FTF appointments. It’s much better to speak with people on the phone and then see those that really need to be seen.

The pain meds review was already booked in. I requested a separate appointment firstly because our GP refuses to deal with more than one thing at a time and secondly because the only pathway to diagnosis is examination by gp so would need a face to face.

My GP has gone backwards on the online appointments thing; you used to be able to book online but they’ve gone back to either the 8am telephone scrum or an econsult. I presume online booking was being misused or maybe the percentage of missed appointments went up.

The econsult is better than nothing; they do respond within two days with either an appointment time or whatever else- prescription etc- but it does rely on you being eloquent /savvy enough to write the right keywords.

No issue speaking to NP about pain meds, they usually follow my (researched) lead and then request authorisation from dr.

No im not a doctor but I googled the nhs pathway for this condition and it starts with a physical examination by GP. The doctor would then decide if I have it or not or if it warrants further investigation.

Maybe they start with a telephone consultation and then take it from there. You may still get your face to face, just not as the initial contact

It sounds like it works well for one of issues like throat infection etc .
i can’t help but be concerned that it will miss important elements of people’s conditions that should be seen )not referring to my issue here)
I found our 8am p/call effective, it took around 10 mins to get through sometimes but you got an appointment that day if urgent or in two weeks if not.
I know the NP will not be able to help at best she will be able to request I have a doctors appointment but most likely she will tell me to make a seperate appointment. But will see what happens.

Get off Google.

The GP will know. It may well be that things have changed and they now do a phone call.