FML, it's no wonder the NHS has no money.

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I have an issue that is causing me a lot of pain. I know what it is and I know what the treatment is. I've tried all the self management techniques, but I'm still in significant pain and it's been affecting sleep for 3 months now.

I know it's not serious or urgent but it is having significant impact on my quality of life.

I hardly ever use the NHS (touch wood) and being a responsible citizen, checked my GP's website and used their e-consult form to send all the details of what's happened to date, and ask for help.

They text back with an appointment at their "sister surgery" in the evening a few days later. I didn't ask for or want an urgent or out of hours appointment, that's what I was given. TBH I assumed it was extended hours rather than OOH iyswim.

I've been tonight to be told that the doctor (?) doesn't think it can be treated on the NHS but that I should see my GP to check.

So a complete waste of everyone's time and money, when they had all the information he's asked for tonight already. And now I have to start again and try and get a GP appointment, which is what I thought I'd already done.

I know it will be process etc, but what a wasteful process. The cynic in me thinks it might be a way of manipulating figures to show people get appointments within so many days, even if theyre no appropriate appointments.

What does an unnecessary and pointless OOH appointment cost the NHS?

Well why didn’t you ask to be registered as housebound and/ or put on the district nurse round in that case given that they asked you what would help? I guess those injuries will heal so the other option would be to postpone until you are able to make it. If you don’t have required blood monitoring the GP may no longer feel it is safe to carry on prescribing so it is in your interests that they try to resolve this and not just ‘box ticking’ for them

Muscular/skeletal condition that OP wants chiropractic therapy for I'm guessing.

The problem is they don't know that your self diagnosis is correct. You're symptoms may have also indicated something more urgent which was then presumably ruled out. You may very well understand and really know but many people make wildly wrong assumptions.

What a waste of time it would be for a doctor to read everyone's notes before handing to a receptionist to contact for routine appointments. Also that doesn't necessarily mean you are housebound - maybe a friend could have dropped you off, or you could have got a taxi. It would be very remiss of them to not offer an appointment in the assumption that you wouldn't be able to attend.

You could have said, could someone come out to take blood or can it wait until I'm fit. Do you think the nurse/receptionist organising routine blood tests reads all your notes? It will just be a list she is going through.

Yes, of course, but I'd answered all those questions and told them what it was (from a diagnosis from a private physio) in the original request.

So you’re after jumping the queue because you paid to go private. Sadly that’s not how it works.

Often MNers complain their condition is not being taken seriously by NHS.
Now OP is complaining that her condition was taken too seriously.

My take-away from this thread: do not put a lot of credit towards posters who say either "too seriously" or "not seriously enough"

Exactly.

I can't be doing with people who pull an entirely undeserved and unwarranted smart arse 'gotcha' to a hapless person just doing something she's been asked to do. And then boast about it.

Well I'd have thought have too. I'm confused too. I asked for a non urgent GP appointment. They sent me to out of hours, almost a week later, so not urgently. I'd assumed it was some sort of extended hours clinic, I didnt know it was OOH, I don't know if the man I saw was a GP or another HCP, but he didn't "think" it was something the NHS would treat but said I should see GP to check.

I also asked who I'd need to see to get it treated privately and he couldn't tell me that either.

It's a Ganglion. I know it's harmless but it causes enormous pain at night.

The NHS won’t treat that as it’s largely cosmetic.

Surely the people you paid for scans are best placed to answer questions about private treatment? The NHS isn’t a tourist information board!

I want an appointment with the appropriate professional based on the information I gave them. The HCP I saw didn't ask any questions I hadn't already answered. I thought that was the point of having to answer so many questions at the appointment booking stage.

Our doctors has someone manning triage for those online forms but I cannot thathom the reasoning behind the appointments they give

I asked them to share a phone number for the adhd team as no one was answering the number I had....... told I needed to bring my son in immediately which puzzled the doctor
Sent a request for physio referral for my daughter, that was next day appointment at 9pm to see a physio for plantar faciatous....... she has cerebral palsy so couldn't help
And I realised I couldn't find documentation of my last b12 injection, receptionist rang and told me it had been a year and that it was a medical emergency ( symptomatic in a bad state)......... appointment booked for 6 weeks time

The guidelines for the triage obviously aren't working, not the staff members fault who runs it, she has to follow what someone in their wisdom set as the parameters

Don’t waste a GP appt if you already know that you won’t get it treated on the NHS (I think you probably won’t because they go away on their own in the end- you could always go with the old wives tale and try hitting it with a bible I guess) I think it would be a plastic surgeon that you’d want for that if you can afford a private referral.

Hiw can something that keeps you awake in pain at night be "largely cosmetic". Some are maybe, but this isn't.

Because, at the end of the day, it is. I sympathise, I have a painful injury that they will not prescribe painkillers for. But if you’re willing to go private for some of it, you’ll need to go private for removal too.

It is unusual that a GP has asked you to see your GP (unless it wasn't a GP you saw). Something clearly went wrong when booking you an appointment. Ganglions can be treated on the NHS if causing pain affecting quality of life such as in your case. I would contact the GP again and ask for a referral to orthopaedics to assess whether you meet their criteria.

I don't/didn't know that. And my GP surgery is telling me I should book a GP appointment.

What ?. She didn’t want an OOH appt, she wanted to see a GP. Whoever she saw did nothing for her pain and referred back to her GP, who she wanted to see in the first place. She now has to repeat the whole process and wait to see a GP. I work for the NHS in a clinical role and this sort of thing goes on all the time. It’s so frustrating and a total wastes of time.

It will probably be the case that the NHS will treat it because its causing pain, but will have to apply for funding first because it will fall under their evidence based interventions policy. In which case, yes you need to see the GP.

She’s admitted she knew she was unlikely to be treated on the NHS, and had been private for scans, and was after being signposted to private care. The best place to find out where to go is the internet. Not the GP.

Because I didn't know that's what I'd been given. The appointment was almost a week after my request, at what they called their "sister surgery" at 6:30pm. I assumed it was some initiative to provide extra routine appointments, no one said it was OOH with a limited serice, not an ordinary GP appointment.

Well ok then but don’t then complain that they aren’t helpful when you already know they won’t be helpful. You sad you already know what’s wrong and what you need so why book an appointment just because the system said so what you already know it’s likely a waste of time? It is very unlikely a ganglion would be removed or treated on the NHS and if it was I would imagine there would be a long wait.

So it’s the NHS fault that you refuse to do a blood test that needs to be done to manage your condition? How dare they suggest it? What did you expect them to do, order a helicopter?
Change the surgery to a closer one if that’s the issue.

Where did I say I knew it wouldn't be treated on the NHS? I absolutely thought, when I made the appointment, that the NHS would want to treat the kind of pain that keeps you awake at night, affecting all aspects of your health and quality if life. I (thankfully) have never used the NHS much, but I did think this is what they do.

I haven't paid for private scans, I went to a private physio with foot pain, who told me what it was and to see my GP.