AIBU to find my GP surgery communication process confusing and inappropriate?

[ThingsCan0nlyGetBetter]

I've had a really ODD interaction with my GP surgery, and trying to make sense of it.
I went to the GP (a new GP at rhe surgery who I've not met before) a while ago for an issue, and one of the questions was around family history of breast cancer. I confirmed that yes, my mum had been treated for breast camcer within the last 12.months but it was an unusual one, i promised to drop her a note to confirm.what it was.exactly. Now apppointments are now via the online.portal, but everything else seems to be a phone call to the receptionist.

Communication went like this:

• text to my.phone from GP (not her personal mobile, obvs, whatever it is that they use) reminding me for the info
• I call reception (eventually) confirming the info i had, which does not include the specific medical term
• Almost immediately get another text from GP saying thanks, but we need the specifics
• I then have to call receptionist aagain, having a long conversation with someone who is not my GP that my parents are both very elderly and unwell, i can't get any more out of them than i have, and i obviously cannot access my mum's medical records directly, and frankly it is both a surprise and a.privelige that they are even still with us to have a medical history to interrogate.given their health, and can the receptionist confirm whether this is how i am.meant to communicate with my GP going foreward - GP texts me.ans then I call the switchboard and have a long.conversation with receptionist about it? Receptionist's response was agreed, you should be contacted for a telephone appt by GP. Ok.
• About 6pm that same day (surgery now closed), i get a call from a.different receptionist to pass on a message from GP that she's very sorry and she understands and will pass my care on to a different GP. I was baffled - i quizzed this latest receptionist about this - have i offended the GP? Is she upset? I didn't say i wanted to change GPs, i just raised concerns about communications. The receptionist was as much help as a.chocolate teapot - she had no context, and she'd been asked to pass on a message
• I asked her if she could pass on a message BACK to my GP that i has no intention of complaining, apologies if it came across that way, no ossues with care just finding this new way of communicating really hard. (I regret doing this now, should have just set up a telephone appr with different GP when i had the chance,

TDLR: GP texts me questions about a current health matter and i need to call reception to share medical.history, in place of a tradition GP-patient appt, resulting i. Messages being passed back via reception.

is this normal now?. Strikes me as bloomin insane!

What do you want? Your GPs mobile number so you can reply directly? Should her other 3000 patients all be doing that too?

The text system they use is called accurx. They can enable responses but most don’t as it goes specifically into that GPs inbox & if they’re on holiday or not on shift nobody’s going to see it. It also only allows one response per message.

That’s partly what the Reception staff are there for - to pass on messages.

Of course i don't want
the GPs mobile! But neither do i want to field a back and forth conversation with the receptionist - if a conversation is needed, then an appointment is needed.

You want to take up a GP appointment, when we all know there aren’t enough as it is, just to tell your GP that your mum is frail & isn’t sure exactly what type of breast cancer she had/has?

Totally understandable your mum can’t recall specifics but in no way does that warrant an appointment unless you’re needing to discuss a genetics referral.

An appointment wasn’t needed for this.

All you needed to do was confirm to the receptionist what type, and if not - why you couldn’t. That’s all. Giving half a picture and entering in a protracted dialogue wasn’t useful.

It’s normal for a GP to be open until 6.

Yes, I'd like the follow up appointment the GP herself stipulated following the initial appointment. Which would be the second time I've been to the GP in the last 10 years, so totally not feeling bad about that.

I'm a GP and I think YANBU. It's absolutely maddening that NHS General Practice is so under-resourced that communication and continuity of care can be difficult. But sadly there are no easy solutions. The economics don't really work. With the ageing population, and the public understandably not wanting to pay more tax, the NHS is in a slow death spiral. I still do some NHS work, but increasingly I work in the private sector. If you were one of my private patients you could email me directly and easily. I wouldn't charge for a brief email exchange. But a face-to-face appointment with me is £120.

They only wanted a few details it’s perfectly reasonable to give this to the receptionist, it doesn’t warrant an appointment with the gp.
You Weren’t having a medical consultation just some details for your file.

Yes.

i’m disabled and have a chronic illness and communication is a mixture of texts that can’t be replied to, so I reply by putting in an e consult which may or may not reach the right person.

or they phone me, and I have limited speech (this is flagged on my file) so that isn’t usually effective either.

most recent message was “could you pop in to make an appointment” well I use a wheelchair and have limited speech so not easily, no.

it’s a bit shit at the moment, certainly with mine.

Email.

Not normal for my GP

appointments - ring in the morning but no rush, or ring after 1pm. You’ll be seen the same day and can pick phone or face to face. Failing that, ring at 6pm and you’ll be seen between 6-8pm. They also do Saturday and Sunday mornings (not at my own doctors but it’s a local one)

communication - I needed to get some info to them so I just sent an email, or you can ring reception, call in etc. I was having a text conversation about something else and needed to ask for vaginal oestrogen and it was “sure, that’s going to the chemist now for you”

I changed to this GP after my old one got harder and harder and it’s like night and day

as an example I wanted to increase my thyroid meds as my TSH was at 4 and I felt shit. Old GP flatly refused and said it was dangerously low?!. New GP did 2 sides of a4 bloods as a “new patient baseline” and immediately upped my meds saying how rubbish I must feel and retested every 3 months until it was right