To think it should be possible to get a GP appointment at a specific time?

[WithTwoGiantBoys]

My GP surgery now has an eConsult first policy where you answer a whole bunch of random, repetitive or irrelevant questions to try to explain what you need which is then apparently triaged by a doctor. They then send you a text with a day when someone will call you, but no hint of the time. You have no say in when this day is.

I work in an open plan office in a workplace where there isn't anywhere appropriate to discuss private medical information without being overheard. If they gave me a time I could walk the ten minutes to the staff car park and sit in my car at the right time to wait for the call but they don't - I don't want to have to take a day off of work to wait in at home for the call when an actual appointment would take half an hour out of my day. It is like waiting in for a delivery window!

I called to complain that I just can't manage this and they have changed it so that I know the call will be in the afternoon, so I only have to take half a day off. I don't really think this is appropriate! It was also not possible to specify that I wanted to talk to a female doctor which, with the nature of the thing I want to discuss, makes me very uncomfortable, but I will just have to suck it up if I want any kind of treatment. It doesn't help that I absolutely HATE talking on the phone, an in an ideal world I would have a timed, in-person appointment with a female GP where I am comfortable to explain my issue.

YABU - medical treatment is the wild west, you cannot expect any aspect of it to be convenient

YANBU - privacy and dignity still matter, of course it should be possible to book a timed appointment

lol.

i mean yes it should but certainly with my practice this is not possible.

i had my last clinical review over the phone while in the frozen aisle at Tesco.

The reason they don’t give you a time may be that phone calls are add ons to the face to face sessions. If the GP has a ‘don’t show up’ patient they use that time to make their calls, check test results etc so it’s impossible to state an actual time and easier to give just an AM or PM slot. But I’m sure if you asked for an actual time they could book it but just means you may wait longer for a physical time slot.

No, I phoned and asked for an actual time. They wouldn't give me one as they don't have any bookable appointments in the next 4 weeks when the system cuts out. Best they could give me was to tell me it would be in the afternoon.

It is a routine (non-emergency) appointment so I either take the random time or I wait basically forever, until an in-person timed appointment comes up (and pigs fly and hell freezes over etc etc). Just because it is not an emergency doesn't mean it can wait forever.

Book a face to face appt then

YANBU. Even a rough idea would be better.
My mum was a teacher, and used to call and ask if she could go to the bottom of the queue, so there was a higher chance the call would come after the school day finished. Even that request was denied, even though you’d think just moving someone to the end of the “phone call patients” list was fairly simple and wouldn’t really affect anything else - she wasn’t asking to go first, or be scheduled in for a specific time.

You could just say when they phone "Hang on a minute, I just need to go outside". I highly doubt they would put the phone down on you

As I explained in my OP, you can't. You have to have an eConsult first then whatever they give you. When I called to try to change it to an in-person, or at least a timed slot, they were not able to do that.

There is nowhere private outside without quite a long walk - I work in a school. There is nowhere on site where I would be comfortable discussing private medical matters without the fear a child or colleague would overhear. Staff car park is ten minutes walk away.

Can you not just walk out of the office when they call to somewhere more private ? They will wait for you to get somewhere else if you explain. No big drama.

My gp surgery is the same. I do think that a phone appointment is okay for something simple. However i end up carrying my phone around with me all day. They don't even tell me whether they are phoning in the morning or afternoon.

Yanbu. I have to drag a struggling teen to the GP for an 8:45am appointment next week. It was the latest one available, could have picked 8am 🤯.
It'll be hell and meltdown central.

What about just outside of the school out of earshot ? Lots of people take private calls all the time in various jobs and manage. You could even take the call and say please call back in 5 mins when I'm in the car.

I need to get an appointment because the GP wants to discuss some odd blood tests. I have a one hour window on Wednesday I could make in the next fortnight but the chances of getting an appointment in that window are no doubt slim. I’ll have to call 8am on the morning and take my chances.

The way much of the NHS is set up it assumes we’re all sitting around waiting to get appointments, with nothing going on whatsoever.

As I explained, there is nowhere private where I wouldn't risk being overheard unless I take quite a long walk. The staff car park is ten minutes walk away.

Just ask the GP to call back in 5-10 mins when they call. They will. Problem solved.

I'm sure it can't be that far of a walk. Just go to the street? What do you think anyone who works in an open plan office does?

Answer & then tell them you need to go to a private area to continue the call.

Mine either waits for a couple of minutes while I get off the shopfloor or says they'll make the next call & then come back to me - which is usually 10-15 mins later anyway.

If during break time can see how it would be an issue but during class just stand in corridor or toilet surely. People are not milling around in class time

Mine do this as well. I also work in a public facing role. If I had a rough time, I could arrange to take my break and sit in the car and wait for the call, but I can't even be given a window like between 10.30-11am.

I feel like I have no privacy or dignity to discuss medical issues.

Any chance you could work from home some days, or does your employer not allow that?

I agree that the system is shit, and more often than not it doesn't work. I'm rather glad our surgery doesn't operate the econsult system - they did during some of the covid lockdowns, but ditched it soon afterwards.

I'm retired so it wouldn't bother me, but I can see how it would be a total pain in the arse in many working situations.

My GP surgery works the same way. I guess it means they can fill up the gaps in their day productively.

Do you have a disabled loo at work? That’s the most private space in my office

I agree that it’s really annoying but realistically just the way things are now.

My work is such that I can’t take a call while I’m working, it would be impossible because of what I’m doing.

My gp is pretty good and will text you to say they are calling after the next patient (so 8-10 minutes time approximately) or will put after 2pm if you ask too. Usually if I send the e consult when I wake up about 7 (when they turn the system on) I get a call before I leave for work at 8.40, you can also conduct it all by text if you prefer

Mine gives you a window. Last telephone appointment I had it was 8-12. I managed to block out my diary so I wasn’t in meetings all morning, which is no mean feat where I work. They hadn’t called by 12 so I went into back to back meetings for the afternoon and they called during one of them. I couldn’t answer so they wrote to me threatening me with a ‘no show’ and reminding me how much a missed appointment costs. Sigh. The NHS is dire.