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

Completely ridiculous and very unfair situation OP. To the people suggesting the OP just step out of the classroom into the corridor to take a potentially very private personal call, neither part of that is permitted in a lot of schools and school corridors aren't quiet places where you won't be overheard.

That's what I do. Where I work is very noisy so I just ask if they could wait whilst I go somewhere quieter or if they would prefer to call back in 10-`15 minutes. Never had a problem with it.

Does your practice have a patient liaison group or patient participation group? It would be worth writing to them explaining your situation. I totally get that in some workplaces it is not possible to break off what you are doing to speak to a doctor. Our practice used to have a system where you could only fill in an e-consult form first thing in the morning which was impossible for me. I wrote to the patient liaison group and they changed it so that the e-consult form opens at various different times in the day and there is even an evening slot.

I feel your pain.

I had a call with an oncologist booked for 2.30pm, having just been diagnosed with bc, so I was still reeling. I worked in a serviced office so booked a meeting room (£50 per half hour) to take the call.

He rang at 1.35 forcing me to take the call in the open office with several people including one very nasty person, listening in to the details I couldn't avoid giving. It was horrendous. Caused all sorts of problems.

I've been making an appointment. I had a test done which needed a follow up. No, there is no point waiting for them to contact me for the follow up. The last time I had this (in 2024) I'm still waiting for them to contact me...

So in order to get a follow up appointment, I have had to write the basic need. Follow up appointment/test result etc got no search results. So I was reduced to going back to the original symptom. This means I had to wade through pages of questions of things like "when was the last time you were declared clinically dead: this morning, yesterday, last week, last month, further back, none of the above".
When I got to the end it told me there were no appointments so I was allowed to write up to 300 characters. So I put that I needed a follow up appointment etc.

Then I got an email from a doctor to say I <surprise> needed an appointment. Goodness, Holmes, I wonder how you deduced that.
So I get a link to click on to a set of appointments for about a month's time. So the "no appointments" wasn't strictly true was it?

And this is meant to be simpler than phoning the receptionist and getting an appointment...
I can't see in any way it was simpler.

It involved me spending 10 minutes, longer than I ever waited in a phone queue for the GP 10 years ago when our practice worked, to get to the point to type in why I needed an appointment.
Then a doctor to email me to say I needed an appointment.
Then me to click on a link, enter various bits of personal information before I could choose an appointment.

And I'm fairly computer literate. I've known various people just give up before they completed part one.

My GP surgery is part of a group and wanted to send me over 10 miles away for a routine blood pressure check (I live in an urban area & my GP is a mile away) and wanted to send me a similar distance when I last tried to get a face-face appointment (waited two weeks instead for a phone appointment). I work full time in a place where you can’t take your mobile phone on the premises. I’m on HRT and could do with a review as I spend half the month bleeding but can’t face the rigamarole of trying to book or get a local appointment.

How?? My surgery still won't see people face to face.

Yanbu I don't have a job where I can answer the phone so I have to take time off as if they just said we will call you at 1 I can go out off work for 10 minutes. Ours does say whether it will be morning or afternoon but I've had it before where I've been told they will call in the morning but not ring until 6.30 pm and then if you don't answer they have the cheek to put down I missed the appointment. Like excuse me I was available during the appointment you missed the appointment.