to really have it in for GP's surgeries...

[mersmam]

Had an appointment with my community midwife today (I'm 30 weeks pregnant and haven't seen her since I was 16 weeks, which was when she made the appointment.)
Got to the drs surgery to find it locked and a notice up saying that the surgery is closed this afternoon for staff training! As far as I'm aware there has been no attempt to contact me about this! I rang the midwife's office straight away but could only leave a message and have so far had no response.
Am really annoyed as have arranged my whole day around the appointment (and DH had arranged to work from home so he could come too).
Generally I am just sick of the whole GP system - I can never get an appointment at a convenient time - when I do I always have to wait at least half an hour (no joke with three DCs under 5) and the staff on reception are rude.
I asked for a home visit once as I was ill along with all the DCs and you'd think I'd asked for the moon...

The thing with the midwife today feels like the final straw...

Should I change surgeries to somewhere further away (which would be less convenient?) or are they all like this?

Fivecandles - I think I may speak about what I know. You scertainly seem happy to speak about a range of issues - incuding staff training which you alluded to earlier, despite knowing nothing more than what you can see as a user.

I'm not missing the point about the letters - I've said at least twice they should not have been sent - but I have also said repeatedly that it is the patient's responsibility to update their address. A responsibility that it seems to suit you to ignore.

Macdoodle - did they not point out to you when you registered with the GMC that by doing so you were signing your life away in return for a tax payer funded salary?

Appologies then, i could have swore i wrote "some" Either way, i was refering to some AND NOT ALL GPS

Of course receptionists aren't given adequate training

Are you saying I've got this wrong?

Northern, your immediate assumption that people don't know what they're talking about and refusal to accept the validity of their experiences is deeply unhelpful.

Far from making the NHS seem better than it is you're actually making it seem quite a lot worse.

You're repeating the message that patients don't know what they're talking about and shouldn't be complaining and that anyone in the NHS is automatically rihgt.

'despite knowing nothing more than what you can see as a user.'

How do you know what I know about the NHS? And are my experiences and understanding and knowledge less valid just because I'm a 'user' and not a practiioner.

I think this is outrageously offensive TBH.

I have been spoken to so rudely by GP receptionists I have been nearly in tears. Frankly in my job if I spoke to a member of the public in such a way I would be sacked.
On more than one occasion I have heard them talking to people on the phone and professing a medical opinion which is shocking. And dangerous.
Case reported in local press this week - chap turns up at GP practice tells receptionist he is concerned as experiencing chest pain - she says no appointments go to walk in centre. He goes to walk in centre and they realise he is having a heart attack and phone an ambulance.
it would have been on that receptionist's conscience if that chap had collapsed and died on his way out of the surgery.
She might not have had any appointments but where is her common sense in that situation???? and dont say oh he should have gone to A & E sometimes people think they are over reacting so go to the GP first before as they see it bothering the hospital.

"Macdoodle - did they not point out to you when you registered with the GMC that by doing so you were signing your life away in return for a tax payer funded salary?"

Gosh no NL I missed the small print on that one !

Since we are so hot on personal experience being used as "evidence" - i would like to share mine ...

I have been a dr for 15 years and a GP for 6....I am a single parent to 2 DD's (age 7 and 14 months), my STBXH is abusive and nasty - I, shock horror, work shifts in order to actually spend some time with my children...
I live in a very modest 3 bed (the 3rd bed is a small boxroom), 1970's terraced house, my lounge carpet is threadbare, my settee very old and worn....I drive a 10 year old battered Renault Scenic .....I work very very hard when I am at work, I care a lot about my patients, our practice is always striving to improve things, it is a thankless task ...
I actually dont know any of these fat cat, lazy GP's that the Daily Mail is so fond of
I love my job, and cannot imagine doing anything else, BUT it is a JOB, I expect to get paid in line with my training and expertise and treated with respect - I do not expect to be slagged off and criticised at every turn because I am not seen to be delivering exactly what people want....

This thread makes me very sad and I think I will not be coming back

And that is what is being discussed here. The experiences of 'users'. And they're almost all saying that they've had bad experiences. That's all they need to know TBH.

But then the research tallies with this. It says that patient's complaints are not handled properly. Just because I'm not a doctor doesn't mean I'm not capable of reading the papers and taking an itnerest in research to do with the NHS. I do know quite a lot about in fact.

And FWIW what exactly do you think we do at lunchtime??? Trust me its not eating lunch!!!

I know in my local sugerys that they won't give you a home visit based on your age rather than your illness. I said about my mother being on a ventilator for a week, when she went home, she couldn't walk without a frame, we are talking about a 58 yr old woman here, not a 90 yr old. She needed a home visit as she seriously house bound but they wouldn't send someone out because she was too young She had just had a very rare form of her illness and she couldn't see a doctor!

They said the same to me when i phoned for an appointment for a home visit for dp. He could no way get to the surgery but again they said he was too young. He got so bad during the night we had to get someone out, a paramedic.

That's simply bollocks fivecandles.

I didn't realise you were an expert on the training given to NHS administrative staff? What qualifies you to say they are inadequately trained?

I have never said people shouldn't complain - but I do think it is helpful to appreciate the broader picture - and I have repeatedly said that the NHS learns, should learn and will continue to learn from it's mistakes. Don't tell me not to support my colleagues - in the face of unjustified generalised attacks and unfair condemnation I will support them.

Careergirl - that story is shocking and I'm sure will be the subject of searching enquiries as to how they came to turn that man away.

Like I said many GPw work in shifts.

It's deeply unhelpful not to acknowledge patient's concerns and to admit that their are failings and weaknesses and things that could be improved without seeing this as some sort of personal attack.

Surely, we can all agree that for many patients it's more difficult to make an appointment at their GPs than it should be?

And that there is room for improvement both in the efficiency of appoinmtnet making systems and in the attitude of at least some receptionsits?

Can't we agree on those things?

Macdoodle speaks a lot of sense. You should listen to what she is saying rather than attacking.

Macdoodle if you ever get a chance check out the bloggers Dr. Rant and Dr. Crippen.

My experience as a nurse has taught me that the public has unrealistic expectations, that the NHS will not give hospitals and surgeries the resources that they need to give the patients what they want/need, and GP's earn every goddamn penny that they get. Every one.

Northern it is a fact.

Please don't assume that because I don't work in the NHS I know nothing about it and that my experiences are not legitimate.

That is a large part of the problem that we're talking about here.

Actualyl pram. I'm not the one attacking. I am speaking fairly objectively about the problems that I and other patients have experienced.

Is that not allowed?

Apparently not, because certain people are making all sorts of assumptions about what we're saying which mount up to the fact if patients complain then they're obviously stupid, know nothing about the NHS and really should just shut up about any difficult experiences they've had.

Ms Sparkle

did you complain? did you complain when they didt visit your mom? did you complain when hey didnt visit you ds and he got sick??

Loving the way that I need a qualification in order to know that GP receptionists are inadeuqately trained and yet they don't need any sort of medical training or qualfications to discuss patient's medical concerns and make a judgement about whether or not they're ill enough to see a doctor

So is this situation, which happens all the time at surgerys, right then?

Receptionist has just been on the phone for 15 minutes to a nasty, rude person damanding an appointment. The reception lady feels pissed off, is hating her job at that moment and wants to go home.

The phone rings again, it's a really nice, polite person asking for an appontment. The reception lady is still pissed off and annoyed from her last phonecall and takes this out on the nice, polite person, who is only phoning to make a basic appointment, by being really short, rude and dismissive to them.

This is what people are talking about! They aren't saying they think it's right that reception ladies get abuse, they are basically saying, don't take it out on the ones who aren't rude! This is very unproffessional!

Nurses and docs better than anyone how and why the NHS fails. But the patients don't really have any insight. They don't always understand how tied our hands are and how little we can do.
Even working a 14 hour shift without stopping as a nurse, I can do very little for the patients.

Ms Sparkle ......

did you complain? did you complain when they didt visit your mom? did you complain when hey didnt visit you ds and he got sick??

MSparkle, it is never one abusive phonecall..it is countless abusive phonecalls constantly.

People want and demand what the NHS staff cannot always give. It wears the staff down.

Mssparkle

.....i assume you did complain...go on tell us how they responded when you complained..

Sorry to double post, here is that link I was talking about earlier from the blogging GP:

www.drrant.net/2007/12/what-is-fucking-point-part-one.html

pramspotter, i understand that, but it still doesn't give them the right to be short and rude to the ones who aren't being abusive and difficult.

Anyone who works directly with the public suffer the same problems!

No, i didn't complain. Going by this thread, it doesn't seem as if i would be taken seriously anyhow. My mother is complaining about the way she was treated on her ward after she came out of hdu though. That was out of order!

The care on the wards is horrendous even though the nurses are working their arses off and are very caring.

I know a lot of patients who expect one to one care and get violently pissed off at the staff when they do not get it. If a patient comes out of hdu alive than the nurses probably did well. There is not enough time in the day for them to do anything but put out fires. The nurses complain to management on behalf of the patients all the time.

I am glad she is complaining but management won't do a thing, I can tell you right now.

Mssparkle - sorry that is a very poor excuse.

So how do you expect the system to change if you dont let people know via the official routes you are unhappy with the service you are getting??

I said this near the start ish of the thread- the problem is made worse because we dont complain using the systems in place...if we are unhappy with the practice response the complaint can go higher and higher etc

So PLEASE if you feel strongle enough to spend time on this thread- do something constructive and let the practices know.