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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

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

350 replies

mersmam · 25/02/2009 18:14

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?

OP posts:

MsSparkle · 28/02/2009 16:07

Libra i'm not saying gps shouldn't have lives, i am saying if every GP worked just one or two evening a week and took it in turns to do weekends, the strain on appointments wouldn't be so great. I don't think this is an unreasonable request.

At my surgery, all the gps go home at 6pm, the surgery is closed between 1 and 2pm and is closed all weekend.

Like fivecandles just said, she is a teacher and so cannot leave work. If she can't get an appointment at lunchtime, in the evening or at the weekend, what is she supposed to do? Surgerys think people are just being impatient wanting an appointment when it suits them. Well for some, they don't get alot of choice when they can attend an appointment with people working longer and longer hours these days. Not everyone can attend an appointment either between 8am and 1pm or between 2pm and 6pm. Which is why GPs need to start working out of hours.

And i'm sorry to disappoint you but no, i am not a Daily Mail reader

MsSparkle · 28/02/2009 16:10

"at what point is the GP allowed to say no I've done my bit for the day?"

Not at 6pm every night Mon - Fri, thats for sure!

macdoodle · 28/02/2009 16:10

"To be fair even the Govt recognizes this and is trying to make an effort to change"

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Yes because of course we all know how much better the NHS is since Nulabour came to power - thats just about the funniest thing I have read today !!!

fivecandles · 28/02/2009 16:10

' also don't accept your interpretation of reception staff behaviour.'

I find this incredibly arrogant and patronising.

Are you really telling us that we are incapable of recognizing rude or unhelpful behaviour.

You weren't there and yet you are automaticalyl defending people you don't know without evidnece.

This is what gets people's backs up. A refusal to accept their complaints or feelings or even to accept they are human beings with righta at all.

Nobody has said that all GPs receptionists are like this but clearly there are problems (clearly reinforced by a complaints procedure that doesn't work effectively, appointment systems that don't work effectively, administrative incompetence, computer systems that don't work properly, lack of staff training etc etc) . To deny this and dismiss concerns adds to the problem and reinforces people's sense that they are not listened to and not taken seriously.

Northernlurker · 28/02/2009 16:11

Fivecandles - your address should have been taken off but if the patient doesn't notify the hospital of the address how will they know it? Incidentally - how do you know he suffered from schizophrenia - did you read the letters - were they not marked private and confidential?

Also the reason your surgery is shut at lunchtimes is because your GP will be off doing house calls then - as they will at the end of the day too.

Mssparkle - yes doctors enter the profession to minster to the sick. That doesn't mean they sign over their whole life to that calling. Bakers are very fond of the cake eating public but they're not chained to their ovens!

macdoodle · 28/02/2009 16:12

""at what point is the GP allowed to say no I've done my bit for the day?"

Not at 6pm every night Mon - Fri, thats for sure! "

OMG not sure whether to laugh or cry - hold on a sec I'll just lock my children up so I can work 24 hrs a day 7 days a week - BECAUSE YOU say so - now thats not funny thats just plain IGNORANT insulting and offensive [angry}

fivecandles · 28/02/2009 16:15

Why is it not possible just to accept that making an appt. to see your GP is not as easy as it should be for many people?

When this is so clearly the case.

And then look for ways to improve this situation.

MsSparkle · 28/02/2009 16:16

No Northernlurker, bakers work throughout the night so their customers can buy their bun/roll/whatever before they arrive at work.

fivecandles · 28/02/2009 16:18

Northern, you are still in defensive (and implying that the patients are to blame) mode. You need to acknowledge there are problems which are no fault of the patient.

I've already said I opened the first letter by mistake. I knew the patient was schizophrenic because his parents (who lived in our house before us) told me. He had moved out to live in secure accommodation before they did.

I'm glad I did read the letter because it meant I could contact the hospital to let them know of their error. And then again the next time and the next time and the next time.

We haven't had any letters for a few months now so I am hopeful that they are going to this young man's address where they should be.

macdoodle · 28/02/2009 16:18

ok five candles I have a task for you!
My excellent surgery if I say so myself - has 6 doctors and 3 nurse - we have 7 000 patients - of those say 10% want to be seen every day on the specific day it suits them at a specific time by a specific dr!
I challenge you to come to my surgery and devise an easy simple solution so that every patient can be seen when and how they like whether there is any clinical need or not.......oh I would quite like it if your solution didnt involve me working 24/7 ta!

Just to note that our excellent business manager (who earns more than half of the drs do) spends a great deal of his time on this exact problem, just in case you tought we were al swanning about doing nothing all day!!!

fivecandles · 28/02/2009 16:19

But the fact that my GP is closed at lunchtime means it is even more difficult for patients to see a GP.

Not every GP in the large practice is doing house calls. TBH if I thought that was the case I'd be a lot more sympathetic.

Getting a GP to do a house call is virtually impossible around me.

Northernlurker · 28/02/2009 16:20

Fivecandles - ms sparkle said 'I am fed up of hearing about hard done by gps with their big pay packets and standard hours and hard done by receptionists who don't know how to be proffessional.' - how's that for a generalisation without evidence. All you and others have done on this thread is to labour the point that GP reception staff are invariably rude and unprofessional based on a few isolated experiences. I have repeatedly said that the NHS should learn from it's mistakes and that is what I seek to do in my work. I'm not dismissing your concerns but neither am I going to indulge in breastbeating to please you. The GP sysytem isn't perfect but it is an effective way of providing free at the point of use healthcare to the nation. It's never going to be exactly what you want because it isn't a personalised tailored service. It would be nice if people could grasp that fact.

MsSparkle · 28/02/2009 16:21

"OMG not sure whether to laugh or cry - hold on a sec I'll just lock my children up so I can work 24 hrs a day 7 days a week - BECAUSE YOU say so - now thats not funny thats just plain IGNORANT insulting and offensive "

No one is saying they have to work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. That's just being over dramatic and silly. I cannot believe GPs think it's such an unreasonable request to work ONE or TWO evenings a week and maybe ONE DAY at the weekend in turns. Especially when they knew, going into their proffession they would be doing a very responsible job by serving the sick public that ARE PAYING THEM TO DO SO!

fivecandles · 28/02/2009 16:22

I don't see why it's not possible to have an online or telephone booking system which would free up the Receptionsit time to deal with cases that need them.

Personalyl, I'd be delighted if I never had to speak to one again. It would save my time and stop me getting distressed. And prevent the need for me to have to justify why I am seeing a GP when I am intelligent enough to work out that I need to see a GP for myself.

fivecandles · 28/02/2009 16:22

I don't see why it's not possible to have an online or telephone booking system which would free up the Receptionsit time to deal with cases that need them.

MsSparkle · 28/02/2009 16:24

No Northernlurker, ms sparkle said 'I am fed up of hearing about SOME hard done by gps with their big pay packets and standard hours and hard done by receptionists who don't know how to be proffessional.'

Not all, SOME If your going to quote me, do it properly!

fivecandles · 28/02/2009 16:25

Northern, you are not being fair.

I have told you that EVERY time I have made an appt. with my GP it has been at best unpleasant and at worse very distressing.

Other people have said the same or worse things.

Your assumption is that we are ALL just talking about the odd incident and that we are too stupid to understand that the receptionsit have difficult jobs etc etc

Why can't you just accept that there are some real problems with making an appt. with a GP for a whole host of reasons for mayn people and that THIS MATTERS????

fivecandles · 28/02/2009 16:26

For example, if I say that I don't want to discuss my private medical details with a receptionist who is not medically trained or qualifed before making an appt. with my GP then that should be respected.

fivecandles · 28/02/2009 16:29

Northern, it's also a bit odd that you've set yourself up to defend GPs receptionsist per se. This is not your job and not your responsibiltiy. You cannot speak in defense of these people when you no nothing about the cases in question except what you are being told here.

People get very annoyed when their concerns are not taken seriously (or it is implied that it's all somehow their fault).

The research I linked to earleir said that the NHS is very poor at dealing with pateitn complaints and if this thread and my experience is anything to go by this is very obviosuyl so.

Northernlurker · 28/02/2009 16:29

I'm not in defensive mode - I'm in patronising and arrogant mode.

To labour the point once more - it is not the hospital's fault that they don't have that man's address. He moved without telling them, they are not pyschic nor do they employ personal detectives. In knowingly holding incorrect data they were at fault - but it is the patient who didn't update them with his address!

Oh and the reason you can't get a house call is that because - if you are reasonably able-bodied - that service is not designed for your use. House calls are for those who can't get to the surgery - not those who would rather not.

fivecandles · 28/02/2009 16:31

I think Sparkle's point is as well that we respect that they do a difficult job but that doesn't excuse unhelpful, rude and unprofesional behaviour. They are there to provide a service to pateints who are paying their wages ultiamtely. If they don't feel able to deal with pateints respectfully an with dignity then quite clerly they shouldn't be doing that job.

fivecandles · 28/02/2009 16:33

YOu're missing the point NOrther. It IS their fault that they continued to send letters addressed to him to MY address after I had told them once, then again and again and again. They should have made an effort to update his details. In fact, I got quite friendly with the secretart in the end because I spoke to her so many times and she said they DID have his new address.

Northernlurker · 28/02/2009 16:33

Ms Sparkle - I didn't quote you - I cut and pasted your post of 15.18 and there's no 'some' there.

MsSparkle · 28/02/2009 16:35

"To labour the point once more - it is not the hospital's fault that they don't have that man's address. He moved without telling them, they are not pyschic nor do they employ personal detectives. In knowingly holding incorrect data they were at fault - but it is the patient who didn't update them with his address"

Agree with you on that point but it sounds like the lady who kept recieving the letters, notified the hospital on several occations to tell them the patient no longer lived at that address and yet they still kept sending out letters.

I have lost count of the amount of times the hospital have messed up letters/sent the wrong thing etc to me and to many many people i know. Mistakes do happen yes, but that many mistakes is just ridiculas.

fivecandles · 28/02/2009 16:37

Again, Northern, you are patronising and dismissive and make assumptions (which imply the patient is at fault). I'v nevever asked for ahose visit for MYSELF. I am talking about how hard it is to get a house call around here. And again research says this is typical. I once asked for one for my father who is disabled, suffers from MS is elderly and had a high fever and was suffering from a UTI. After many phone calls the GP didn't turn up. My father had to go down to the surgery the next day in the end.

I'd seriously love to believe that all 6 of the GPs at my surgety went out on house calls every lunchtime. Saldy this is not the case. A lot of GPs work shifts so they might work from 9 to 12 or 2 till 6. Such a hard life!

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