To think that the NHS could reduce a lot of the burden on A&E depts by advertising their out of hours GP clinics more?

[CherryChoc]

At our local hospital, there is an OOH GP clinic. The desk is next to the A&E desk, but not signposted or anything. There is a sign above it saying something like "Fracture Clinic".

Also, if I phone my GP I get a recorded message with their opening times, thinking about it, they probably do say the OOH GP number on the end of the message but it is so long (and an 0845 number to ring them) that I've given up by that point.

The only reason I knew we had an OOH GP locally was because when I was pg I went to A&E about something not particularly urgent and they quietly pointed me in the direction of the desk. They gave me an appointment about 4 hours later and I went home (and actually ended up cancelling the appt as I felt better)

Now I've had to tell about 3 people in the last few months that the OOH GP service exists. They all thought (as I used to) that if they need to see a doctor outside of office hours, the only option is to go to A&E (and then complain when they are kept waiting for 10 hours and sent home with paracetamol). So why isn't it publicised more?

I only put in the part about the message because I don't actually know if it is on the end of it or not - I tend to hang up if I am getting lists of opening times because that tends to be the end of the message. I can't actually remember if I listened to the end or not, but I probably didn't. I do seem to remember ringing them and feeling stumped that they were closed and there was no information and not knowing what I was supposed to do now.

noted,bigchris,but you do have to listen to teh whole of teh GP message before you complain yuo don;t know what to do !!