GP's please why are you not back to seeing us face to face

[whenwillthemadnessend]

Just that really ?

Please can any GP's explain the reasoning

If dentists physios and accident and emergency doctors can see people why can't GP doctors?

@Livinginthecity

Private doctors are seeing patients face to face. I've seen one recently for a blood test as I got tired of being told to go away by the NHS one.

I’ve used one off private healthcare three times now since the pandemic began. It makes me sad to have to do it because that’s exactly what the dismantlers of the NHS want but these things couldn’t wait.

@DumplingsAndStew

Do any NHS dentists foresee when service should return to normal? My youngest DC has been waiting to have a suspected tumour removed from her gum since 2019. We've had appointments cancelled by her dentist and the city dental hospital, and nothing rescheduled. They think it's "likely benign" but "can't be sure until a biopsy is done"

Meanwhile, my eldest is under the care of a different dentist and has had routine appointments and work carried out throughout.

My NHS dentist has restarted work

the support staff aren’t even on national living wage

That can't be true, it's the law to pay national living wage to everyone over 23. It's just another name for minimum wage really.

The National Living Wage is different from the minimum wage.

To the GP's on here, I always thought of you as private contractors, so not part of the NHS, but paid by the NHS to provide a service, is that right ?

What I always find shocking with these threads is the disparity in different regions of the UK. Kazzyhoward hasn't had their diabetic screening tests where they live, yet my DH has had both the eye and foot screening in the last few months, neither of which are provided by the GP practice though, they are provided by the specific NHS screening service here.

Ours are back to appointments face to face if the patient chooses - I was able to choose back in late January for my anxiety appointment.

But I think phone consultations are here to stay where possible, to be honest. There's no need to see patients for some issues, and while some would rather be seen face to face (which I assume they'll be given the option of doing) having at least a portion of them as phone consultations will help things run much more smoothly.

DumplingsAndStew if your DD has been seen and is on a waiting list call up the hospital and ask for the appointments telephone line they'll be able to tell you where she is on the list. Our local hospital has seen all patients from 2019/early 2020 and although the waiting times are lengthy in my area I'd have expected her to have reached the top of the list by now.
If she hasn't been seen for a dental check up with your dentist call them and ask them when they are seeing children and remind them she has a lump and the hospital haven't reviewed it either and you would appreciate someone keeping an eye on it.

@whenwillthemadnessend

Dumplings it's not utter nonsense. There are plenty of cases of this happening. Me included.

So it’s because they don’t think that you need a face to face appointment for what you feel is wrong.

There was a dip in cancer referrals but my friend’s boyfriend says he’s got more again

I don't think our GP is seeing many patients face to face. I had a phone consultation about DS1 and they asked me to bring him in. At the end of the appointment the doctor said how nice it was to see someone in real life!

At my GP you fill in an online form with all your details and then you get a phone call back. You don't get told when the call will be and there is only space for one 'phone number. I work part time and mobile phones are not allowed so there choosing a number to give is tricky. They then call the mobile and leave a message to call back so I call back and I am "number one in the queue" and my "call is important to us" for over an hour before the line cuts out (and this is not just a one off!).

I have had two reminders from the local health authority about my smear test and have emailed the GP about getting it done but got an email back saying that that GPs are currently working remotely apart from Covid Vaccination clinics and routine screening tests are not currently available.

I drive past the surgery on my way to and from work and the staff car park which is usually full is empty.

@Lulu1919

I rang GP 11 days ago Finally got through to the receptionist In pain due to a back issue ....wanted stronger painkillers Was told a GP would ring later that day as she could tell I was in a lot of pain Nobody rang At 5 pm I got a text message to say someone would ring me 31st March at 9-30am Sorry but I don't think that's acceptable This as happened at my surgery a few times that I know of So I shall be complaining !!! Let's hope I get the phone call today

So he rang.... Can't offer me anything stronger ...going to try a different pain relief gel Now if someone had rung me back when they said they would 10 days ago I'd have known that then I could have been using a diff gel and possibly now be out of pain !!!!!

I much prefer the online and telephone consultations! It means I can fit healthcare in around my day job and when I have had to go in in person, I’m not waiting around for an hour because surgery has overrun.

@porridgecake
The individual surgeries. It’s not part of the NHS pay scales. It’s always been a poorly paid and under valued role (my mum did it 40 odd years ago). Traditionally GP receptionists have been (a) part-time (b) married women with families so regarded as doing it for ‘pin money’, and (c) - probably the main reason in my opinion - almost exclusively WOMEN! That’s changed a lot now, although, still largely women, but sadly the pay rates haven’t moved with the times. Problem is they are often very flexible with hours so it suits mums with school-aged children, and many are part-time workers. I honestly don’t think they’d get away with paying men such a shit rate.

@LondonJax. Absolutely agree with you about the vast majority of receptionists being fully aware of what is urgent and able to use their own judgement. Problem arises, I think, when you have one receptionist who thinks she knows better than the GPs and when given free-range will end up booking in all sorts of unnecessary things - and often this person is the one who will also forget that if you book (a) you also need to book (b) and (a) can only be done by nurse J on a Tuesday afternoon, while (b) can only be done by nurse K on a Friday morning. We have one of these - she is lovely though😁. Management sometimes doesn’t help either, although ours has vastly improved over the past couple of years.

Oh and as @ExpulsoCorona has said, I can confirm that PHE are absolutely shit at keeping the GP’S up to date on what’s happening. Patients are always ringing us up to say that, eg, carers had been boosted up the vaccination list. The newspapers and TV always find out before us!

There is a place for telephone appointments but GPs have made it so difficult to get anything.
They removed online booking a year ago. I used to be able to book a nurse blood test , a GP telephone or face to face or a Nurse practitioner.
Now none of that. It takes at least 45 minutes to get through on the phone, longer at busy times.
I don't understand why I cannot self book a regular routine blood test or a telephone appointment. They can't catch covid down the phone!

They used to have e consultations but have stopped that as well.
It was useful when I needed something straightforward and minor.

I have multiple health conditions and see and speak to many HCPs at the hospital and in the community. They all think GPs are hiding behind an impenetrable wall.

Also telephone appointments can be very difficult if you are slightly deaf like me and even harder where the GP has a strong accent. Face to face or even video can help with that.

@Parker231

The National Living Wage is different from the minimum wage.

Not if you're over 23 it's not.

Unless you are thinking of London Living Wage, which is indeed different, and not a legal minimum.

Found a breast lump recently, gp called and said they're sure it's fine, they're very busy due to covid and to ring back in a month if I still need to. I'm sure it is fine, but not massively impressed. Getting into the surgery is nigh on impossible. Meanwhile I work in a madly crowded school every day!

GP receptionists don’t need any specific qualifications. It’s a badly run practice if they are being used as a medical triage. That’s the role of a HCP. And actually it often works better if you have someone the most qualified (e.g. ACP/ GP)in that role as in some ways it’s the most crucial.

@Mouseback

Found a breast lump recently, gp called and said they're sure it's fine, they're very busy due to covid and to ring back in a month if I still need to. I'm sure it is fine, but not massively impressed. Getting into the surgery is nigh on impossible. Meanwhile I work in a madly crowded school every day!

I actually would complain about that. Of course the majority are nothing but I know people who have been young with no family history and it wasn’t nothing. Have a look at this and see what category you’re in, if it’s one that needs referral I’d quote the guidelines to them cks.nice.org.uk/topics/breast-cancer-recognition-referral/diagnosis/symptoms-suggestive-of-breast-cancer/

@MillyMollyMardy

DumplingsAndStew if your DD has been seen and is on a waiting list call up the hospital and ask for the appointments telephone line they'll be able to tell you where she is on the list. Our local hospital has seen all patients from 2019/early 2020 and although the waiting times are lengthy in my area I'd have expected her to have reached the top of the list by now. If she hasn't been seen for a dental check up with your dentist call them and ask them when they are seeing children and remind them she has a lump and the hospital haven't reviewed it either and you would appreciate someone keeping an eye on it.

Thanks. I called the dentist (or did the online contact thing and they called me) and they said its the dental hospital that she has to see and they don't have any update from them, so I've to call them. WRT routine appointments, apparently they are still doing Emergency only, and are booked solid for emergencies up to June

@CallmeHendricks

Well, I suppose technically you can see one, but at our place it's like getting into Fort Knox. I've always wondered how come it's supposed to be so risky for a GP to see one person at a time, yet teachers are rammed into small rooms with around 30 with zero safety mitigations and if they object, are ridiculed and told they're being lazy shysters and to just get on with it.

As school staff (and Keeper of the Medical Room), I have to say that at least there's a sizeable chance that anybody coming to me isn't infected with a dangerous virus, as half my visitors have broken nails or got paper cuts/bumped knees and another 49 per cent have nothing wrong with them at all, other than forgetting what lesson they've got next. The 1% are my risk factor.

I don't think GPs, who know that everybody they see is already unwell in some way, have that same margin of safety.

I think a lot of the problem is that for years, when patients have asked for telephone appts, they've been told that it's important for doctors to see them in person. Now when it suits the GPs, they've changed their mind.

In my surgery, there is always a poster saying "Last month 120 appointments were missed"

And possibly if people could actually get through to surgeries or have some clue as to the time of the fabled call back there would be less missed appointments.

Big organisations don't focus on customers and customer experience because they love us, its simply much more efficient and saves them money.

If the NHS could update its business practices to something recognisably 21st century it could cut costs in much of the bureaucracy. This never seems to improve whether the NHS is getting good or bad funding. Its the only industry I work with where leads boast about having no other experience even of other health systems let alone other business systems.

@HelpIcantfindaname

My DD has begged to see her gp face to face. They have refused. She's had chronic back pain since November. Doc decided it must be sciatica. None of the pain meds work, doc just kept changing her meds. She's now on morphine tablets plus oramorph & still in agony. She eventually got a phone call from a consultant this week who told her she must be improving by now & can't possibly be in so much pain. She is on the urgant waiting list for an MRI, he told her she will still be waiting about 6 weeks. No-one has examined her back at all.

In all honesty if she has unmanageable pain on that level of pain relief and still hasn't been examined I'd consider taking her to A&E.

Have they at least given you symptoms to look out for which would result in an escalation? It may well be a skeletal problem but that isn't the only cause of that type of pain.

@whenwillthemadnessend

They are still offering telephone appointments only to most in my village.

Mine triage. Fill an online form and they call back the same day, if they think it warrants an appointment, they'll book you in the same week (if not day). They resolve more issues and only see those they REALLY need to see. If you're not happy with your GP, raise it with them or move to another surgery. 111 is always an option if you're not able to get the support you need from your GP.