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?

They are and have been since the pandemic for most people's surgeries. However it's a longer drawn out process now to get a face to face appointment!

My surgery it's the following, you call and have to tell the receptionist what the problem is, they can not make face to face appointments for you.
Then the doctor calls you. They may call you that day if it's urgent and even tell you to come in that day if it's urgent. Or in a few weeks if it's not.
They can also just do a telephone appointment there and then and prescribe you meds or give advice without seeing you if they think they don't need too.

For less urgent things the receptionist now can make a telephone appointment with a doctor for you. This can be around a two to three weeks wait.
Then the doctor calls you and once again can help you over the phone only or if they feel they need to see you face to face, they'll give you an appointment to come in.
Again when depends on the urgency.
If they feel it's urgent it can be the same day. Otherwise it can be another couple of weeks wait.

@Darkbrownistheriver - the vaccination centres are not desperate for people in any way. They are fully staffed and had in excess of 20,000 applications

My gp isn’t, couldn’t understand why, my daughter has had dental surgery in hospital in October, we have seen dentists, orthodontists and treatment in hospital, but ridiculous to try to see go. Have had various phone appointments and a nightmare to even pick up a prescription from any of these appointments, I went to pick up a prescription, you have to speak through a closed double glazed window, they won’t even open the window, a elderly gentlemen was before me once and probably heard of hearing, he just couldn’t make himself heard and I had to speak for him. I have worked throughout in a school and just don’t understand it.

podiatrist working all throughout here, limited dental care dire up situation

I've been to my gp a few times when they needed to examine me or do a test. Mostly we talk on the phone though. Which actually suits me as dont need to leave work. It works better if it is a gp you know well.

I think they are all doing phone 1st then assess if need seen

I have seen mine a few times but mostly I’ve spoken to him over the phone which I’ve had to arrange by appointment 😳

My GPs have been completely unhelpful today.

Ds is becoming quite unwell, he's autistic and has eating difficulties. His CAMHS nurse emailed our GP practice yesterday and told us that Ds needs to be seen urgently. I've also had advice from the local eating disorders team who said he needed to be seen by the GP before the bank holiday weekend.

Our practice have told me this morning that earliest they can see Ds face to face is 13th April. I rang them back this afternoon and asked again if he could be seen sooner as Camhs says it's urgent and they put the phone down on me.

I can't believe they are making Ds wait 12 days to be checked over. He's become more unwell over the last few weeks and has yet to eat today, although he is drinking.

Surely they should be seeing a young person that could have an eating disorder, face to face.

Ours most definitely aren’t. My aunt almost died of sepsis after being refused to be seen by a doctor for 3 months. She had to keep sending photos. She spoke to 4 different GP’s until finally she collapsed and an ambulance was called. Absolute madness.

Even more weirdly why are podiatrists not back working face to face

NHS Pod here - right through Lockdown we've still run our High Risk (ulcer) clinics .
Add onto the the increased cleaning between patients and many extra emails/letters .
I was working right through.

Routine Clinics introduced from Sept and we continued through the 2nd&3rd lockdowns .

We have to order/put away the stock (increased now as PPE increased) the extra cleaning , patients are worse because of the extended time .

I am officially Fecking Knackered

They are not! Only phone calls after endless waiting. Is this the future of healthcare?

Kerankeedoc
I completely agree that there is a dreadful shortage of GP's in the UK . There are shortages of skilled workers everywhere throughout the NHS due to a long campaign of attrition by governments since the 80's .
The NHS as originally planned will prove impossible to run so only privatisation will maintain services. This is happening now.
'Protecting the NHS ' would not have been needed had the necessary standards been funded throughout. That slogan is callous in the extreme.
Just like the destruction of all the decent careers in the Civil Service, Police , Fire Service, et al ,these tasks will be done by low paid , poorly trained agency staff (as with Capita ).This serves only those who own the companies awarded the contracts ....you think the PPE scandals are bad , its going to be Billions for the Boris Brigades , poor service and poverty for the rest.
The entire public service arena has been run down ostensibly to cut costs , in reality this has enriched the few at tax-payers expense and now costs us much more.
Have a look at some of the Life Peers installed in the last 20 years and see who has had your tax or 'avoided' paying their share due to de-regulation.
Covid has exacerbated the issues and brought all this into view, probably sooner than otherwise , let's hope we can all recognise what is happening and begin to make changes in the polls next month.

Dentists & physios etc... here are only seeing emergencies.... A&E obviously emergencies... and our GPS... phone or face if absolutely necessary.... all same here
(if I have a rash on my wotsit I'll send a photo)... seems a better use of time hope it lingers rather than waiting ages.

Dementor72 well said. We’re all scrabbling for what little is still available.

On Times Radio this morning, someone from the Royal College of GPs said that, currently, 50% of appointments are face to face and that is far from ideal. So it's definitely an issue.

I know what you mean OP. I had to call my Mum's GP today to chase up her move to the new doc and an appointment, I had to listen to their CV19 message 3 times before I spoke to anyone. Then I'm told the paperwork is delays "because due to Covid we have new procedures and we have to...." I bluntly said "New? It's been over a year now, I think you'll find it's old hat". I am sick of the excuses tbh. Many of us have been successfully and productively working from home for months. If we were still giving "due to CV19" excuses we'd be fired.

Glad to hear that face to face appointments are back in some areas. Perhaps now my GP will actually agree to see my baby in person rather than making incorrect diagnoses over the phone.

I have not been able to see my doctor face to face and have had a terrible and ever-worsening health condition which has changed my life utterly, yet they still won't see me for an examination. Not my doctor nor any of the doctors in the practise. It's been awful. Especially when the professor who will remain unnamed specialist and head of this dept at the hospital would not see me and was so rude to me on telephone. What I dont understand is why we cant even do a zoom consultation. It would help those of us who are not good on telephone and need to see face to face. I'm glad someone asked this question...but I still dont understand why certain NHS practises do and certain dont?

Last year (lockdown) I actually managed to finally get a GP appointment after many telephone consults. Presented with Erythroderma and was told GP would write a letter to an NHS consultant.

Then received a letter from consultant to say I would have to wait over 6 months for a consultation.

I was gravely ill and felt it. Apparently there is a 60 percent fatality rate with this condition.

I was immediately hospitalised upon emergency admission after going to A and E.

One year later I have spent many hours on the phone waiting for a receptionist to answer the phone regarding the same condition.

I have no choice but to keep calling. Apparently due to Covid.

It’s an utter disgrace.

Yes this annoys me-my gp is thankfully great but I’ve heard of many that aren’t. Also nhs slt only taking place over the phone is a bit of a joke when we’ve completed a course of face to face with a private slt. Hardly useful for a non verbal 3 year old with asd. All while I peer down people’s mouths and splash their saliva about on a daily basis....

It's still telephone appointments here. I looked on the app to make one and it was one week away

My GP practice will you see you face to face, after a phone consul...if you can get one! Can only contact via Ask My Gp, all requests are cancelled at the end of the day - there is no way to book an appointment in advance. If they can fit you in, they call you whenever.

I don’t mind telephone consuls, they have a place especially in current climate, but I do object to the inefficient system which wastes my time and surely that of the receptionists who have to cancel hundreds of requests a day only to cancel them again the next day.

Awful system - has taken away the human touch. Having a request closed with an automated message equates to being sat on hold only to have the operator answer and hang up.

What were they thinking?

The number of patients registered to each GP practice has multiplied over the years as the population increases, less doctors training as GP’s and as in the case of my DH, GP’s leaving and the practice closing. New housing developments are built but additional GP practices aren’t.

Receptionists aren’t answering the phone to you as quickly as you would like because they are on the phone to another patient. GP’s can’t give you an appointment when you want because the appointments have already been given out.
GP’s have worked more hours during the pandemic not less. If you aren’t happy with your GP you can always try transferring to another practice.

@whenwillthemadnessend

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

Note the word MOST. Face to face appointments are being arranged when necessary.

@CallmeHendricks

Absolutely !

@Punxsutawney to be fair why is a CAMHS nurse pushing an autistic teenager with a severe eating disorder onto the GP rather than referring into the Eating Disorders Service. Please call PALS.

For the poster who can't answer the call due to meetings, I note my gaps through the portal when I email. Can't you do that?