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?

@DumplingsAndStew

What utter nonsense. They discuss on the phone first then if they need to see you face to face, they do.

Cuts out plenty timewasters.

You don't need to look far to see this is happening a lot, and sometimes with awful consequences (making your 'timewasters' comment a little insulting, to be honest). It sounds like you've been lucky with your GP. It's not been the same for everyone.

Agreed, it's not as simple as being available for a call back between 1-5pm, we have jobs, children, lives....

We ended up in A&E with DD in Jan because her temp wouldn't budge from 39.9C. GP said to take her there, we were put in a red (covid) waiting area, waited 4 hours.... for a UTI. Dipstick then confirmed in 5 mins. It's not ok. We then had to wait a further hour while hospital faffed around with the prescription. I miss the GP.

@DumplingsAndStew

What utter nonsense. They discuss on the phone first then if they need to see you face to face, they do.

Cuts out plenty timewasters.

Ours don't do that. There are only phone appointments currently.

Re the calls - of course they should give you a set time, and yes, they may be late. But if you can take time out to GO to an appointment (more time) why would your employer not allow you time out to attend a phone appointment, and take it in the car, outside, rest area etc, or even pop home for it? The type of appointment makes no difference to the employer's policy of allowing you the time. Unless this is just line managers being dicks.

We've had phone consultations for years and now contact is online so you can list everything and add photos, then they will either use the message system of it's an easy fix or call to assess and then book you in. There's a few workarounds, ie they will do calls 8am-7pm to fit in around work hours and our small local pharmacy is open til 11pm

It was brought in to deal with a rapidly growing population and not growing GPs surgery. It'll likely be standard soon across the uk

GP’s are seeing patients face to face. The majority are just triaging everyone by phone first,

Ours isn't. The receptionist told me all appointments are by phone, this is my third appointment for the same thing, all by phone. Only after she had booked it she asked me for "a few words to say what it was about".

Unless you're telling me that the GP appointment I've waited over a month for will actually only be a triage. In which case, considering how ill I've been and their lack of follow up to my blood tests, I can already feel a big complaint coming on.

Oh, and my GP doesn't do bloods, nor any tests, you have to go to the hospital in town for that.

The problem is that now you have to WAIT for a telephone consultation that might THEN involve going in for an appointment anyway! Not only that but you have the stress of trying to get through constantly to be able to speak to the receptionist in the first place.

That’s really not great when you have to be out early in the morning, in a customer facing roll, working 20 miles from your GP surgery!

I’m wondering if most still absolutely fine with telephone appointments are WFH?

It’s not ideal and needs to go back to how it was!

Mine are.... But first you have to tell the receptionist what's wrong. Then if they think it's important they will arrange for a doc to ring you, if urgent will book you in with the nurse practitioner or paramedic who will then take a look & forward you onto a doc if they think you need it!!!

Mine are doing telephone first. Thankfully. Because it’s a tiny surgery, with a waiting room smaller than my front room. I don’t want to take DCs there in close proximity to other people.

I don’t need to take time off work for GP appointments. I like it. I haven’t needed anything face to face this past year. I’ve sent a photo of a swollen finger to check if X-ray was needed, I received referrals, prescriptions etc.

If anything, I’ve increased my use of GP now because I can do it remotely. Otherwise I’d have needed to take about 6 half-days off only these past 2 months.

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

To most. So F2F is available. If they need to see you they will see you.

My DD (6) had a really sore skin infection three weeks ago

Probably not much use now, but we use the pharmacy for this sort of thing. I’ve only once had to follow up with a GP.

Did it sort itself out?

@whenwillthemadnessend

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

But will they see you after the telephone appointment if they need to? My GPS surgery have done this since the beginning, if talking to me over the phone results in needing a face to face appointment they will happily do this.

I need to discuss getting my coil changed. Absolutely dreading trying to make that appointment.

Last time I had a skin issue I went to the pharmacy who told me to use calamine lotion, which made it worse. I went to another pharmacy who declared it was ring worm (it clearly wasn't) and told me to use Daktarin, even though I had already tried an anti fungal. It didn't work.

So I ended up at the GP anyway, having wasted weeks and ££ on stuff that didn't work.

Clearly, going by the responses, it varies wildly from GP to GP. Many posters seem convinced that because their GP is offering face-to-face, all others are. This is simply not the case. For many it's not a case of 'Protect the NHS', but 'Bring Back the NHS'.

@ssd

The trouble with phone consultation s are at my practice they say we will phone between 9.30 and 11....so if you are working and can't take a random call or don't want to discuss your health in front of co workers its all a bit awkward..i wish they said we'll call at 10.15, give or take 15 minutes

For a phone consult, our GP's receptionist will suggest a time the DR will call the patient; and offer a different time if necessary. Ours asks if we prefer the call to be to mobile or landline. In my experience they keep very closely to the planned time, maybe 10 minutes off. at most. . As we're always at home the times have varied from 8.30 am to late morning and afternoon.

For many queries we find a phone consult much more convenient than visiting the surgery; it;s just a better use of everyones time for matters that you only need to talk about. With the time saved doctors can then spend longer face to face with patients who need to be seen. or examined. At our surgery they will still call you in to see a DR or nurse for physical checkups and tests etc.

GP here.
Expecting to see another 8-10 people face to face tomorrow (Who need seeing face to face) whilst speaking to another 30 or so for telephone / video consults.

Phoned my dentist today. They aren’t doing routine checkups because of Covid. Next urgent appointment is in 3 weeks time. My daughter has a dental hospital follow up appointment next month. It should have happened about 9 months ago. It’s a telephone appointment.

Hope that helps.

And I also wish that I could give an exact time for telephone appointments. But the trouble is, some telephone appointments are allocated 5 minutes and take 30 minutes.

If you are going to struggle to answer the phone at certain times ask the receptionist to make a note and the GP will probably try to work around that if at all possible.

I’ve seen GPs at my GP surgery several times face to face. Phone triage first and then called in to surgery. I’m around working from home at the minute, and I can take a phone call only during my breaks, but it’s worked out so far. If they rang when I was working, though, I wouldn’t even be able to answer.

@Musicaltheatremum

I dealt with 16 patients today half of them face to face. Internal exams, baby checks, breast worries, bloods and mental health assessments. Seeing loads face to face but telephone is useful for some things. We have been seeing patients face to face throughout the pandemic although people didn't want to come out to us earlier on.

How many more people can you see per day compared to when it was all face-to-face?

I actually prefer it, we usually have to sit and wait, can be up to 2 hours slots... nightmare!
My daughter had a sore, I sent a photo through the link provided, the doctor called me back, prescribed medication, picked it up. Easy!

All the GPs in this area are running telephone triage then seeing the patients who need to be examined, etc. Practice nurses, practice pharmacists and paramedics are doing the things that can be done by phone but still seeing those patients that need it
It's hard for people to get used to this way of doing things but there are a lot of patients who demand to be seen unnecessarily. MIL was incensed that the receptionist would not book a F2F appt for her and FIL to go together to show the GP that the rash on his leg had almost gone with the cream issued a week or two earlier

In ye olden days patients left work and drove to their surgery, sat for 20-30 mins waiting to see the GP, at least 10 mins with the GP, then drove back to work.

So about 90 mins overall. Not much difference - ask your employer for same time off for the call - and keep it to 10 mins!!!

My surgery has switched to using the Push Doctor app for video consultations. We love it. You can just go online and book an appointment - even for a Sunday - without having to even call the surgery first. Can’t see myself going back to the practice myself! Why would you?!

@therestissilence Thank you!!! I have really been beginning to doubt my sanity with my experiences with dealing with the NHS locally.

In my recent and ongoing experience, there are individuals that are fantastic but we are talking fleeting presences in a very, very broken system. There is quite no joined up thinking going on sadly.

Can’t see myself going back to the practice myself! Why would you?!

So the doctor can examine you?