GPs not functioning again

[HoliHormonalTigerlilly]

FFS It's impossible to make an appointment with my GP again. "Unless it's an emergency"
Surely you's go to A&E in that case?!

Booking a telephone appointment with my GP is relatively easy. I do it through the NHS app and can choose the date, approximate time and which doctor I wish to speak to.

However, getting a face-to-face appointment is almost impossible. My GP practice has been offering almost exclusively telephone appointments for the past 5 years.

I find it very difficult to properly discuss things over the phone. I get flustered - and despite writing things down beforehand I never seem able to say what I want to say.

Talking to a GP friend of mine - they had about a third of their staff off last week either waiting for PCR results, with Covid, or caring for children with Covid. They've also had some staff members that have had to shield throughout the pandemic. It's not that they're not working.

Mine has been fine all through, with a few irritations, like phonecalls asthma reviews for DD2. Between Christmas and new year I got a face to face gp appointment easily with a gp and just had a 2nd follow up test with a practice nurse. But it's a modern, large surgery formed from 2 surgeries 5 or so years ago. My parents, who rely on a small village surgery, have experienced the worst service and my previously well mother has ended up in hospital twice and still has to fight for follow up care with a diminishing quality of life. I think the problems were there pre-covid in their case and now a light has been shone on.

You will be able to make a telephone consultation appointment. The GP will then arrange to see you if they need to.

@Cookerhood

Our have told us not to contact them unless we think we have cancer . DH contacted them but no-one has seen him and they have accepted his self-diagnosis.

That doesn't sound good.

Ours isn’t great, although it used to be before the pandemic. You can’t get an appointment except in an emergency but I’m not sure what ‘emergency’ means. When you do get an appointment it’s absolutely dead in there.

I’ve had two conditions incorrectly diagnosed over the phone. One was strep throat and I was prescribed antibiotics. It turned out not to be strep throat and I can’t help but think if they’d seen me they would have known that. So the antibiotics were unnecessary.

The thing that really gets on my nerves is that it’s such a false economy. The more incorrect diagnoses they make over the phone the more it’s costing the NHS…

@kittensinthekitchen Many of us cannot. Can you comprehend that we have different experiences to you?

My Gp hasn't functioned At all since the start. I'm 18 months late for a smear.

@itwasntaparty

Can you move surgeries? My Oh was with a different one to me and they were terrible so moved to mine which has been seeing us throughout

@itwasntaparty

My Gp hasn't functioned At all since the start. I'm 18 months late for a smear.

Can you move surgeries?

Unfortunately not.

Yup. After my husband die in October 2020 I was prescribed 10 5mg diazepam a month to be taken as needed. I haven't used them in about a year, and I've tried calling the surgery numerous times to get them taken off my repeat prescription as I end up just leaving them at the pharmacy. Can never speak to a GP so I leave the message with reception and yet every month when I collected my other meds, there they are. It's ridiculous, and it also means that as far as my GP is concerned, I've been taking diazepam for over a year without a single consultation or phone call. Never mind the fact that the last time they spoke to me I was suicidal with grief.

Oh and they refused to see DH, instead diagnosing him with (over the course of 3 months and dozens of phone calls) a chest infection, acid reflux and asthma. It was actually heart failure and by the time he was rushed to hospital it was too late. Plus the asthma medication they prescribed him with actually made it worse.

And to top it all off, I can't move surgeries because my Trust isn't allowing anyone to change surgeries during Covid.

Ours aren’t too bad, have to phone and speak to a GP and they like to do prescriptions without actually seeing you. I did manage to go in and see the GP today and am back tomorrow for tests and he’s referred me for an urgent thyroid scan. Waiting to see how long the wait for that is and might go private as can’t get any treatment until that’s happened 😵‍💫

On the bright side, my brother (different country and Trust) was seen immediately by his GP for rectal bleeding and was diagnosed with bowel cancer within the 2 week pathway. Thankfully he had private cover so was able to expedite his treatment, but he was impressed with the initial GP care. So I guess it's not the case everywhere.

@peachgreen that is absolutely horrendous. I'm so sorry

4hrs in and still waiting for my callback, absolute rubbish system.

I think as with always on GP threads, some posters don't appreciate that things work very differently in various parts of the UK, and even between surgeries which are close by.

This talk of an app - unheard of in my part of Scotland. The only NHS app is the one you can see your vaccine appointments on.

E-consult / video calling - none of the local GPs do this. My surgery doesn't even have a published email address. If you want an appointment, you phone. Only way. If you need a repeat prescription, you phone. Everything is done on the phone and phone alone. You can't even drop into the surgery to make an appointment as the doors are locked.

And we're not in some far-flung island in the middle of the Atlantic with no internet. This is in the suburbs of a major Scottish city.

Call 111 if you need antibiotics. That’s how I got mine for a UTI.

@Whatwouldscullydo

Ours have basically said not to bother calling them unless u r dying

All the effort going onto a vaccine.programe that never ends as it runs out every fee weeks.

Of course u end up having to go to a&e then they justify closing drs even more cos they just blame covid.

I dread to think whats been.kissed as a result its ridiculous and dangerous

what do you mean by 'it runs out every few weeks'? Because it sounds like you're saying the vaccine doesn't work. Which, as we know, is a lie.

@kittensinthekitchen

You will be able to make a telephone consultation appointment. The GP will then arrange to see you if they need to.

You do realise that not all GP surgeries are the same?? There's no consistency. Some have set up online booking systems, some havn't, some have e-consult, some havn't, some will give you a GP call back appt same day, for others it's a week, some make you call at exactly 8am for that day's appts and won't let you book anything for future days. It's all a shambles.

I was disgusted yesterday. I tried to call them yesterday for my baby. Automated message said they were experiencing high call volumes and cut me off. Tried again ‘you are currently position ten in the queue’ then cut out. As we live five minutes from the surgery I decided to go in. Two receptionists sitting at desks, no masks and not taking calls, in front of a completely empty waiting room.

DH's cancer diagnosis was delayed. He is now next to me, in a hospital bed with no hope of survival. That said, now he is dying the GPs have been OK with visits etc but only because the hospice are involved I suspect.

It is frustrating and anxiety provoking. Same with dentists and hospital waiting lists. I am trying to understand and be patient about it all, but there is no end in sight and it is really hard not to lose hope in it all.

My GP surgery has been excellent. Phone in the morning, then get a call back between 8.30 and 9.30 for triage with face to face appointments the same say if they think it's necessary.