GP e-consult

[ThinWomansBrain]

I've been unwell for a week - decided to contact my GP, expecting the usual call on the dot of 8.30 appointment lottery.
NO! - the on-hold message announced I could stay on the call if I wanted, but there's a new e-consult form on the practice website.
The online form was a bit repetitive (It started off with date of birth, so I was surprised at 60 to be asked to explain why I thought my periods had stopped) - but a receptionist called at about 11am, the GP about an hour or so later, and I went in to the practice about half an hour after that,
Incredibly efficient - even better than a few years ago when you could visit the surgery in the morning for a same day appointment.

If your GP doesn't have this, campaign for them to get it!

Mine has it, but since about March this year when you start inputting symptoms it tells you to call 111 or 999.

I had an excellent experience with my
GP lately too. I sent a photo via the online consult of my daughters skin complaint unfortunately I missed their return call but they sent a text making me an appointment tomorrow and to only call if it's unsuitable. Excellent service and haven't even had to make a phone call!

I did get "call 111" at some point, but I backtracked to a previous screen, changed an answer & it let me continue.
Can't remember what it was, but I'd debated over what to answer, and realised my first answer was a bit too drastic and had triggered the 111 thing. Mind you, when I called 111 about a year ago, I can't remember what over, they just got my GP to call me.

We used to have this at my surgery, it stopped March 2020, 'cos Covid'.

Ours has it. It's rare the call back comes within the 1st 24 hours, it's usually after 6pm on the 2nd day regardless of what you are experiencing. We have patchy mobile reception because of huge stone walls/cliff behind the house (it's a village issue so they should know about it) and I've asked them to call the house number repeatedly but they never do so often we end up having to refill it in.

Oh and when dh had a mini stroke, the receptionist insisted he fill it in but the e-consult insisted he phone the GP or 111. I'm not particularly impressed personally.

You have to be careful with eConsult. I filled one in at my Health Centre. It includes several former independent surgeries. I got a confirmation, reassurance that I would be contacted by phone by a certain date. The date came and went, and then I found buried in my older emails a statement 'you are not registered at this surgery. Please contact your own GP'. In other words, the questionnaire went to the wrong surgery, and they did not bother to forward it on. No coordination among the separate surgeries in the Health Centre.

There's nothing wrong with e-consult itself but it doesn't always end up with the same scenario as you experienced.

My GP doesn't respond to it for well over a week.

I refuse to fill it in when I'm very ill.

Mine has it but it's shit as they are crap at contacting you back and when you do it for children nothing ever fits the description 🙄

& I was so impressed with it!

• so its a good idea, but only as good as the people operating it,

@ThinWomansBrain

& I was so impressed with it! - so its a good idea, but only as good as the people operating it,

This is definitely it, I used to rate it but now just want to be able to see someone as they obviously can't deal with the amount of consultations they are getting- probably due to it being the only way of contacting the surgery 🙄.

I filled one in at 8am but realised I would need antibiotics for cellulitis so ended up phoning anyway and explained I didn’t think it was a good idea to potentially wait another 24hrs-gp rang me back an hour later-but I have to say in general it’s a great system

We have it. Its great but one major issue is that under 18's have to have it completed by a parent or guardian. My 17 year old has gynae issues and really doesnt want her mum to have to fill in the form giving her intimate problems. Lucky she has a mum she can speak to about this. If it was me at 17 I would have had to suffer in silence.

My GP's e-consult used to be brilliant. Not so much now. They might call you back 3-5 days later. Might, not 'will'. DH is a GP and the e-consults are killing him. There just aren't enough hours in the day. It's a bit like the opening of the floodgates. I think everyone's discovered e-consults as a way of bypassing the 8:30 am telephone appointment crapshoot.
Glad your service is a good one! We're in London and I think there are just sooo many patients using e-consult and, as I mentioned, not enough hours in the day for GPs to really respond to patients in a timely manner, hence the 3+ day wait for a callback.

This is literally the best thing to have come out of lockdown!! No more battling the Dr's receptionist to try and convince them you might need to see a medical professional.
I agree it's very repetitive, particularly if you're contacting them about an ongoing issue (I nearly just wrote "read my notes" last time I did it) but I still like it and easy to do while you're at work too compared to making a phone call for all the office to hear!
I think it's great if your issue can be discussed and resolved over the phone but if you need to see someone in person then it can drag out the time to be seen so in those cases it's probably better to ring.

Yes, I'm fortunate that I'm so close to the surgery I can get there at short notice when GP confirmed she needed to see me. (Am also in London).

The GP did say when we discussed the process (must have been about a twenty minute consult, rather than in and out the door in five minutes!) that they treat in order of priority from what's been submitted - but that's the human element of how well it works - or not!

My gp always calls me the day i do an e-consult or the next morning if I've done it late.

The last one I filled in this week I had to back track 10 times due to to telling me to call 999. I've had the same problems since April so I'm fairly sure I'm not quite on deaths door yet and need to be bothering 999.

We have this - absolutely love it. No more taking hours off work, so much more efficient.

Many GPs hate econsult. They are coming in on a Monday morning to over 100 emails and just can't cope. It does have a place but there is no cap on the number of consultations. The more time on econsult the less time for phone or face to face we can't do everything. There are a finite number of GPs the service is overloaded and will crack soon.