Fed up of GP surgery

[Trumpetpants]

Am fuming with GP surgery, very rarely go try to use Pharmacy. Tried to get a wound check appointment today for next week. It took over 2 hours just to get through, kept getting a recorded message stating that they can't place me in a queue as there are over a 100 people already in the queue. Finally got through only to be told sorry no appointments ring another number which is a city wide treatment room and they will see me.
Rang them only to be told that they don't do wound checks! This morning had lengthy surgery to remove cancerous growth and surrounding tissue and surgeon said must have wound checked by GP.
Our NHS is broken, I'm grateful for the surgery and the radiotherapy in hospital but appalled at the complete lack of care and concern by GP

I'm a practice nurse. Our receptionists were almost in tears this afternoon after a day of receiving constant abuse from patients. It's worse than it's ever been and seems fuelled by the media at the moment.
Not only were they upset at the abuse from patients but also at feeling like they weren't helping as much as they'd like to because we just don't have the capacity.

Demand is sky high and there wasn't a locum to be found last week. We had a FT GP go off on compassionate leave and were unable to find a locum, one of the other practices in our group is currently running on one locum GP and nothing else. There just aren't the GPs available.

That said, we are lucky to be well staffed for nurses where I work and could have done a wound check the same day (I do these all the time, it seems standard in our area for plastics to send people to the GP surgery for them unless very complex as they plastics service is quite far away and rather stretched). My own GP surgery however is a 3 week wait just for a blood test...

@RagzReturnsRebooted, I had a text on Friday from a GP at my large GP practice to say I needed an appointment to talk to her about my latest blood test results, and that I must make an appointment. Fair enough.

Rang all day Friday. Engaged. Rang all day today. Finally got through to a queue at end of day.

Yes, I could tell the receptionist was distressed.

Anyway, no appointments left with that particular GP. I said, I'll talk to anyone about my blood test results. And this is the crazy thing - the receptionist said that Dr Whotsit had noted that I was to talk to her, so I couldn't be given an appointment with anyone else.

Now that is not efficient. And now that receptionist has to note yet another job to do when I could have spoken to any of the other 20 doctors and HCPs who work there.

OP are you just playing mumsnet bingo until you get someone to agree with you?

Phones ringing, gp lazy, gp refused, closed, private work , anything elser you want to throw in the mix?

Everytime someone has told you why x or y you have found another complaint.

If you couldnt even get in the queue because 100 people were already there, then imaging how busy/in demand the practice is. Its not appropriate for them to review your wound and actually more appropriate for you to be re-directed.

I thought it was standard for a wound check to be done at GP surgery, usually by the practice nurses

I'm surprised at those saying it isn't. This has been the case for us at two different hospitals/GP surgeries.

Imagine if a surgeon had to review wounds after each operation themselves, or a clinical nurse specialist even

We've only seen my DC's surgeon a couple of times over the last couple of years, I didn't even see them on the day of or after the operation, they are fantastic but their expertise is needed in surgery rather than wound checking which is a local ongoing care matter I'd have thought.

It's actually getting really worrying now how hard it is to get an appointment and I've no doubt many of us have/ are putting off things that should be seen.
I've heard of several people now paying to go private for things which is not an option for many.
I imagine the overwork for gp's is horrendous.
I also fully understand op's frustration.
It's a horrible helpless feeling when we cannot access care in a country that has always been so rightfully proud of its NHS.

I had a back operation and had yo go for a,wound check at 2 weeks...but I didn't go to the gp. I wasn't even asked to ring the gp. I had to go to an outpatients clinic in a community hospital where a nurse checked it. They have set wound clinics.

Change your GP, OP. Won't help for this particular problem I know but will the long term.

I changed my GP surgery a couple of years ago. It was very quick and easy to do. Old GP put the phone down on me saying there was nothing they could do to help. NEw GP has little by little tackled my problem and I am now mainly better.

But locally ot wpuld be a treatment centre who would sort this.

Not a GP surgery. And just because they wrote in the discharge letter asking the GP to sort it doesnt change the fact that locally the GP wouldn't do a thing for wound care.

@Porfre

But locally ot wpuld be a treatment centre who would sort this.

Not a GP surgery. And just because they wrote in the discharge letter asking the GP to sort it doesnt change the fact that locally the GP wouldn't do a thing for wound care.

Ahhhhhh so I must be imagining the work that I do on a daily basis. Good to know I can just ignore it, certainly makes my life easier 🙄

I have always had to go to the GP for stitches removal , wound dressing etc. My mother was a practice nurse for many years and this was a huge part of her job. an experienced practice nurse is more than capable of spotting whether a wound is healing well or needs further attention.

I was recently discharged after minor surgery, with instructions to make an appointment with the practice. I didn't need to though because my surgery picked up the electronic copy of the letter and called me proactively to arrange the appointment. By doing this they are actively managing their caseload rather than drowning and becoming reactive only.

It is very clear that as well as the shortage of GPs most GPs surgeries have not been able to respond to the increased demand because they have not invested pre pandemic into developing systems which embrace the technology available . So when forced to use it they have struggled to cope and have then turned it off and reverted to emergency only appointment systems .

My surgery has embraced online and phone appointments and has always invested heavily in staff training and I can go online and book a timed doctors appointment on an online calendar , the doctor will call me at the appointed time (not during a 48 hour window) so I can arrange to be at an appropriate private location and you get a text reminder a few hours before the appointment to confirm that it is still convenient. Alternatively I can call and book by phone.

Recently my son called at 2,30 about an emergency issue , the doctor called back and asked him if he was able to send a photo which he did and he then received a follow up message to say come in at 4.30pm. They still have a mixture of online and emergency appointments and have seen people through out the pandemic and I can log into the system and see if test results are received etc where appropriate .

Many GPs practices I have to say are poorly managed and GPs are often excellent clinicians but have neither the time nor inclination to run a business. I used to train GPs in such matters and the overwhelming opinion was that they didn't have time for this , however many also were not prepared to pay for the level experience that a good practice manager and supporting team would bring, of course there are exceptions to this like my own surgery, but there are still too many which don't have the expertise to run a complex business requiring project management skills, multiple income streams, HR expertise, comms and tech. etc and we are reaping the results of that.

@Porfre

But locally ot wpuld be a treatment centre who would sort this.

Not a GP surgery. And just because they wrote in the discharge letter asking the GP to sort it doesnt change the fact that locally the GP wouldn't do a thing for wound care.

Services are commissioned differently by area. In my area, post op wound care is done by GP surgery (nurses). We have a special box to tick on our records that says it was post op care as opposed to just a normal wound. Same way we are commissioned for leg ulcer care but in some areas they have a specialist service for that. In some things our surgery has a choice to opt in to provide certain services and in others the CCG dictates who provides them. It's all business decisions, it's very much a semi privatised care system in that respect.

The NHS is very much a postcode lottery as to what services are delivered by which providers, so just because it works like that where you are doesn't mean it does everywhere.

I know a lot of GPs and I’ve never met a single one who does private work. Out of hours is not private work. It’s provision of additional NHS services over and above routine GP work

Four years ago I would have agreed but I can now think of at least five who have a private practice as well , either in sports medicine, or women’s health or working as a private GP providing services to local businesses such as medicals etc

Op, I had a similar experience after an operation to re-attach my fingertip earlier this year. Was told to follow up with my own surgery for a bandage change/would check but I couldn't get a face to face appointment because the practice nurse was working from home shielding and the other one was on annual leave. The only thing I was offered was an appointment at a walk in centre miles from where I live or an appointment three weeks later which would have been too late. I ended up doing it myself to be honest with the help of husband. I'm also lucky that I work for the NHS so if I had any concerns I could have got someone to have a look which is exactly what I did going forwards during the healing process to check that it looked as it should be looking.

I don't know what the answer is to be honest but until self isolating is scrapped I think the NHS is just overrun with absences at the minute. Not enough staff, too overwhelmed.etc etc etc.