Anyone know how anima system works

[ElizaWinter]

I need to make an appointment and my Dr surgery has just started using the Anima system to deal with patient enquiries.

I logged on and it says it's not available until tomorrow morning at 8am.

The website has a long speel about how wonderful it is for patients to be able to log on and book appointments 24/7 but I see no sign of this.

Am I back to calling at 8am, not getting through and doing that again every day until I give up? Or is it some wonderful efficient new system which will reveal itself tomorrow when I log in?

Anyone know?

My surgery has just switched to Anima. You still need to be mindful of the time, as it can only cope with a certain number of messages a day, but I find it much easier than phoning. I ordered a prescription for my son yesterday - I just had to enter the relevant details. Took three minutes. Much better than waiting in a queue on the phone, or filling out a form and going to the surgery.

Thank you 😊 Is it used instead of making a phone call?

Essentially, yes.
i hate ours - you can only put a firm info your own named doctor is in that day. I’ve never met my named GP, and every GP in the practice works part time, so it’s absolute pot luck whether you can use it or not. You can switch named GPs in the system but that takes half an hour to take effect, by which time all the slots on the system for the day are full.

if you do get a form in, the named doctor which is was apparently essential was there never actually reviews it - any random GP has a look.

I think it’s probably ok if it’s applied properly, but my surgery give kafka a run for his money on most matters…

Oh dear that doesn't sound like the fine tuned efficient system ours are crowing about..

Well I'll see what happens tomorrow but I'm not feeling too hopeful after reading about your experiences!

I just want to see a Dr for 5 minutes so I can find out whether I need any treatment. Fingers crossed.

Thank you for replying.

Update - Turns out that I did get a callback and then an appointment this afternoon so I take it back!

You are correct. It rubbish and not helpful to Patients. Once the appointments have gone the whole site becomes unavailable until the next session. Also I was asked by a Doctor to book a Blood Test. Did this on Anima, got confirmation message on my phone. Then got message saying check Anima for response. Told there to ring GP Surgery to book the appointment! 6 days later I am speaking to the Surgery to Book! Also person taking my call said Blood Tests cannot be booked on Anima. Well that's strange because not only did it take my Request but it asked me who requested it ie Hospital, GP etc ! Unbelievable and another waste of resources by the NHS

My area started to use anima and it’s so bad. The system constantly crash and we cannot book non urgency symptoms for a few weeks down the line. You can only book on the day. So if you have something not urgent and you are happy to wait for a week like previously, you cannot do that anymore. Ridiculous

I have tried to register with Anima but they keep telling me my password (which I have to change each time) has run out of time, please try again. So I try again immediately and keep getting the same response! I am tearing my hair out here, feeling I am going around in circles! Now they are telling me to leave it for a few hours as I have tried too many times! ......Aaargh!! Has anyone got any clues?

My surgery went over to Anima 2 weeks ago. Whilst it's easy to pass a message or request over and much quicker than waiting 50 mins on the phone, our surgery shuts the requests service down within a few hours so you still have to get your request/message in quickly or wait to start the whole process again the next day.

It's also frustrating because it doesn't appear to store your messages. I asked for a prescription for a tablet form of my medication, the gp sent a message saying it was approved and I collected the meds yesterday only to find they have given me capsules instead and now I can't find my original request only the GPs reply so no idea of it was my mistake or theirs.