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Happy St George's Day Guest
Gp surgeries
- Thread starter Ladsfan78
- Start date
DoctorMick
Striker
They are open to see people face to face but they’ve worked out a lot can be done over the phone in the first instance. Some doctors surgeries (mine included) seem to take the piss but most will see people when necessary.
They are , you’ve just got to jump through hoops to be allowed into the sacred ground.
Ring to ask for an appointment, be told by the ayotollah behind the desk that a phone consultation has to be done first.
Ring back five days later to ask why he hasn’t rang .
He rings back the next day without a hint of an apology then suggests I need to be seen face to face , which surprisingly enough is what I’d asked for a week ago.
walked into the surgery to find no one there but still my appointment was running 25 minutes late , busy through Covid don’t you know.
walked into his room the find both him and his junior doctor unmasked but was told to stay 2m away , an interesting conundrum as he’d have to look closely regardless.
got referred to a specialist, told to take photo and download it and someone would be in touch in a fortnight.
it’s double that now and no one’s been in touch.
By the way some of you fuckers were clapping them not so long back.
Third world incompetence at best,
Ring to ask for an appointment, be told by the ayotollah behind the desk that a phone consultation has to be done first.
Ring back five days later to ask why he hasn’t rang .
He rings back the next day without a hint of an apology then suggests I need to be seen face to face , which surprisingly enough is what I’d asked for a week ago.
walked into the surgery to find no one there but still my appointment was running 25 minutes late , busy through Covid don’t you know.
walked into his room the find both him and his junior doctor unmasked but was told to stay 2m away , an interesting conundrum as he’d have to look closely regardless.
got referred to a specialist, told to take photo and download it and someone would be in touch in a fortnight.
it’s double that now and no one’s been in touch.
By the way some of you fuckers were clapping them not so long back.
Third world incompetence at best,
B
becs
Guest
At ours it's either a same day appointment for emergencies or a four week wait for a routine telephone appointment with a GP.
Well, there are a number of factors to consider.
In June 2021, across England, the number of face-to-face appointments scheduled to take place with an actual GP stood at 6.2m, which is around 57% of their face-to-face activity in January 2020.
Firstly you need to consider whether appointments should always be face to face. Virtual consultations have their advantages, such as being more convenient for patients, especially those who struggle to get time off, or whose health makes it harder to get to the practice.
Nothing is perfect and drawbacks do include a less personal service, and clinicians being unable to physically examine or judge a patient’s health status, or take an opportunistic blood or urine sample.
Secondly you need to consider whether or not it’s best for GPs to be carrying out a full face to face service right now. By nature of their jobs, they come into close contact with many patients each day, many of whom are in poor health generally.
A COVID-19 outbreak could take out an entire practice worth of staff, which is a significant risk to the health of the population they serve, not least risk spreading COVID-19 to the already unwell.
There is nothing, in my opinion to say GPs should go back entirely to the traditional model of sick people waiting in a room together and being called in, one-by-one for an eight-minute chat, quick examination and paper prescription.
Yes, that will work for most, but it doesn’t work for all. Medicine has had to hastily embrace virtual consultations in both primary and secondary care, and for many patients, they’re working and working well.
They might be busy?
It shouldn’t be - of 71,772 telephone appointments, with a GP, arranged to take place in NHS County Durham CCG, in June 2021, 45,000 took place on the same day, and just 134 took 29 days or longer.
Your practice is significantly underperforming relative to what is published for the CCG as a whole.
B
becs
Guest
I was concerned about something towards the end of August but not an emergency. I rang up but their diary only went up to the first week of September so I was told to ring back at the beginning of Sept when the new batch of appointments would be released. I rang back and got one for the 28th September.
From my own personal experience... Had a couple of phone appointments last year and one face to face. This year (I think) was 4 phone appointments the day after contacting the surgery and 1 same day. I was offered follow up appointments in the surgery if I felt I needed them after a couple of the calls which I declined. So hats off to my surgery.
Conversely, my Aunty and a family friend were both messed around badly by their GPs, with long Covid being repeatedly diagnosed remotely for their symptoms despite neither testing positive. Both eventually ended up with terminal cancer diagnosis’s and weeks for my Aunty/couple of months for family friend. Who knows if an earlier diagnosis (approx 6 months for both of them to eventually get seen) would have saved them, but it certainly would have improved their quality of life if they had correct pain meds etc.
Conversely, my Aunty and a family friend were both messed around badly by their GPs, with long Covid being repeatedly diagnosed remotely for their symptoms despite neither testing positive. Both eventually ended up with terminal cancer diagnosis’s and weeks for my Aunty/couple of months for family friend. Who knows if an earlier diagnosis (approx 6 months for both of them to eventually get seen) would have saved them, but it certainly would have improved their quality of life if they had correct pain meds etc.
Poor that. The admin in some surgeries is so bad. Yet others are brilliant.
Should change surgery. Really easy process.
Missus phoned up ours on Wednesday afternoon.. was called back about 2 hkurs later and had an appointment at half five same day...
Luck of the draw often
Luck of the draw often
Went to see a pharmacist, was told that I needed to see a doctor and had to do the e-consultation and upload a photo but was seen the same day. I imagine every surgery will be different though and a friend of mine was sent to another practice within the same group as his surgery didn't have a available appointment.
sidneyeric
Striker
we've got to ring at 8.30 am to try to get an appointment, if you dont get through before 8.31 there's none left, it's pure luck as to if you get one or not.
Probably too busy dealing with entitled arseholes like you to manage real emergencies.
You should be ashamed.
Go private if you're so upset and save the rest of us your whinging.
Some practices can be very arsey mind and will not let you register based on where you live.
This may have changed since the last time I was told this, in 2018 when my practice no longer wanted me on their register for living too far away.
BumbleBee
Striker
Haven't seen my GP for about 3 years. Been waiting for a hip replacement for 4. Worked for 42 years and never been on the dole. Self entitled my arse.
Aye, just depends how many you have locally. I reckon south of the river we must have over 30 to choose from.
No idea what Washy is like for @becs .
The process is really simple though.
