58 comments Add a comment
Our local practice has now opted for an appointment system (to see the GP), which sounds wonderful until you wake up one morning, in pain and need of advice. You reach for the phone (if you are lucky enough to own one) and call the surgery. You may get through if you hold on the line for long enough, at which point you ask for an appointment with your GP. Once the chuckles have died down you are told there is nothing free for days on end!
True, if it were an emergency, they may offer another option but when you have been brought up to respect peoples time you tend not to class your illness as an emergency (unless it is clearly life threatening). So now what do you do? Well if you are old and fragile, living alone, you will start to worry which makes your illness feel a thousand times worse.
You could go private but this is way beyond your means (and income) so you soldier on the best you can. When the day of your appointment comes youre too ill to visit the doctor. So what may well have been only a minor illness now becomes a much more serious condition.
But hold on one moment; how much time and money is really being saved here? Our GPs. don't appear to work long hours, at least their surgery times don't suggest this. Previously their surgeries were packed with patients but now, since some have an appointment system, how many patients do they actually see?
Do many languish at home in need of the help which is now so difficult to find? More importantly does anyone really care? Perhaps we could be forgiven for thinking that medication was fast becoming a rich man's privilege, as for the rest of us what do we do for treatment?
Leave a comment
Disgusting expecting old and sick.....2 hang around surgeries
18/11/16 pinky
1
Some time ago with a repeat prescription where I should get a month's supply I was being given only a week's supply and so had to request it more frequently.
The receptionist queried what I wanted this prescription again for in spite of having had it for years (assuming the weekly supply was a short-term dose for a temporary problem when I had) and I told her it was nothing to do with her and she wasn't qualified to decide what I should be prescribed.
She became too condescending and intrusive, and being ill I wasn't in the best of minds so I gave her a mouthful and a few days later got a letter from the surgery for my language saying they have a duty of care for their staff and will not tolerate aggressive behaviour or abusive language from patients.
What about a code of conduct towards patients confidentiality and respect?
26/01/16 JohnRJ
The receptionist queried what I wanted this prescription again for in spite of having had it for years (assuming the weekly supply was a short-term dose for a temporary problem when I had) and I told her it was nothing to do with her and she wasn't qualified to decide what I should be prescribed.
She became too condescending and intrusive, and being ill I wasn't in the best of minds so I gave her a mouthful and a few days later got a letter from the surgery for my language saying they have a duty of care for their staff and will not tolerate aggressive behaviour or abusive language from patients.
What about a code of conduct towards patients confidentiality and respect?
1
Me "Good morning i'd like to see a doctor please im unwell and have been since saturday."
Receptionist "Yes of course, whats wrong please?"
Me ".....erm its personal and my doctor has seen me for it in the past so please can i discuss that with my doctor?"
Receptionist "I understand but i need to determine if you need to see a doctor or the pharmacist."
Me "Look i dont wish to discuss my personal issues with you and if i wanted to see a pharmacist i'd go to the chemist. I think im old enough to decide if i need to see a doctor. I start work at 10am so if you can get me in for before 9:30am that would be great."
*silence apart from keyboard keys tapping*
Receptionist (sheepish) "Would 9am be ok?"
Me "Yes perfect, my names gjjdhfhrn dob dhdhfjfn address sjdjfhfn. See you then."
Must speak to these receptionists like crap to get what you want or they just fob you off with a pharmacist who are a waste of time.
:):)
24/01/16 Poorly sue
Receptionist "Yes of course, whats wrong please?"
Me ".....erm its personal and my doctor has seen me for it in the past so please can i discuss that with my doctor?"
Receptionist "I understand but i need to determine if you need to see a doctor or the pharmacist."
Me "Look i dont wish to discuss my personal issues with you and if i wanted to see a pharmacist i'd go to the chemist. I think im old enough to decide if i need to see a doctor. I start work at 10am so if you can get me in for before 9:30am that would be great."
*silence apart from keyboard keys tapping*
Receptionist (sheepish) "Would 9am be ok?"
Me "Yes perfect, my names gjjdhfhrn dob dhdhfjfn address sjdjfhfn. See you then."
Must speak to these receptionists like crap to get what you want or they just fob you off with a pharmacist who are a waste of time.
:):)
0
GP's are utterly useless. They are on huge salaries and yet all they do is TALK.
29/04/14 Dead and Buried
0
"You can choose your pharmacist"?
What's the real truth.
With the green prescription form signed by my GP I can literally choose any pharmacist in the country I like to fulfill it. Every time I go to a pharmacist nowadays with one of these paper forms they try to force me off this system into a more permanent relationship between my GP and themselves. BAH.
Why can't the GP themselves issue the top 100 drugs from out of own stocks, in their own surgery? Why am I forced to go to a commercial pharmacist at all for statins, blood pressure pills, and any anti-biotics. BAH!
29/04/14 What are pharmacists for?
What's the real truth.
With the green prescription form signed by my GP I can literally choose any pharmacist in the country I like to fulfill it. Every time I go to a pharmacist nowadays with one of these paper forms they try to force me off this system into a more permanent relationship between my GP and themselves. BAH.
Why can't the GP themselves issue the top 100 drugs from out of own stocks, in their own surgery? Why am I forced to go to a commercial pharmacist at all for statins, blood pressure pills, and any anti-biotics. BAH!
-1
Repeat Prescriptions - it is not mandatory you register with a pharmacist, it is preferred - the implementation of transmission of electronic prescriptions from your GP to a pharmacist OF YOUR CHOICE is the development driving this, this year. You can choose your pharmacist! This system being implemented means greater integration of clinical and ordering systems / records between primary care and pharmacy suppliers. This can only be a good thing for patients, GPs and pharmacists in co-ordinating care for patients that is becoming increasingly more complex.
On line access to appointments or prescription ordering - it is not mandatory you use on line services, practices are required to ensure a minimum of 5% + of patients are currently registered to use these services. You can continue to book/ order in the same traditional way.
GP First - there are practices implementing this system that means patient requests will be managed by a GP calling them assess their needs before booking appropriate appointments for them. Practices have Patient Participation Groups through which patients can feedback back about how services are provided to them, in this case.
23/04/14 Anon
On line access to appointments or prescription ordering - it is not mandatory you use on line services, practices are required to ensure a minimum of 5% + of patients are currently registered to use these services. You can continue to book/ order in the same traditional way.
GP First - there are practices implementing this system that means patient requests will be managed by a GP calling them assess their needs before booking appropriate appointments for them. Practices have Patient Participation Groups through which patients can feedback back about how services are provided to them, in this case.
0
We have been told by one of the pharmacists that we must now mandatorily register with him for repeat prescriptions. He says "it is a new system". I have tried very hard to find out whether this was a mandatory requirement. I can find nothing about. I think this is now a scam forcing us into a monopolistic arrangement with a given pharmacist. I prefer the competition and the ability and right to choose any pharmacist I have always had
22/04/14 anon
0
We have been told we must register online to book our appointment with our doctor.
The system we have been given is horrifyingly non-user-friendly.
We must now remember a 12-digit number as User ID plus a password which must contain two digits. This is all rollocks!! Who dreams up this cr@p.
Last time we went to our doctor, he told us we had overrun his 10-minute allowance for our appointment. If he was trained properly he would not have taken so long to get at the real issues of our case. Useless overpaid git!
22/04/14 The System Is Utterly Bust
The system we have been given is horrifyingly non-user-friendly.
We must now remember a 12-digit number as User ID plus a password which must contain two digits. This is all rollocks!! Who dreams up this cr@p.
Last time we went to our doctor, he told us we had overrun his 10-minute allowance for our appointment. If he was trained properly he would not have taken so long to get at the real issues of our case. Useless overpaid git!
0
We have to phone our gp receptionist, tell her what's wrong and then wait for gp
to call us back. He then makes diagnosis over phone deciding whether to see us! I phoned up with ongoing severe back pain and told I had had it so long would have to live with it. In the end I paid to see a specialist who was brilliant and arranged for an MRI scan in a different area. I now would only bother to call gp if I was desperate.
03/01/14 jay
to call us back. He then makes diagnosis over phone deciding whether to see us! I phoned up with ongoing severe back pain and told I had had it so long would have to live with it. In the end I paid to see a specialist who was brilliant and arranged for an MRI scan in a different area. I now would only bother to call gp if I was desperate.
-1
I tried to change GPs recently to one that I cycle past every day to go to work. I went in and asked if they were taking new patients. "It depends where you live". Oh that's fine I said not far away. "Out of our area" she replied. My house is just under 3 miles away. How is that "out of area" I asked. "Ah well it's for GP visits. It's too far". I asked if they do GP visits and a smile came over the receptionists face. "No we send you to a walk in centre, instead." It's amazing there is a system to choose which hospital you are sent to but you can't choose a GP.
25/11/13 Fred E
-3
Vets are better...., Thats because you are paying through the nose at a vets but not at the doctors. If you want the same treatment as your cat gets, Go private.
25/11/13 Jethro
-1
Why does my cat get a better service at the Vet's than I do at my GP's?
If my cat is ill I simply take him to our local vet and he is seen more or less immediately, with hardly any waiting, no silly appointment system; and certainly no bureaucratic administrator blocking you from medical care.
25/11/13 Vets are better than GPs
If my cat is ill I simply take him to our local vet and he is seen more or less immediately, with hardly any waiting, no silly appointment system; and certainly no bureaucratic administrator blocking you from medical care.
-4
I am sick to death of holding on in a queue to be told there are no appointments and that I will have to ring again the next morning at 8am, but there is no guarantee I will get one then! My daughter is 12 years old is in agony with tonsilitis and I can't get an appointment, I know what the problem is as she has had it twice this year, so i asked can i get a repeat prescription for the antibiotic? I was told they can't do this she would need to see a doctor!! Help I am becoming demented as this is what I have been trying to do, I have been told I can go to a call in center miles away, so they are suggesting I go to the hospital? No the call in center (Ormskirk hospital)there I will be seen by a nurse who will decide if my daughter needs to see the doctor. Aarr you can now see my frustration I know what she needs but this is now going to cost the NHS even more money not to mention myself as I now have to go miles out of my way and pay for parking which I can't afford to be told I need to see a doctor which I already know and be given the same antibiotics taken before. To infuriate me even more the receptionist through in the comment that they have now been privatized for 2 weeks,I asked is this why we can't get an appointment do you no longer see NHS patients?she said she didn't know what I was asking but went on to say how she had spoke to 25 people this morning to explain they couldn't have an appointment, I would love to know how as I spent 25 mins just trying to get through, in this time she had given away all the available appointments and spoke to 25 others like myself! She finished by saying how she understands my frustration but there is nothing she can do. I feel let down and do not use the doctors often, this system is not working and I feel annoyed that they are willing to let my daughter suffer like this, what do we pay our national insurance for?
03/04/13 Steph Lovatt
1
Isobel; what exactly are you saying isn't true? You have described the system where you work but do you know for a fact that ALL surgeries run the same type of system? I really don't think they do.
There have been many complaints from patients whose surgeries run the system of only making appointments for the same day, no advance appointments; so if you can't get an appointment when you ring first thing one morning you have to wait until the next day and try again.
And, let's face it, doctors these days are paid extortionate amounts of money and I think most of us feel that we should be entitled to better service, including being able to see a doctor at the weekend or during the night if it's an emergency.
01/09/12 grumpyoldwoman
There have been many complaints from patients whose surgeries run the system of only making appointments for the same day, no advance appointments; so if you can't get an appointment when you ring first thing one morning you have to wait until the next day and try again.
And, let's face it, doctors these days are paid extortionate amounts of money and I think most of us feel that we should be entitled to better service, including being able to see a doctor at the weekend or during the night if it's an emergency.
0
peeved