Anyone Else Manage To See Their Doctor??

[Smowball]

Our surgery is still refusing to see all patients, and it is telephone consultations only! I have been short of breath since yesterday and even tho I live opposite my surgery and I just want the doctor or nurse to give me a 5 min check over they refuse. If in doubt of anything they say go to A & E, no matter what it is. Is everyone’s surgery still like this?? Or has anyone been able to see their doctor yet?

[poorclare]

It would be interesting to know where these Surgeries are,
that there is easy access to.

I am in Belfast, my neighbour is with the same surgery but
tells me she cannot see her Doctor, could it be attitude !!!
don't know.

Keep safe and keep a distance

[Smowball]

The linked practise up the road has just rang me and says I do need to see a doctor and she is ringing mine to see who is there to see me.

[Milo2]

Patients have to ring the surgery in the morning and there is a triage system by one of the GPs. It is then decided whether a face to face appointment is necessary. Using this system, I was given a same day appointment with a doctor.

[bednobs]

"I just want them to double check my peak flow and say if I can increase how often I take my inhaler ie is there a limit." Then I dont get why that can't be done on the phone. In any case to answer your q I saw mine same day 2 weeks ago (in the car park mind you!). Because I had respiratory symptoms they didn't want me coughing on everyone. I'm glad you have got an appt now - let us know what happens :)

[Peter Pedant]

calm
we have had around 1000 deaths in NHS staff ( all kinds )
anaesthetists and ENT surgeons over represented ( do airway work see)

so their appetite is perhaps blunted for P2P consult

[douglas9401]

I suppose if nothing else it makes you marvel at the commitment and courage of medics dealing with the really scary stuff like Ebola or front line care in war zones.

Health professionals may just be in danger of overplaying their hand though, leaving the man in the street to see them as just another profession flexing collective muscles and thus losing some respect, to say nothing of their saintly image.

[Canary42]

In my experience there are two sorts of GPs. The ones who really care and go out of their way to care for their patients, and the ones after an easy life doing SFA. It's pot luck which set you get in your surgery. I suspect the former despise the latter as much as we do.

[naomi24]

My doctor has given me an open invitation for a face to face meeting whenever I want one. I haven’t taken him up on it. I really like phone consultations so unless it’s something that NEEDS a face to face meeting, I’ll stick to that. So much more convenient.

That said, I can't imagine why your surgery is refusing to let you see anyone at all if you're complaining of shortness of breath.

[Lie-in King]

(13/5/21) "In a letter sent out on Thursday, GPs were told the use of telephone and online consultations can remain where patients benefit from them, but physical appointments must also be available from May 17."

Perhaps it's taking a while for all surgeries to get around to reading their post - https://tinyurl.com/2ez8sk9b

[anneasquith]

Not only gp surgeries appear to now prefer telephone consultations. A fairly urgent hospital appointment now via telephone by a nurse practitioner . ( 10 week waiting time) .

[douglas9401]

That's kinda what I was hedging around, Canary. :-)

[Vagus]

I called our surgery yesterday afternoon and have a face to face with my GP in the surgery tomorrow morning at 9am.
I’ve had numerous telephone consultations since COVID and, like many others, much prefer them.
Going forward, for me, it’s the way to go.
If I was allowed to do my own B12 jab at home, I’d do that too.

[Vagus]

Anne, I’ve also had two telephone hospital appointments with different consultants, which I think is great..no travelling to the hospital, finding a parking space, waiting round with a load of other people to be seen. The telephone appointment was no different to me being sat next to him except we couldn’t see each other.
Way to go!

[Peter Pedant]

// The Dr will decide if you need a consultation which lends itself to a more efficient service//

so you never did ward rounds where there were despairing looks because a junior doctor had missed the significance of a stiff neck and temperature?

Sqads sentiment is on the lines of I dont need to see the patient ( I dont read PP script) because I know it will be minor ( because I know he writes crap the whole time)

[Sqad]

PP
////////so you never did ward rounds where there were despairing looks because a junior doctor had missed the significance of a stiff neck and temperature?/////

No.

[MartinMillar]

I think it’s a brilliant system at the moment cuts time wasters and hypochondriacs down significantly
Why not give your reading over the phone and they will advise you if you need to up your medication as they do with husband when he is feeling a bit breathless

[emmie]

i did see him once, for a 15 min consult.

[William51]

My surgery does not do a doctor face to face appointment but have a triage system. You first see a practice nurse for minor ailments and then she can arrange a doctors appointment if needed. Alternatively you can book an appointment for your doctor to ring you.

[roopower]

I haven't seen a doctor but have seen a nurse practitioner twice. She was very thorough, probably better than the doctor would have been. Have antibiotics and some blood tests.

[New Judge]

//The Dr will decide if you need a consultation which lends itself to a more efficient service benefitting patients and Dr's alike.//

Consider how this experience will have benefitted either the patients or the doctors of my surgery then, Sqad:

An elderly neighbour of mine collapsed in the street a short distance from home. She was taken to hospital where she spent eight days. She had no phone with her (was only popping to the corner shop), she lives alone and nobody knew where she was. She was not allowed to make a phone call from hospital but all that is by the way. She was diagnosed with a heart problem (valve related, I believe) and sent home with some drugs.

After a few days her legs became swollen and very painful. She found it hard to walk. She phoned our surgery (less that 50 yards from her house). She was told that under no circumstances could she see a doctor there. A telephone consultation was also refused on the grounds that she had recently been in hospital and was therefore not under her GP’s care. It was suggested she rang 111.

She rang 111 and described her history and symptoms. She also explained that she had been refused a consultation by her GP. 111 made an appointment for her to visit A&E. She did this (£12 one-way in a taxi). The doctor there immediately recognised the problem and suggested a change of drugs would do the trick. “Why didn’t your GP realise this?” she was asked. She explained why not. “Well I can’t prescribe the different drug for you [almost certainly due to “budgets”] but I’ll e-mail your GP immediately and tell him to contact you.”

Upon returning home (£12 the other way) she had a message on her answering machine saying the doctor would call her the next day. When she received that call the doctor was most offhand (presumably because he had been given a roasting by the bod at A&E) and provided a prescription. Her problem abated within 48 hours.

I know your views on the modernisation of GP services and I agree that telephone consultations will be suitable in many circumstances. My view of the GP system is somewhat different (see below). There have been numerous scandals arising from the fiasco that the handling of the pandemic has turned into. But the greatest without doubt is the complete abrogation of responsibility for primary care that many surgeries have implemented and been allowed to get away with. My surgery is not busy with the vaccine rollout. It has played absolutely no part in it bar passing a list of patients’ details over to somebody who can get the job done. Yet it has kept its doors welded shut for the past fifteen months.

It is about time that so-called “primary care” was abolished as a concept. It is hugely expensive and seems to serve only to keep people away from or delay them access to the services they need. The last medical problem I had (which was knee trouble) saw no service at all from my GP and I was told to self-refer to a physiotherapist service (from which no doubt the practice received a rake-off). It was they who decided I needed to see a bone doctor and so referred me on to an orthopaedic specialist. I would prefer to be able to “self refer” to whoever I like and I’m sure it would not be beyond the wit of man to devise a self-referral app or website. I could then see someone who can help me instead of jumping through hoops to get to see or speak to somebody who can't or won't. The NHS has never been the “envy of the world” and it certainly isn’t now.