Anima

[naomi24]

//The fastest way to get the care that you need

As a patient, you can use Anima to get what you need from your GP practice quickly. No need to wait in phone queues.//

 

So runs the on-line advert.  I was asked by my GP surgery to book a telephone appointment with my GP using this method so having messed about for half an hour to sign up, entering personal details, passwords and codes, I was finally registered - only to discover that they've reached capacity today and  aren't taking any more requests for appointments until tomorrow.    Goodness knows how much this is costing my GP surgery - but for all the whizzy technology, the service doesn't get any better.  At least if I'd phoned for the appointment I'd have got one - albeit a month hence.

 

Has anyone else been asked to sign up to this?

[barry1010]

No, I just log in to my GPs and book appointments with GP or nurse.

Or phone if urgent 

[naomi24]

I'm utterly sick of my GP practice.

[barry1010]

It seems a lot of people are in the same boat 

[Lie-in King]

I've been using it for a while - or trying to, at least.  If you don't or can't fill out a request, a receptionist will take the details over the phone, but the upshot is that a request must be filed before you get within sniffing distance of a GP & that contact is liable not to be face-to-face until a GP (or whichever medical professional they deem most suited) has consulted you by phone, Zoom, whatever.

I never had an objection to being told "You are number x in the queue", at least I'd end up with an appointment, whenever that might have been.  I hate Anima; things that used to be easy to sort out are now difficult beyond reason.

[bednobs]

Yes I do and it works absolutely perfectly. I think the next experience of it will be different because you know that you have to do in the morning rather than the end of the day. You won't have to do the setup and it will be quick and easy

[naomi24]

So how does it work, bednobs?  I type in a request and they text or email me an appointment of their choosing?

 

[bednobs]

i have had cause to use it 4 times. Two of those times they asked me to come in the same day, one time they did a simple prescription for my problem which was sent directly to the pharmacy for me to pick up and the fourth time I was asked to make an appointment and given a choice of about six appointments for three weeks time

[naomi24]

Okay. Thanks. I'll see how it goes.  I don't hold out much hope though.

[Old_Geezer]

The telephone is for booking an appointment, not having one. How dodgy is it to not even be examined ?

 

In days of yore when sanity ruled, one just turned up and waited one's turn. Of course the path to madness has been travelled by society for decades now.

[Buenchico]

Fewer than 7% of GP practices in England use the Anima system, so there won't be that many people here who've encountered it.

However my local GP practice has been using an online system for consultations for many years.  It's far from perfect (especially when one finds oneself entering the same bit of information into multiple fields) and it can be annoying when the system has reached its capacity for the day.  However it's still reasonably functional and I'm happy enough to use it.  

[naomi24]

I've just spent almost half an hour on Anima trying to book the telephone appointment I was asked to book.  I expected there to be a simple, straightforward 'Book a telephone appointment' option but no.  I've been through a whole rigmarole little of which related to my requirement and if my blood pressure hasn't gone up I'd be very surprised.  So frustrated was I with this new initiative I gave up and tried calling my surgery to make an apointnent but straightaway the electronic voice answering told me I can only book appointments through Anima - so on I plodded again.  At the end of it all 'they' said they 'may' contact me to discuss my submission - but it could take two or three days.  Will I get an appointment?  Who knows?  Hopeless. 

[bednobs]

You are not hopeless Naomi! The next time you use it it will be much easier the time after that even more easy . I would be very interested to know how long it takes your surgery to get back to you because I have always been got back to on the same day. Our surgery also has a service for people like you who find it ddifficult to use the Internet for this matter, whereby you can ring and they will go through the forms with you.

[237SJ]

Not sure if it's the same as Accurx which our surgery uses.  It's an online triage form although I have never had to set up passwords etc, I just complete it through the health centre's website. I say what's wrong, upload any photos etc and a doctor at the surgery looks at it and decides what's next (face to face, telephone, etc)

[naomi24]

Bednobs, it's not because I find it difficult to use the internet.  I don't.   I use it for banking, financial matters like tax and insurance, booking blood tests, shopping and practically anything else you'd care to mention. It's because the thing isn't set up to ask fundamental questions - like would you like to book an appointment?  - which, since the surgery had asked me to book an appointment, was the whole purpose of  contacting them in the first place.   It does have the option to cancel appointments though.

[bednobs]

It sounds very similar  237SJ

[Vagus]

Our surgery uses a system called Patchs which sounds very similar to bednobs.

I much prefer it to the old 'hanging on the phone for hours' thing and sitting in a crowded waiting room with all those ill people.

I can honestly, hand on heart, say I've never had a problem getting either a phone appointment or a face to face on the day I do a Patchs. Twice when I've had a phone appointment the doctor has wanted to see me in person and told me to come in that day at a specific time. Once I had to send a photo of my problem and a prescription was then pinged through to the pharmacy.

Maybe we're just lucky but I really wouldn't like to go back to the old pre Covid system.