Menopause Matters Forum
General Discussion => This 'n' That => Topic started by: groundhog on August 02, 2016, 08:49:36 AM
-
Good morning,
Just wondered how difficult it is for you all to see a GP?
My surgery currently has NO GP and I was offered an appointment with a paramedic?
Is this normal or indeed acceptable? I was told to go to A&E if not happy, even my regular helpful receptionist has been replaced with some dinosaur.
It's been pretty dire for months but never this bad, it makes me very very anxious.
Wondering what your experiences are?
Thanks ladies xx
-
No GP ?! Never heard anything like that before, id have to change surgeries but that's just as I need consistency. Hope you get something sorted groundhog xx
-
Ours is a nightmare, to see a GP of your choice it is normally a 3 week wait, even a telephone appointment is nearer the 2 week wait. This is hopeless if you want any continuity of care there is no chance as getting to see same doctor twice is low!
You can phone in the morning and the duty doctor will ring you and will see you the same day if they feel it is needed.
Blood test appointments are difficult to get and they tell you to go to the hospital. I personally think that is wrong for routine ones.
Our best female most knowledgable doctor has now left and another one is leaving. This will leave us with one female for a very large practice, so this is going to throw up more problems.
-
But yours looks worse than mine :-\
-
‼️ This is what happens when the NHS is under so much financial stress. And when would the paramedic do his normal duties!? Plus his training is limited. Highly trained to keep you alive as far possible before handing you over to doctors at the hospital, if necessary. I shall ask my son, a paramedic in the USA, but still in contact with paramedics over here, what he thinks.
It is appalling particularly when you need the security of being able to access a doctor.
I am fortunate that at the surgery I go to has several doctors, many women who work pt. Even so, routine and non urgent appointments have to be made well ahead of time. This is getting more and more difficult. My daughters surgery is awful. Rude receptionists, horrid waiting room and poor service. She had to fight to get the right medication, lactose free, when she needed it. The pharmacist in the local chemist had to go into battle for her. Fortunately, she has no need to go there at present. In the cathedral city, near here, they have a private practice, where you can get a appointment for £30. Not ideal, but in an emergency.... One of the GPs is occasionally a locum at my surgery and lovely, so my daughter would go there in an emergency.
-
No GP? One of our surgeries closed because it couldn't offer a GP when they all resigned within a short space of time.
Ours is terrible at the minute. I feel so sorry for the overworked receptionists and all of the staff to be honest. I have got an appointment for 11th August which I made three weeks ago. It was the first available appointment with any doctor. I really wanted a lady doctor (my own lovely gp has left) but that would have meant waiting until the 16th September! They do the usual triage system now where you phone and a GP will phone you back. This is supposed to be within two hours but when I needed advice on a possible urine infection the other week I had to wait six hours for the call back and then a further two hour wait at the surgery for the emergency doctor. The doc told me that two on call doctors had to make 162 triage calls that day and they were still ploughing through them. It was 6.20 pm then. He had stayed on for an extra five hours to help out. How can this be right? We have got twelve full time GP's at our surgery plus a full nursing team etc.
Taz x
-
My doctor asked me in February to come back and see him in August so last Monday I phoned and was told no appointments for 4 weeks phone again Wednesday. On Wednesday I phoned and guess what, no appointments phone again on Thursday. Thursday I phoned and told sorry but you have to phone at 8.00 a.m. to get an appointment and because I phoned at 9 a.m. they had all gone, when I asked how many appointments were available I was told 5, that's less than one hour of the doctors time.
I'm away at the start of September so I have to wait now to try and get an appointment sometime in September. >:(
If it's an emergency a doctor will phone you back and let you know if you can have an appointment, otherwise it's a telephone consultation.
-
We are currently fortunate to be able to see a GP the same day - I feel that a letter to your MP is important but Groundhog, you probably don't have the energy >:(. Anything that we can help with?
This is why A&E are stretched. Maybe ring your local Dept and tell them that your GP Surgery has told you to come along, is there a 'better' time to attend?
-
At ours, it's usually 3 or 4 weeks to get a non-urgent appointment with a random GP (longer if you want a specific one), or you can turn up when the doors open at 0730 and wait .... You can only raise one issue at a walk-in appointment, and if you have a 'complex issue' or more than one thing to discuss you have to make a double appointment through the telephone system. It's not great, and extremely difficult for those of us who work full time a distance from home.
-
Our surgery is really not too bad at the moment. It's a large practice with 3 health centres several miles apart.
I have to say, a few years ago you couldn't get an appointment within a few days for love nor money and weeks of waiting were the norm. However, we had a lot of East Europeans living here then and now that their own countries economies have improved, they've nearly all gone home now. Also many of them have worked hard and saved their money to take back and start afresh in their own countries.
So the waiting lists are a lot less which is good for us. :)
-
Thanks all. I don't think we have the option of moving surgeries as out postcode decides what surgery we go to. I know a few members in the community have involved the MP and health board etc and it's being looked at. The problem started when my long term GP retired last year and a few colleagues followed her . Since then we have had locums and then the practice was taken over by health board. Since then it's been a disaster and even getting locums has been difficult. But I think what's happened now is one GP off sick and two on holiday and no available locums. So all they can offer is a paramedic in full kit who sees you and then phones a doctor if a script is needed. Not good and for people like me who have chronic health problems it's quite a worry, they have always been excellent with me I have to say but if there are no doctors what can they do. I refused the paramedic as no disrespect but couldn't face explaining it all when even some Doctors aren't familiar with my problems.
It does seem from the replies this is a widespread problem and so I suppose we just have to hope for the best. Plus avoid getting ill at weekends and in August or if you live where I live, ever!
-
Ithink it is very much a postcode lottery. When our lovely gp died the practice he had built up from nothing went to pot,locum after locum until a new partner bought it then it settled for awhile ,then the other doctors had a vote of no confidence in him and it transpired he had been fraudulently been taking money and opiates ! Then 18 months of different locums never the same one twice . Its now run by a medical business over 100 miles away but at least now we do have permanent gps albeit that nearly all of them are part time. They are online and I have found that usually you can get an appointment within a day if you use that as long as you're not bothered who you see.
-
Ours is on reduced staff over the summer, so appointments are very hard to come by, more so than normal. Telephone appointments can be made for a few days in advance, unless a big emergency.
-
I mentioned the benefits of local health facilities on here a couple of months ago. We were the same, we had GP surgery at his house where we waited like you say. a district nurse would come out if people needed help at home. IF you needed an operation we were sent to the local cottage type hospital just about 10 miles away and there were a couple of convalescent homes if you needed more time to heal.
FAst forward and they try and make you go to a hospital 14 miles away if you need blood tests (they say it's quicker!) if you need an operation which involves a stay in hospital you now have a 60 mile round trip. All the convalescent homes are closed.
-
Hello ladies.
I agree that we've seen lots of changes in healthcare, some improvements undoubtedly but we've also lost a lot.
Perhaps convalescent homes would reduce the readmission rate and the main reason for bed blocking by the elderly is that social care has been cut. It's all about money and where we put our resources.
Such a pity that the 350 million the Brexit people promised us won't be going to the NHS after all!
Take care ladies.
K.
-
At the same time, there have huge advancements in treatment and understanding of many conditions.
For example, as a child, I had severe asthma and the medications available were not very effective and some caused death. My sister nearly died from using the current inhaler, that was withdrawn from use soon after. My father had to get my sister to the local cottage hospital, several miles away, before an ambulance could pick her up to take her to a bigger hospital further away. No ambulance available to come to get to our house. No, we didn't live in the depths of the country, but in a town close to other towns.
As a child, I was unable to take part in sports. Today's medication would and does control my asthma most of the time. As a young adult, every spring, I would make a trip to the doctors as I felt the beginnings of worsening symptoms because of allergens. Every spring, the doctor would listen to my chest, not hear any wheezing and announce me fine and send me on my way. A week later, I would have to return, wheezing and poorly, before I would be given the much needed medication and would have to take time off work. Frustrating. Nowadays, not only is medication better, asthma patients are encouraged to manage their own asthma and have an action plan and are regularly monitored. I am listened to and respected.And if symptoms deteriorate as they did for me 3 years ago, I was scooped up by an ambulance, 24 hours in a high dependency ward, 24 hours monitored in a normal ward, then home and monitored by several doctors at the surgery. Quich efficient service from the NHS and from a hospital that does not fare well in league tables.
Yes, there are many problems with the NHS, mainly funding, but I am alive because of it. I would not go back to the 'good old days.'
-
Things seem to be getting worse and worse over there! I know when I moved towns over 10 years ago I had a hard job finding a new surgery but luckily ended up with a really good practice. But a few practices have closed and there is no where for the patients to go.
Over here in Oz all medical services are private with the exception of public hospitals. We have Medicare we sets out a table of fees and will put those fees towards services, however, there can be a gap which the patient or health care fund fills. So it costs $80 to see a doc but Medicare says it should be $37 so I pay the gap. We do have docs who will only charge what Medicare says but they aren't usually that good!
The other advantage is that you can rock up and see any doctor anywhere, we're not controlled by areas etc. My docs also has a really good online booking system so you don't have to do the receptionist thing!
We also pay for Medicare through tax although it's not as high as NI. The one advantage here of having so many providers is that there are no long waits and results are usually back within the day, which means you get to a diagnosis quicker but I guess you'd need deep pockets if you had an ongoing or major illness so I'm not quite sure what happens then.
So like everything it has good points and bad and it takes a long time to get your ahead around the system!
I do hope you can get a doc sorted out soon though Groundhog.
-
Thanks all. I don't think we have the option of moving surgeries as out postcode decides what surgery we go to.
You can register at any practice now.
Taken from the NHS website 'Since January 5 2015, all GP practices in England have been free to register new patients who live outside their practice boundary area.
This means you can register with a GP practice somewhere that's more convenient for you, such as a practice near your work or closer to your children's schools. This will give you greater choice and aims to improve the quality of access to GP services. Use the Services near you facility to find out what people say about a GP practice.'
But are you in Wales, may be different :(
-
My gp told me it was up to the practice to decide if they kept you on if you moved out of their catchment due to practicality of home visits etc not that you would get one!
-
Two partners have left my practice since March- the lovely locum took a post elsewhere. My previous lovely GP took early retirement two years ago. Now the practice has two senior male partners who are awful, one ok woman , one woman I'd rather not speak to again this side of forever and a motley crew of female part timers. You can ring on day and get duty dr or own if lucky to phone back but your own rarely has appointments free. If you want to see a specific GP it can be weeks or months. I had bloods taken middle of July and first follow up was mid August. Got letter at weekend to say my annual diabec review due but no Diabetic nurse now as doctors are doing the follow up post bloods. So that's going to work well.
-
As long as your GP/Locum/night-Cover GP is prepared to travel for house-calls, you can register with a Practice within reasonable distance. I think that we get 'any' GP that is covering over-night should it be necessary but can see a GP in the Practice within 24 hours in the day.
I have a Surgery in the village and another in the town 4 miles away [same GPs], there's another Surgery with different GPs 4 miles in the other direction ……. plus good Pharmacies for advice though Lloyds seems to be tied in with GP Practices these days.
In parts of Norfolk the on-call night-cover GP can travel 40+ miles to visit patients in their homes, to areas they are un-familiar with :sigh: which is why people call for Paramedics.
-
That's what I meant 'prepared to travel ' mine aren't so cant register outside the area they cover
-
At ours, it's usually 3 or 4 weeks to get a non-urgent appointment with a random GP (longer if you want a specific one), or you can turn up when the doors open at 0730 and wait .... You can only raise one issue at a walk-in appointment, and if you have a 'complex issue' or more than one thing to discuss you have to make a double appointment through the telephone system. It's not great, and extremely difficult for those of us who work full time a distance from home.
My practice only allows 1 issue at any appointment. No such thing as a double appointment and all but impossible to get a named doctor. I wish i could make an appointment 3 weeks ahead but they only book up to a week ahead. If you fail one week, you have to try the following week.
I hate it if the doctor is due to ring me because they won't give an approx time of the call. If I am at work, I miss it.
-
I can book ahead on line. Whether this is good/not as it fills up spaces :-\
GH - what did you decide to do?
-
I can book ahead on line. Whether this is good/not as it fills up spaces :-\
GH - what did you decide to do?
In theory I can book online but most of the time there are no appointments available and users are told to contact the surgery. On the rare occasion that 1 is free, it is bang in the middle of the day so useless for commuters. It is only a token service because they have to appear to offer it.
-
We are lucky. Our GP began opening his Surgery here [satellite branch] at 7.00 a.m. 2 mornings a week and has slots until 8.00 p.m. in the nearby town, to accommodate working folks.
-
Ours opens from 7.30 to 7.00 four days a week but there's still no appointments for a couple of weeks.
Taz x
-
Hello all - well CLKD I managed to get to see my consultant and self medicated by taking antibiotics I had in the house. Turns out that was the right thing as i do have a low level infection - I did manage to get a blood test on Monday even though the request was completed by the receiptionist - she just copied the old blood form. I did get a phone call today from a doctor somewhere in Wales, certainly not my practice. She had access to blood test results so could advise me. I was lucky in that I managed to also see my consultant but it's not ideal. The MP is involved and there is to be a 'meeting'. Seems August holidays have tipped the balance from the practice scraping through to not coping at all.
Worrying. I just hope our A&E doesn't close but I would never abuse that but reassuring they are there in case of need xx