I have been online with my GP for 20 years, after I was recently told "you have exceeded the maximum number of appointments" and sorting that out I have now had to go to the surgery and produce photo I.D. and sit at my computer and enter mobile number, "access code" email and then to "validate" them all by codes sent by various methods.
Still, I mustn't complain, I can now book an appointment for January 20th 2020 !!.
However, I still cannot send the GP an email, or book a phone appointment online, is it just my surgery or is it the same all over? I am seriously thinking of moving after 35 years !
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I am so jealous, in my neck of the woods we have to queue outside from 7 30am and hope to get an appointment. We can phone after 8am, but appts are like gold dust, we can order meds online but that takes 10 days. Post code lottery again. By the way I'm still waiting a fast track appt, requested on 5th October. Onwards jane
I put in medicine request online, and it's approved by the following morning!
Able to book appointments up to 4 weeks in advance, and if I need one can usually get an appointment within a few days.
I live in the Wirral, and most people I know seem to have no problems with different practices locally. What part of the country are you in that offers such a poor service?
I've been discharged from Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital, so my first (and only) port of call is my GP - which at present is operating OK - it will become a concern if that standard drops dramatically!
Snap!!! Been registered for online appt 7 yrs now and only ever managed to get 1. Like you, have to be at surgery 7am to grab appointment, CANNOT book appointments in advance it has to be on the day!!?? Nightmare
I had this problem a while ago. Basically someone in the surgery (normally the practice manager) has gone into the admin of the system, and set the number of appointments you can make to zero - hence the message you can see! Annoying
A few things changed due to the EU GDPR so could be to do with that?
I used to be able to get printouts of blood test results when a nurse discussed them with me in person. The nurse still has a printer connected to her PC but...
Now I have to fill in forms, take my passport etc. just to request they provide me with a copy, the request now has to be approved by a doctor and takes 10 working days for them to process. Then I have to take all my ID in again to pick up the printout. Quite ridiculous that I have to separately prove my identity to get a printout but they can show me the results on screen and talk to me about them in the appointment.
Interesting, I used to be able to request and get a print out of blood tests etc., but now I am only allowed to see them on screen. I wasn't aware of the EU GDPR so I will have a look at that. I wonder if I will be allowed to photograph the screen. I will give it a try next time.
GDPR did make all this more complex. But. We all have the right to request any data held by any company or healthcare organisation and it cannot be refused except in very specific circumstances.
The Practice must keep a record that you have requested it, can show that it was you and that you have received it.
They must do this to protect you. There was one case where an abusive estranged partner managed to get their ex’s medical history......
Have a look at the ICO website for details. It’s v clear. (Information Commissioner’s Office)
Yes, if consultant writes to GP we're always copied in, last time was 6 months ago after last appt. I don't think GP has had any reason to write to consultant as yet as the HF nurse always oversaw husbands care, but we were always copied in on her letters, it was her suggestion that we be copied in on everything.
The trouble with GDPR, compared with the former Data Protection Act, is the huge fines that can be levied for breeching the rules.
People see the fines first and just lock everything down - where as - if they read the rules first they would see there is still plenty of wiggle room to work with your data.
It’s not the GDPR that’s to blame, its very good regulation (and yes, I’ve been trained properly in it). It’s poor implementation by your local practice or authority. There has been some awful training about, cashing in on the fear of big fines.
My GP is fully compliant, and nothing has changed- I can still see my tests on line, print them, whatever. No problem with nurse or GP printing them for me either. Haven’t needed to prove my identity since the online system was first set up.
Indeed, but those are the maximum, reserved for repeat offenders who are making financial gain from deliberately abusing the data. Some (many) training companies have been using the scare tactic and providing poor training.
The fines can still scare practices. This is from 2016-so 2 years before the new legislation
“A practice has been fined £40,000 after releasing a five year old child’s medical records, including confidential information about the mother’s family and contact details, to the child’s estranged father.
The Regal Chambers Surgery, Hitching, Hertfordshire was found to have inadequate processes in place to prevent personal data being released to persons not entitled to see it, in breach of the Data Protection Act.
The practice has since changed its processes.”
The Bible Society was fined £100k for not protecting its members following a data hack.
So I can see why there is a backlash from providers.
But I agree that poor training is making the problem worse.
The key thing is that this is before the new legislation. The existing NHS requirements and UK law for medical records etc is stricter than GDPR, for most medical contexts the only thing required was some specific policies that need writing up and making sure all data related staff are trained (which they should have been anyway).
We can only book two appointments on line (including blood tests) plus request prescriptions. Otherwise it’s sit and wait if an emergency (just morning) or phone for appointment at 8 am
I can book appointments on line but if urgent then it needs to be by phone and they are very difficult to get. Repeat prescriptions on line and ready in a couple of days. I can also view all results so don't have to bother the admin staff in order to receive them. I can also 'share' my details with consultant if I need to. Not too bad.
It’s exactly the same at my surgery I can only book one appointment at a time which I believe is to allow everyone to be able to see a doctor within a certain timeframe. I’m lucky that my surgery allows everyone to ring at 8am to request to see a doctor on that day which I think is brilliant. If I want a telephone consultation with my own doctor I too have to ring at 8am to request a phone call obviously to fit around my doctors schedule.
I’ve never been able to email the surgery but I can access all my records which is brilliant.
After reading other people’s experiences with access to their doctors I think the service I’m getting is really good. ❤️
I can only comment on my NE Scotland area but from what my friends Down South tell me and my similar to theirs personal experiences up here, I think it is the individual trusts, the surgery and how well (or not) they've been trained to cope with GDPR and how they're implementing that training (or not).
I don't want to complain about my trust or surgery but they've stopped routine snail or email results and consultant letters to the patient across the entire trust. We now have to physically appear at the surgery with photo ID to get print-outs of letters only, and judging from the behaviour of the desk staffer last week, at my surgery at least they're not happy about patients requesting print-outs.
As for results and reports, the staffer informed me patients no longer have access to those - we must make an appointment with the GP who will then tell us the results - but we're not allowed to see the screen ourselves.
We do have Patient Access up here and when it's working, it's not bad. When it's working. Online or by telephone I can usually get in to see my GP within 48 hours of trying to book, or receive a phone consult from 'the duty GP' if the receptionist agrees my need is 'urgent'.
If the duty GP deems it necessary he/she sends me to the surgery that day, usually within an hour or less - recently the duty GP had me go straight to the surgery as soon as we rang off the phone consult and I was seen by the practice nurse within minutes of arriving to the surgery. I live in a small town, it's a three minute walk to the surgery for me on a good day, on a bad one it's more like ten minutes (stopping to catch my breath/administer a GTN dose...).
I think you will find that if you are using the EMIS or Patient Access system you will find that your Surgery controls what you can do with the system and there are different levels of access, especially on our Medical Record.
A waiting time of 3-4 weeks seems to have become the norm in most Surgeries in my area.
As to limiting the number of appointments that's a new one and I am not sure they can do that. Suggest you contact your local Clinical Commissioning organisation
Very interesting thread which shows lots of variation depending on where you live. For me getting repeat prescriptions isn't too much of a bother as I can order online and pick up from the pharmacy a few days later. Also reception staff are happy to share blood test results etc without any bother. My experience has always been that any paperwork between hospital and GP is copied to me.
What isn't so good is making appointments. I'm signed up for Patient Access but the number of GP slots allocated to the on line system is very few. It saves you the bother of waiting on the phone for you to get to the front of the queue but I reckon it's worse in terms of actually getting an appointment.
The real problem is overload. To get an appointment with one of the better doctors I waited 2 months. There is an emergency same day system but the gatekeeper is a doctor I fell out with because he felt I was too interested in my condition rather than doing what I was told with no questions asked.
I use Patient Access. Prescriptions are so easy. My local pharmacy phones me the week before it's due; I Order online and the chemist delivers it a week later. Getting appointments is rather harder as so few are listed. To see a specific GP I have to check every day to see if one's available. It's usually about 4 or 5 weeks ahead. For anything urgent it's an 8 am phone call constantly on redial; takes at least half an hour to get through to then eventually get a call back from a nurse to see whether I qualify to see a doctor or to get a phone call from one. Occasionally I've been told there are no more appointments and to ring next day but usually I do get t o see whoever's on call. For records and reports; simple records are online but I normally have to see a doctor for them. I've only once been CC'd into a consultant's report.
Having read other comments I can relate to them. Here where I live near Wrexham in N. Wales our local surgery was brilliant. If urgent you could walk in and sit and wait to see a Doctor, you might have to wait a couple of hours but you were seen that day. Non urgent and you could book an appointment for a convenient time for you. Then about 3 years ago our Doctors reached retirement age and it all went pear shaped. The Doctors now are all locums so you rarely see the same one twice. Appointments have to be made by phone at 8.30am for that morning. Repeat prescriptions take 3 days to be signed and our local chemist chain has now started to farm them out to a 'hub' near Runcorn for completion which takes a week. This has only just happened and as the chemist didn't bother to notify the surgery or it's customers you can imagine the problems that caused. As yet we do not have the on line system you describe, thank God! Several surgeries in the area are suffering the same fate, Doctors are retireing and not being replaced, surgeries closing and those that are left have to take up the slack. More houses are being built without the infrastructure to cope with them. We have been promised a new health centre in the village incorporating the surgery and adjacent clinic but I am not holding my breath. Our health board/trust or whatever has a lousy reputation for a lot of things.
I must have one of the best Doctors in the country. I ring in the morning the doc rings me back asked me the problem and if they can fix it on the phone they will if not you can see them that day.
It's crazy my consultant has tripled my dose of bisopropol in the last week. So I'm going to run out soon. You can't contact the GP to increase by phone or email. The surgery refuses to deal with it saying the GP will when he gets the letter from the consultants.
So will my GP when he gets the letter increase my prescription. How will I know if he does? I know that the letter has been sent via a friendly consultant secretary but this is no way to run a health service. What's ironic is that I can request the original low dose but can't because it may mess up any increase my GP does and secondly it looks like I have lots left.
If he doesn't it's 111 and emergency prescription.
Mine is very similar other than when you try to book an appointment there are never any available - there was also no information on my recent test results (should have been quite a lot). I accessed my GP health records online after signing up via the NHS ID system which was great other than nearly every entry is "coded entry …..." so gives you no clue as to what an appointment, phone call or admin action was about.
I'd love to be able to email my GP instead of having to phone reception (often a day and a half to get through to complete even minor queries) it would enable the forwarding of some of the more concerning Kardia ECG's.
I'm getting sick of the pretence that we are receiving services and access to our personal medical care that we patently aren't
wouldn't bother moving to another surgery if I were you, they're all in the same boat at the moment Im afraid, unless you can access private health care.
I do not know what is going on at my old practice as I have recently changed and the new one is ok, small practice only 2 doctors.
However at the previous one when it was an emergency you could sit and wait until surgery had ended and they would see you as an emergency, but not now. When you try to phone, to book an appointment over the net or go and see the receptionist it is about 5 weeks plus. When you go down to the surgery there is no one in there waiting to see a GP the place seems deserted compared to what it used to be like, the waiting room was always packed.
One of the receptionists let a piece of information slip. She said if you phone at 1 minute past 8 am, they release the emergency appointments for the day . Likewise via emis net booking system but I have tracked it down to 7.00am. over the net.I tried to book an appointment at 7am and got one for the same day at 10.00 am. I tried to book one at 9.30 am via the online booking system as a test and was offered one in 6 weeks.
Are GP's trying to block appointments to make themselves look busy.
My practice is one where you have to ring in the morning and they might say come in at ten o clock, but if it was a delivery driver calling they could be a hundred mile away at that time, but cannot book an appointment for the following day so they end up in A&E putting more strain on the National Health
It is no good blowing off steam on this forum. GP surgeries are small businesses and like most businesses don't like being complained about, So go and see your local councillor and keep a record in writing. Go and see your local MP and keep a record in writing. Go and see the practice manager and take your file along, and keep a record in writing.
If nothing happens repeat the whole process and write to the people you see, summarising the process. Always be nice and charming and polite. Your file will be getting a bit thicker by now. If you still aren't getting any response, repeat the whole process again. Bear in mind you haven't started on the Dept of Health yet.
If you are of the opinion that your health has suffered as a result of their negligence, start reading up on the activities of the small claims court. It can be very interesting reading?
I have read and digested all the posts, and I am now of the opinion that I am not so badly off with my GPs surgery! There are so many variations on what should be a standardised system. When I used to work, the same system was used throughout different countries and I could log on and use computer systems in other countries knowing that everything worked the same. Sadly our NHS is simply not "National".
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