doctors

[Heck]

hi I have been with the same surgery for 70 years got a letter today that we’re out of their catchment area we moved 40 years ago and have been told to find another practice and will be struck off in 30 days will go tomorrow and look for another surgery wish me luck

[Fruitandnutcase]

Gosh! That’s a bit of a nightmare. Have you spoken ti them in person ti find out why after all those years they don’t want you on their books? I suppose it is in case you ask for a home visit - but considering how difficult it is to get to see a doctor face to face I would have thought the chances of a home visit were nil, so what’s the problem? Good luck with it all. Hopefully your options are ok.

[Heck in reply to Fruitandnutcase]

takes five week to get an appointment so maybe ne practice might be quicker😂

[Oshgosh]

good luck

[Biofreak]

Good luck Heck. Seems a bit harsh though after so long.

[Mmrr]

A similar situation to my partner several years ago. He had been with his GP for 20 + years, he had not moved house, but got a letter saying he was out of the catchment area and must get a new GP.

After contacting the practice he was told the catchment areas had been redrawn, the letter did not have that information on it 🤷‍♀️

[Heck in reply to Mmrr]

yes going tomorrow to register

[AgedCrone in reply to Mmrr]

With the present situation…GP appointments like gold dust & Covid cases increasing in winter…..that sounds like madness……   I know “rules are rules” but if areas have been re-drawn or not…surely common sense should prevail   & every patient could  stay put until the situation improves? Of course that presumes GPs still care about their patients …& sometimes one wonders.

[MadBunny]

Thats ridiculous after all this time! As if it's not difficult enough to get a GP appt these days.

Good luck x

[Heck in reply to MadBunny]

maybe new doc will be better

[MadBunny in reply to Heck]

Hopefully x

[Esmereld]

I think we’ll see a lot more of this with the shortage of GP’s. They’re all struggling to cope. We now have three physio’s at our practice and can bypass doctors if we have mechanical problems. I saw one a couple of weeks ago and was told I can book them directly to save doctor’s time.

[Sheila_G]

Wow! I have never heard of that happening before. That is awful. Try speaking to the Practice Manager and at least getting a proper explanation for this action. Good luck

[sylvi]

Good luck why after all this time they decide your out of their catchement area. xxx

[Jackie1947]

We live 6 miles away from our surgery . Around us the nearby surgeries are struggling and when we moved our existing surgery took us on. Downside if you call it that we wouldn't get a home visit but then its not compulsory for surgeries to sign up for this. We have 111 in an emergency should we need it for advice we can ring surgery at 8.30am for on day appointment face to face or telephone. Also E consultation contact. Our surgery are happy to have us outside their catchment area. Some have scrapped that now.

[Otto11]

Gosh that’s rather extreme. No explanation? I hope you find somewhere suitable. I would be a happy bunny if this happened to me as our surgery are pretty useless tbh. Joking aside I hope you get sorted quickly. Good luck x

[Heck in reply to Otto11]

👍

[helenlw7]

That’s awful, and only 30 days to find a new surgery.

[Tempo57]

You’re not alone. The thing happened to us in the middle of the 2020 pandemic. We’d been at the same property and with the same doctor for 35 years and only to be told by letter to find another doctor. No personal phone call from them and this was from a village ‘one man’ doctor practice who we’d known personally over all these years.

We were not disappointed actually because during the pandemic we couldn’t even get near our doctor. He wore a ‘gas mask’ (literally) and he couldn’t and actually wouldn’t help my husband who was going through 5 months of leaking exudate rash wounds on his legs, where he was told by his doctor “I’m sorry I can’t make you better”. (Exact words). He didn’t know what was causing the leaking exudate and didn’t even hazard a guess. He ordered NO tests, either blood tests or any other.

I even asked our doctor to let him see a district nurse but he said he couldn’t and it would be too dangerous during a pandemic. My husband had to manage his wounds himself, dressing them up to 3 times daily as the exudate was soaking though all his dressings…all of which we purchased ourselves with no help from our surgery. The doctor would only talk to us through his surgery glass door (still whilst wearing the gas mask and gloves), or over the phone.

The whole business was quite unbelievable. I am ashamed that a professional doctor would put his own Covid fears before his patients health.

We have since lost our faith in GP’s after this.

T57

[Leics]

I always thought freedom of choice was part of the code for seeing a GP or at least being registered. I do know however if you don’t see your GP at least once every year you’ll be struck off anyway or that’s the way it is in our village. Tough situation for you but as you’ve said maybe for the best if it takes so long to get an appointment. Recently my husband had double pneumonia and couldn’t get an appointment so he was told by 111 that the GP’s code of practice demands that patients are seen if they have such serious conditions and to be honest it saved him a £60 round trip taxi ride to A&E as he needed to be checked out and more antibiotics.

[Delgirl1971]

we moved out of the area but we explained that we would not need a call out from the doctors and they kept us on there books

[Green230461]

contact your MP that is a disgrace

[cyberbarn]

It might be worth contacting your ICS (what used to be the CCG) as they commission GP surgeries, but each surgery is actually a private business. That is, if you don't want to move. You would have to appeal though the ICS because they are the ones responsible for making sure everyone has access to a GP surgery. On the other hand, maybe moving will be a good move for you.

[MidnightBlue2001]

Sorry to hear this. The same thing happened to me. It was a very good surgery too. Wishing you all the best in finding a new one.

[medway-lady]

Around here the local GP's have changed their boundary too its because of all the houses and thus new patients. It doesn't affect us but do know of a friend who lives in the next village and is now out of area. But they have been told they can stay with the surgery.

[DelicateInput]

It might be a blessing in disguise. I do wonder if GP surgeries do not want older people.

I moved house 12 months ago and had a good GP at my surgery so was not inclined to change surgeries. However, he left in April. I find with the others (and one in particular who is always available) that they do not want to prescribe anything.

I moved from a London suburb to Surrey and have found a surgery right by the station in a town. They are offering all sorts of things like a check up if you are aged 40 to 74 (which I never had), weight loss clinics etc. Maybe larger surgeries have more funding or maybe a younger population so they are not so contrained for money. I have been with my existing ones for 30 years but my original named GP who was good left 12 years ago, then I had another one for six years who did not seem to want to prescribe anything, and the last one for six years who did a lot for me and always checked.

[Bagpuss2021]

Very harsh