During the pandemic, virtually every GP surgery in the land closed its doors as people were told to stay away from the NHS. The reason was purportedly to stop the hospitals overflowing but it effectively put the entire system out of reach for those who did not have Covid or a condition requiring emergency treatment. The impact on the waiting lists in the NHS was immediate and continuing.
One thing that could have been expected after the pandemic was that GP surgeries would again allow patients to drop in and wait to be seen rather than endure the lottery of making an appointment by phone. But as we report today this is hardly happening anywhere.
The trend towards remote primary care was apparent before Covid but has been accelerating ever since. Research by campaigners has found that GPs are becoming an “elusive species” – with eight in 10 elderly patients saying they have been forced into phone triage when they wanted a face-to-face appointment. Nearly one in five pensioners said they had ended up going to A&E because they could not get a GP appointment, even though the situation was urgent.
To say this is not good enough would be an understatement. The doctors’ representatives have sought to play down anecdotal evidence of surgeries that are effectively out of bounds, while ministers insist that they are getting the NHS back onto an even keel. But this is not true. Just a few years ago older patients were promised a named family doctor who they could get to see whenever they wanted. What happened to that?
Instead of pretending that the system is getting better, the GPs and the Government need to get together and fix it.
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AgedCrone
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I have a deep pressure sore on my hip after collapsing at the beginning of May and not being found for over 24 hours. I was in hospital for 10 weeks, where my wound was surgically washed out twice. I Cas then discharged to the care of my drs surgery and the community nursing team. My wound was dressed every day, and more recently every other day. The district nurses say it isn’t heeling as well under the surface as it is on the top and I need a type of x-ray called a sonogram. I got in touch with the drs on their online service and wrote down everything the nurse, a very experienced sister, told me, including measurements of the various tenths of the wound. The surgery got back to me with a telephone consultation with a Rd in 3 weeks time, where I will repeat everything I wrote on the online form! They haven’t got time to see me, and can’t refer me to the hospital without me speaking to ar dr. Madness.
Oh tell me about it…I’m 20+ years older than you, & I think I am identified by my GP by my DOB, not by my medical condition!
But how very distressing for you. Could you ask the DN if she could maybe give the practice nurse a call & ask her to either alert a doctor at the practice…or if she could arrange the sonogram appointment herself….3 weeks seems a long time to leave an ulcer.
I think maybe a clinician has not been involved in the decision that you have to wait three weeks , and even then wait longer to get a hospital appointment. Failing that…write to the practice manager…once a PM is alerted things can start to happen.
I am just realising that at my GP practice the receptionist appears to read forms and emails, and if she doesn’t think it’s important, she, not a doctor, decides what happens.
I do hope you get an appointment sorted sooner. Do let us know how you get on.
My GP has written on my notes csi for left GTB! I know what that means but the receptionist didn't and refused to give me an appt. I now have to wait until she speaks to the GP (which means today at the earliest) for clarification. It means a steroid injection by the way and I am in constant discomfort, not life threatening, just an example of advocating for oneself.
I think GP experience differs around the country. My practice are keen on having F2F appointments, and in the Kent area 68% of appointments are F2F. Prior to the pandemic it was apparently 80%, so it is getting there. I’ve always been fortunate to get seen promptly. I had an urgent referral sent to orthopaedics 3.5 weeks ago, and have been given an appointment this Wednesday with an orthopaedic surgeon. I had been expecting to wait for months.
I don’t think returning to turning up & being guaranteed to be seen is something we can return to. I had several gps who said a number of their elderly made “social appointments”, seeking reassurance which most often could be provided by other health professionals. Often it was a loneliness issue and the fact they had no one to turn to, and just liked to chat. Sadly in these current times that can’t continue, but many practices now offer “social prescribing”, to deal with some of the loneliness issues.
It also doesn’t help that at least 5% of Appointments’s are where people don’t turn up, and give no notice they are cancelling, resulting in a wasted slot that could have been given to someone else. Perhaps fines need to be issued, to make people more responsible for their actions, when there is no exceptional circumstance. You can sign up to your areas monthly newsletters, which give you the figures of how many appointments there have been in the previous month, how many F2F and how many DNAs they had. In my area they are seeing about 20% more patients than pre pandemic, partly due to some being phone consultations where they tend to be kept brief and to the point.
I think my GP practice is generally unpopular…both with staff & patients. Recently a neighbour of mine said a friend did a Locum job there and he said he would never, ever go back there again. He said it is disorganised & the Snr Partner did not seem to care!
I honestly wonder what is going on there. Patients here, who have regular apts say they never see the same doctor twice.
The car park is full to overflowing ..but the waiting room is empty, and as you go past open consulting room doors, there’s office furniture in there, but no people.
I virtually only use them to pick up my prescription…it will be a real nuisance if they close as it’s a 15 mile round trip to the nearest practice.
I'm in a similar position, I can be seen on the day if necessary. I don't abuse it, I've waited nearly 3 weeks to see a female GP for something that can wait.Some GP practices do need to up their game, but we as patients need to be sensible too.
Last month 161 appointments, across the GPs and nurses, were wasted due to people not turning up in my practice. I'll make a guess the same people complain when they cannot get an appointment when it suits them
Oh I’m pretty certain it will be the non attendees, getting abusive when they can’t get seen immediately. It’s the same at A&E, the number of people there when I’ve attended with my knee injury, or when Drs were concerned I may have fractured spine or pelvis, loads of patients waiting to be seen for things that could be seen by a gp, and not necessarily need seeing that day. So many think it’s their god given right to be seen immediately. One young man complained to me re the wait, I said well if your having to wait a while, that’s because they’re prioritising very sick and badly injured first. So you have to expect to wait till they’ve been seen. Too many abuse our nhs. Like you I can get same day if needed, an if I complete an EConsult they respond same day. Like you I don’t abuse it. My rheumatologist sent my referral to orthopaedics off 3.5 weeks ago, and had a call yesterday offering me an appointment on Wednesday. Can’t complain about that. 🤪👍
The last time I was in A and E, two adults were complaining about the wait to be seen. I presume they were the parents of a girl with them around 8/9 years old with 2 superficially skint knees. No blood, no obvious pain, she was playing with her doll, just 2 skint knees. No head injury (I asked 😊).
One problem now is …GPs bundle people off to a consultant appointment …with a really long waiting list….. taking up precious time needlessly….when in days gone by they had the skill & the will to diagnose & knew the difference between a possibly serious condition…& one they could manage…….so that often ends up with the patient presenting at A&E in desperation. …hence the long wait those who have had an accident or a genuine emergency have to endure.
A couple of years ago I did pitch up to A&E for the first time ever with a fractured radius…When I got to the reception desk I explained I thought I had broken my wrist…The receptionist asked me, how did I know? I held up a wonky, red & swollen hand…..& if a nurse hadn’t walked by and said “Oh that looks nasty”, I’m sure the receptionist would have sent me home!
How lucky you are,if you live in Buckinghamshire you would be very lucky to get an appointment, if you do get one be prepared for a 4 to 6 week wait for a face to face it's absolutely dire.
Yes our GPs offer a face to face service for most patients too. Most appointments are same day appointments after triage by phone. I would not want to have a turn up and wait to be seen practice; I can’t see my employer being impressed if I spent several hours of my working day sat in the GPs surgery instead of just turning up for a timed appointment! And I agree, the number of people who don’t turn up for their appointments is shocking.
We can get appointments for the same day but only after a phone call the same day! I talked through with my husband the key words he needed to get an appointment - diabetic, poor circulation in lower limbs, swelling and probable infection, cellulitis. The receptionist said she'd get a doctor to speak to him on the phone, which they did the same morning, but he still needed to be seen by the doctor. Who then prescribed him antibiotics... streamlined service anyone?!
I have another condition, severe adrenal insufficiency. I’ve already had a severe stroke due to an adrenal crisis. Any infection or stress on my body can trigger another crisis. So my notes are flagged to ensure I have a same day appointment, and my immunosuppressants add to their concern. So I can’t complain. Thankfully I was thrombolysed and recovered well physically, just very slight weakness on the left side. It’s my memory that has suffered more. Thankfully with smart phones, I have lots of alerts and prompts to keep me in toe.
Well I know with 100% certainty my GP practice don,t make notes like that.
On the rare occasions I have seen a doctor there….they have obviously not read my consultant’s post consult letters The first question they asked me was why was I having infusions….& did I have RTX every month?
In our city, it differs from surgery to surgery. Several surgeries are absolutely appalling. My elderly parents were very badly served by their surgery. If their conditions weren't worth an appointment, I don't know who they were seeing at all. They couldn't get an appointment for 13 weeks! They switched to my surgery and got appointments straight away. Issues that should have been resolved years ago were properly looked into. They've have had at home appointments when needed, support from nurses, referrals. Often they have phone appointments too but that's because it's difficult for them to get to surgery. The receptionists are lovely too. In previous surgeries, they tend to have been snippy but at mine, they are always obliging. It's better than a lot of pre-pandemic surgeries. I must say that they have been spot on with my treatment too as well as the rest of my family. I always let them know how grateful we are when I see them!
Does it depend on the surgery? Speaking personally I get a great service from mine even seeing a Dr or Advanced Practitioner on the day or choose a telephone appointment if I ring at 8.30am . No long wait either. I can do E consult and hear back within 24 hours . They are a busy practice but I commend them on patient care. I even received a phone call from the Dr to see if I was ok following a colonoscopy.
I had a fall & thought I may have needed an X-ray … but I thought I wouldn’t panic, & wait a day to see how things went and eventually due to holding on the phone for so long…it was 48 hours before I could get in touch with my GP. I was then told they can’t refer for an x-ray unless it was within 24 hrs. Even explaing I had ..OP & already had fractured vertebrae…I was told all I could have was a telephone consult in 17 days…..I couldn’t understand how that would help …but the receptionist would not be moved….luckily it turned out OK…but the attitude of wait or drive 20 miles to A&E with a possible broken bone….was just plain daft.
Yes they will….but that still depends on the GP attitude. . A while back….. 111 made the apt for me to to go to my GP to get a tetanus jab the next morning when I’’d had a knife fall on my foot. When I phoned the next morning to see what time because I was going to have to have a taxi & wait …so I didn’t want a long wait that I was paying for…. it was my right foot so I couldn’t drive.
The receptionist said oh you won’t get a taxi from the village you’ll have to get one from town. It will cost you £50 and I immediately knew she was trying to put me off so I quietly said to her “you’re trying to tell me you don’t want to give me an appointment aren’t you”?…… she said “Well do you think it’s worth it”? I saw red & put the phone down. She didn’t call back and I didn’t report the surgery to 111, but if they do anything like that again I would.I thought about it afterwards, and I should’ve written to the practice manager, because I bet that is recorded that I just didn’t turn up.
In all the years, I have never had a practice as bad as this one…. sadly, this whole area seems to be the same.
That's shocking. Tbh when we moved into a different area the Surgery's around here are pretty rubbish so we are registered out of area. It is allowed but you won't get a home visit. What we'd have to do is ring a hub and sort it that way. Same with community Nurse. That worked for my husband as he needed dressings replaced. Most things are hubs these days
I'm fairly well looked after, but that's because I can be pro active. It seems we need to be our own DIY advocate. I've been unwell and last week I said to my husband that I just didn't have any energy to start with the phone calls and explanations then possibly be told no appointments. I just thought I'm too weary of it all. My oh did it for me. I didn't see anyone but Dr rang and gave me prescription for antibiotics. He is the most likely one to do that. The other two usually say come in as they know my situation. 🌻
Apart from the Senior partner..there seems not to be the usual list of doctors with the health conditions they know something about …saying they specialise in would obviously be inappropriate…as none of them seem to know a single drug prescribed for RA 🤷♀️
My GP refused to see me for an ECG even when the 111 team contacted them, the result was 13 hours on a chair overnight in ER to have tests and ECG. While the tests did reveal something the ECG was clear. This should have been done by GP. My gripe is the waste of hospital resources caused by GPs avoiding seeing their patients!
Yes sadly it does happen… But I think decent people like us don’t make enough of a fuss…. I suppose when 111, makes an appointment for you & the GP refuses we should just go back to 111 and ask them to send us to another practice in tour area …. that is within their remit.
.But when you’re not feeling well, the last thing you want to do is try to stand on your dignity to get your rights isn’t it?
Exactly and if I’m ever in that position again I won’t be going back to ER but wait instead until I’m bad enough to call paramedics, mind you that’s no guarantee of treatment either. If I could actually get a diagnosis of these new symptoms I’d be prepared to pay to see a consultant but until then it’s a question of which consultant, rheumatology or endocrinology, I can’t waste money as the pandemic brought early retirement (61 now) and a severe leg injury during lockdown, which meant it was untreated has left me with a limp and inability to stand for long so combined with Stills my options are a bit limited now. So I’m living off savings, no benefits, no pension until 67 and I’m not selling the family silver 😜
So very true indeed. I am just older than the NHS and when young, the family doctor would come to see anyone in the family day or night without question. Now you have to go to a phone app and fill in details to be triaged by someone and the first port of call is a telephone call. If you need surgery it is requested by a GP as routine even when urgent. If over 70 you are written off. Hospital staff are fed up to the back teeth of GPs telling patients to go to A&E instend of dealing with it themselves. The profession was once a vocation now most are only in it for the money and many have private consultancy posts on the side.So very wrong.
It is such a shame our NHS has come to this. Unfortunately there are too many quangos and CEOs of various NHS boards which entails more admin and pen pushing than real healthcare. I was asked to submit a week of BP readings in order to review my meds 5 weeks ago. I did as asked and still waiting for the result. On phoning the surgery I was told somebody would get back to me in due course!!!!!! I can however get plenty of social prescribing which I don't need 😐
Social Prescribing seems to be the 'buzz' words of the moment. Fine if you need to know where the nearest 'knit and natter' group, befriending service is or how to go about a financial assessment but ask them if they know of any practical support or gardening, handyman services and it's we don't know of any. A 12 week wait in this area for this to be told sorry can't help with that. When in my experience what they offered you could go to a library, local community centre, research on line yourself and I ended up giving them names of organisations, council safe traders schemes etc!! As my council covers a big area most of the safe traders are too far away and wont travel. All I got was in return from Social Prescribing was I have a friend who has a gardener who says he's ok, we can't as a team recommend him of course and there's another colleague's mother who has a gardener again we can't recommend but. Both of these again were out of my area so of no use, nor would I ring blindly people I don't know or have never heard of. May be others have had a different experience but for me it was what I call another box ticking exercise from my GP.
Thanks AC, these services round here were pulled a few years ago I'm afraid. They do provide other services such as light shopping calls, luncheon clubs, befriending calls which are valuable for those who need them. I have looked into a service they have when coming out of hospital.
Have you tried this..I realise it’s only Travel, but it might help some people. I have been using something similar as my hospitals are a long way away and it has saved me hundreds of pounds when I haven’t been able to drive.
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Thanks for all the suggestions and support AC, I will keep this one in mind as I don't know how much longer I will be driving because of my knees and will have to look into this as I attend hospitals both near and far.
And people stood on their doorsteps and clapped for this. Some of us tried to warn people. It didn't take a genius to figure out what was going on. What did people think would happen if the whole world was shut down.
It’s a very sad state of affairs. I took my hubby to get a heart tracing done yesterday. It wasn’t our own surgery as it’s a tiny practice with no equipment so I had to go to our larger surgery in next town. No one was in the waiting room, when he went into the nurse, I sat and listened to the receptionist. Obviously an elderly man phoned to speak to receptionist, he was trying to order a repeat prescription , she kept telling him he is onto the result line and to call again and go onto correct line, he said he did this but she said he didn’t. She told him to try again. While he was off the phone she tried the line and it was fine. The man called again, same story so she told the man she just called it and it’s working. She then said if he couldn’t get through, send an email to the surgery. Honestly I really felt for the man, why couldn’t she just have done the prescription over the phone. My surgery couldn’t understand what I had left on the prescription line a few weeks ago and told me not to leave a msg on the phone but to call in with his medication. In all the time I was sitting waiting. The receptionist did take another call telling sumone that her illness didn’t sound urgent and couldn’t get a f2f but to call in morning. One other person came in the surgery to wait for the nurse. I did see an actual doctor floating about briefly but no one in waiting room for him. What is this all about?
This (sadly) is so true. I phoned for an appointment last week and it’s become the new normal that I expect to be on hold for about 40 minutes and to be told I’m 14th in the queue. 🤷♀️
As someone who works full time I find the GP more accessible now than before. I don't have to take time off to sit waiting on the phone all day. I do an e-consult from the GP website and someone gets back to me if not that day then the next. I don't have to take time off to go to the GP either, I can nip to a quiet room in the office. With the amount of time I take off for hospital appointments I find this approach so much better than using up holiday or taking days unpaid.
However, I think it should be a choice and there are obviously some things that can't be done over the phone. There isn't enough help for people who are not IT minded. My husband for example would never manage to do an e-consult without help. I don't think bringing back face to face is the answer, I think a more flexible approach would be best.
You are right……many older people have difficulty even using the phone to explain what they need…especially when the receptionist asks the caller to explain what the problem is….I have helped a few write down what they want to say & that has helped, but a lot of older people don’t want to tell a virtual stranger why they need to see a doctor.
One thing I find irritating at my surgery is the list of 8 extensions to call for say a prescription query….Press 1 between 0800/0830, 2. Blood test apt between 1000/1030….so if it’s later in the day…you have to call tomorrow……by the time I get to 8..I’ve decided I don’t want anything.
As always AC very eloquent. I agree. My surgery is similar to yours. I had an appointment to have my flu injection at the surgery with a nurse. I had also rung the surgery to ask for a face to face appointment with any GP to look at a skin condition and was told that there were no face to face appointments left for 2 weeks. When I got to the surgery for my injection I was the only person in the waiting room! Clearly the face to face appointments were not all booked up, unless the people were there but invisible. It was like the Marie Celeste!
it’s just an efficiency problem as far as I can make out. I recently went for a blood test and there was a new practice nurse…& tbh I think she was as amazed at the inefficiency…she said she,d give it until after Christmas, then she was going back to doing chemo infusions at the hospital she worked at previously.
As always AC very eloquent. I agree. My surgery is similar to yours. I had an appointment to have my flu injection at the surgery with a nurse. I had also rung the surgery to ask for a face to face appointment with any GP to look at a skin condition and was told that there were no face to face appointments left for 2 weeks. When I got to the surgery for my injection I was the only person in the waiting room! Clearly the face to face appointments were not all booked up, unless the people were there but invisible. It was like the Marie Celeste!
Not too much better in the US. My primary care visit yesterday was a FaceTime phone call with a nurse practitioner I had never met before. It wasn’t a bad thing, it was different. Everything changes. When we were kids, my mother would send me to the store with a quarter for a loaf of bread and now that bread costs $3-$4. Will there even be bread in the future.
Suppose I am lucky as when you book an appointment you area sked whether you want F2F or phone. For a non urgent matter though you have to wait 6 weeks. If urgent ring at 8 with fingers crossed for same day. They always try and book you in with your named GP and that seems to work. Try and use the nurses if I can though.
I’m in much the same position as everyone else. I got a telephone appointment with my GP as I was suffering with chest pain that had been happening two or three times over a few days and he said I needed to arrange with receptionist to have an ECG she then told me it was a six week wait! I did manage to get one within three weeks which was clear but doctor has ordered a 24 heart monitor for me but have now been informed by the department that supplies them it will be at least sixteen months!!
I'm very lucky with my surgery. True, they have a phone triage system, but it is very efficient and works very well. Every time I've needed to see a GP I got an appointment the same day. That was during COVID and is still the case today.The trouble is that politicians and the upper echelon in the NHS are busy justifying their failures and blame each other. Nothing will improve until someone bangs their heads together to shake them out of their state of inaction and denial.
I’m afraid you are right….it seems the people who decide how things will work …..don’t have a single idea ……..what it is that needs to work!
Communication seems a dirty word now…..a few years ago we could email our Rheumatology Nurses and at the end of their day, or at latest the next day we would get a reply.
Then we got a point blank email from “whoever” saying from such an such a date Rheumatology Nurses will not not be accepting emails. Now you’re lucky if you get a reply to a phone message in a couple of weeks, so needless to say, nobody bothers…& the patient suffers….but the nurses can’t do anything about it because “them upstairs” have made the decision.
Appointments with the Rheumatologist are impossible to get at short notice, and the number of Rheumatology Nurses has halved. They are overworked and the atmosphere is horrible because the patients are all complaining and the nurses can’t do anything about it.
A couple of weeks before last Christmas I had a sinus infection. I waited three weeks for a telephone appointment. When it came it was from a doctor I’d never heard of, it sounded like it was coming from a call centre. I couldn’t hear him & he couldn’t hear me. He said I was to go to the pharmacy & buy over the counter nasal sprays . I have chronic rhinitis I’ve been advised never to use them. The call was a waste of time. I struggled on not being able to breathe through my nose. Disgusting discharge & then my RD decided to join the party. I waited another three weeks for another telephone call from someone from the surgery who wasn’t training to be a doctor but was on work experience 😱. She did actually listen to me & said you need antibiotics hallelujah. I asked if I could have a steroid injection as my joints had seized up. Nope they don’t do steroid injections, go back to my consultant. Christmas time chances are nil. She prescribed strong painkillers even though I can’t them. After four days of antibiotics I was so much better. Seven weeks that took. Unbelievable.
My surgery is always empty.
Earlier on this year my very large dog pulled me over a wheelie bin. Got an emergency appointment with the same work experience lady. She sent me straight to A&E, I had major surgery for Claudia equina some yrs ago & all symptoms were back. Spent 8hrs in A&E who I have to say were brilliant. MRI scan revealed inflammation surrounding the scar tissue & stenosis. Probably won’t get better something that I’ll have to live with. Recommended medication, phone my GP & discuss a way forward. Phoned the receptionist, no no meds were recommended, yes there was. Oh yes here it is. I’ll book an appointment, three weeks time by phone 😡. Just great. Spoke to the GP, no he couldn’t prescribe those drugs as they’re serious drugs etc.. he’d get a physio to ring me. He did prescribe something else. Anyone out there had physio over the phone!! He was young man but didn’t ask me any questions until the end. He didn’t have access to my records. So after about 20 mins he said so what’s your problem I told him CES & he said oh scrap everything I’ve said. Do not do physio 🤷♀️!!
I’m sorry you had to go through all that…but have read..but I don’t know if it’s operational yet….that pharmacist’s are going to be allowed to prescribe antibiotics…at least that will be one step forward….
Hopefully the pharmacist will be able to access medical records…otherwise it could go badly wrong.
I’ve always found pharmacies (apart from the one at our surgery) very helpful. I had asked them about my sinus infection, see your GP, you need antibiotics 🤷♀️. Good luck with that I thought!
Have you tried Sterimar breathe Easy for your sinusitis?
My ent surgeon advised me not to use drops or sprays years ago…said you can buy Breathe Easy OTC….. and my sinuses have behaved ever since I’ve been using it. I can’t remember the last time I needed antibiotics
The only thing that works for me is a steroid nasal spray which I use once a day. Keeps it under control. I hadn’t taken antibiotics for 5yrs so I don’t know why that were reluctant to prescribe them. The spray didn’t work for those 7 weeks that I was left with an infection. Lovely festive time I had NOT. Couldn’t even taste my expensive red wine!!
I have lots of allergies eg. bleach smoke scented candles all sorts of sprays hayfever all year round. Hot food etc…. It only started when I moved here a few years ago. They tried lots of things & were talking about an op when they prescribed this spray. Without it I can’t stop sneezing coughing unbearable. So not ideal, I know but it works. The sinus infection was left over from a heavy cold & the spray didn’t work then.
Sterimar is only 100% natural micro diffused sea water. Next time you see your doctor, ask him …..long-term steroids just in case can give you some nasty side effects…..Thankfully they gave me side effects early on so I never take them .,,,thankfully there has always been an alternative…& when it was only sea water after 10 sinus surgeries I was delighted. To me the less meds the bettter.
Absolutely agree. I did try something similar completely natural but it only worked for an hour at the most. If I forget to use the spray in the morning I certainly know about it by the afternoon. I’ve reduced it to just once a day instead of three. You have to weigh it up don’t you. My life was pretty miserable without it.
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So not wearing a mask !
Will I get appointment about Pulmonary Oedema?
If blood results so good-why do I feel so bad? 
Oh I was so dreading appointment 🤷♀️
My 1st App with the consultant (not so straight forward )
