This has just been posted over on the Lupus forum and I thought UK members here might be interested if they hadn't heard about it:
Whether it will make a significant difference remains to be seen - and whether the 75% of practices figure can be achieved or the other quarter EVER get it ...
Our GP Surgery does Follow Up Appointment’s via the telephone, l’ve had one already & have one booked in 10days time.
They have an ‘Urgent Clinic’ everyday & as far as l know you can get an appointment when required.
PS Personally, l’d like the option to email in a question or query that doesn’t really need a Face to Face but l’d be confident my question/reply was accurate as no third party would be involved.
I would love email contact. I use it for diabetes clinic and for Rheumy nurse. I am happy to wait a day or two for an answer. Mind you the way I see 2 GPS at my surgery navigate round the computer system I am not sure they have the skills.
At my local practice as well as telephone appointments and some appointments available to book online there's the ability to contact the surgery online, not to be used for urgent medical situations. There have been times in the past when I've wanted to contact a doctor to ask or tell them something but have had to make an appointment, so that new facility will be useful.
Yes. I would like that too.
We can only cross our fingers in hope.
Mind you patients need to do their part too. There are 100s of missed appts just at one of my drs surgeries. No excuse either as if they have a mobile number the surgery will text them 24hrs before.
I cannot believe the amount of DNA’s (did not attends) it’s beyond appalling, if l was in charge l’d be following them up & finding out why? I mean they even text you now as a Reminder, so what’s the excuse?
I used to work in Out Patient’s so DNA’s were one of my Special Interests! 😉
It does drive me mad. If I have to cancel for any reason I always ring asap. I am proud of my 98%plus attendance...guessed that figure. I missed a blood test pre texts. Turned up wrong day right time.
Think it was 11000 for local hospital but don't know timescale. Would that be month or year. Seems high for a month, low for year.
Our surgery texts as a reminder for appointments but most of the people attending our surgery are fairly elderly and do not have mobile phones or have them buried somewhere and never use them. I asked if they could send reminders by email and was told NO.
I think there should be a small fine for DNAs.
It's not fair that other tax payers have to cover the ignorance of other people.
Start fining and you'll see that people will keep their appointment or cancel 24 hours before.
That's just my opinion.
I think there is a limit of DNAs posted as somewhere at my surgery. Not sure what the "punishment" is.
I think you can have 3 DNAs at my surgery, then I’m not sure if they remove you from their registered patients.....can they do that?
That's why I was unsure. I heard a rumour it was that but haven't see it yet! They can take you off their books for anything now though.
Quite a few DNAs will have been admitted to hospital (or died) and those numbers will be increasing as the wait to see a GP increases (3 weeks for me). (And this state of affairs is devastating A&E departments as people can’t wait and rather than see OOH doc they invade A&E in their hundreds)
I agree with MrsN, find out why people didn’t attend (maybe they do?)
Hubby nearly missed an appt a couple of weeks back, we wrote the time wrongly and were 10 minutes early for the time we thought, but 10 minutes late for the actual time. Now why didn’t they text a reminder to him like they do to me? Well I discovered the answer to that after THREE visits to get his blood results (don’t ask!!!!) they didn’t have his phone number!!!!! Basic error, how would they have contacted him in an emergency if his blood results required? When I visit the rheumi they check EVERY time, contact number, address, GP and NOK. GP’s could do the same, as people often change mobile numbers. In fact I might suggest that when I visit to ‘constructively complain’ about the blood test fiasco.
We discussed that at Management Level when l was giving DNA’s my highest priority but it would cost more to implement it & no one would pay up anyway! We implemented Reminder Letters & telephoned a few repeat offenders!
I’m afraid it’s the nature of the beast!
People used to ring for an on-the-day appointment in Durham - and still not turn up! Which is why I like the turn-up-and-wait we have - it is quite funny when you go in knowing you must see her and there are 5 or 6 people ahead of you to start with and then 3 leave in a huff! We never go without our kindles in our bags.
I think everyone should have to pay a deposit - returnable when you arrive!
That is just being selfish..not attending the same day!! A lot of people are just selfish and self entitled.
There are supposed to be phone appts on the day but really you have to turn up at 8am for 8.30 and be at the front otherwise appts all gone. I use online appts which seem to be more available. Not many have caught up to it yet.
A deposit of some sort would be good. I hate the huffers. I am happy to sit as I think I wouldnt want the Dr to be rushing me out of the door. My dad always wanted to leave after 5 mins waiting. I said same to him. He would be mad If Dr started saying well I have to chuck you out for the next person.
Problem everywhere. I had no idea how much of a problem until it recently became news:
cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-sco...
They have been putting one up at our surgery for a few years now and it so upsetting. Of course Dr really liked it as it allows them to catch up (not my words...practice nurse)
They were posting the numbers in my surgery in the NE of England before I moved here - 9 years ago! No idea if it has improved anything though!
As our doctors are paid "fee for service" rather than on salary they really don't appreciate this!
Money follows patient - how excellent...
I don't think it's good at all. It's piece work, like garment workers.... It's also rather shocking how little a GP gets for an office visit, so this encourages them to shuffle us through as quickly as possible. My former horrid doctor who didn't catch the PMR actually ended one appointment I had with her several minutes before it was scheduled to start.
And one of the doctors in the practice (not mine) actually has a sign posted saying you can only ask about one thing in an appointment. No you can't book a double appointment.
I mean for each itemised consult - in the UK a GP is paid an allowance for each patient, irrespective of whether this is a patient who requires a lot of medical care or if they are someone who last went to the doctor in 1983 ...
Whereas in Germany (for example) the GP bills either the patient or directly to their healthcare fundholder for each procedure done.
I think it would make more sense to give them a proper salary. This is the way doctors who are called "hospitalists" whatever that means are paid. They, working in a hospital, have better incomes than the GP who charges per visit and they don't have the overhead costs of maintaining a practice.
That is what happens in the UK to a great extent - but the complex patient is still not adequately covered. Same for the hospital admission - a standard fee is reimbursed irrespective of whether a patient needs 4 days to recover post op or 14 days. So the hospital with the predominance of complex patients loses out.
But a salary - when I worked in a library I was paid the same per hour whether it was a busy day or a completely dead one. This comes with the territory of working for a living. All workers deserve the expectation of a living wage, no matter what they do. I don't think a doctor is, in this respect, any different from a librarian, teacher or cashier. Perhaps there's fear that doc will pocket the money and head off to the Caribbean, or Mediterranean, for a few months, but like a librarian or teacher who didn't show up for work, s/he would soon lose their job! At present our GPs are treated like independent businessmen and women, with all the red tape that entails. They are responsible for setting up their own retirement funds, unlike the average librarian or teacher there is no employer contributing to the retirement pot. Yet they have the worst of both worlds having to bow to the often ill-informed regulations of the "Health Authority".
In the UK that was what they chose to do.
They probably did here, too, but over the 50 years since medicare was introduced things have changed a great deal. I'm willing to bet that back in the 60s Nova Scotia had one of the best publicly funded health care systems in the world. That, sadly, has not been the case for decades. Now the system is run by people who look on the doctors as a problem to be managed, not as key to solutions. It's really complicated, and no matter what is done there will be resistance, but I doubt I will ever see my doctor on a salary. I just hope she doesn't throw up her hands in despair and quit. Over 70% of our GPs, according to a recent survey conducted for the health authority itself, are disaffected.
My GP calls every 2 months for an update. I tell him where I am in my reduction plan. I can always call if I need to up my dose. We also have a chance to cover any other issues should the need arise. It's a lot less stressful and time consuming for both of us.
Can you clone him please!!
I would if I could! It works really well. For me it happened when I had a flare - recognised by Pro - and I upped my meds myself when he was on holiday. I wrote to tell him and he was a tad cross on y next visit! But I explained that he was away, I was in pain and the pain was controlled by the preds so it must have been a flare! He said I was right but not to do it again!!! Well of course I would but I'd telephone to tell him and just do it! He recognises now that I have much more understanding of my illness than he gave me credit for! All learnt on the site - I also told him I was going to reduce slowly and took him a copy of DL's strategy. I also suggested he save the NHS some money and cut out the blood tests! So we don't bother anymore! Pred and symptoms rule!!! Good luck on your journey xx
My journey now is just GP, she doesn't even ask what mg I'm on....I lower myself as and when...which is very slowly!.....her opinion of pre d is it's poison.......but I told her poison gets me up most days....and I have a life!........Rheumy didn't like me doing it my way (his fast regime put me in unbearable pain)...in the end he said, I won't see you again, but I'm here if you need me, that was nearly a year ago........
We plod on together one way or another...👍
As long as they give you the pred - you're probably better off without them to be honest!
He's a keeper .......
We have something called ask my gp, where you can log on to their website with passwords etc, and ask a question. I have done this twice and on both occasions received a reply from one of the doctors the same day. It’s good unless you need an in depth conversation
This could possibly have saved my nephew's life last month as he never got to see the GP due to no appointments......
Obvious answer and I would have done exactly that. He didn't live local to me or his mother. He'd fainted a few weeks previous and thought nothing of it - then had another faint but didn't complain of feeling ill! - he was encouraged to go to the doctors and he finally agreed but couldn't get an appointment. His partner spoke to the surgery every day re an appointment but they never said to go to A&E either. I don't have all the conversation details.
On the day he died his mother spoke to him on the phone and everything was 'normal' - he was working from home - didn't say he felt ill or anything - apparently just stood up and collapsed - it was instant - postmortem revealed an enlarged heart - which could have been treated I understand. He didn't live local to his mother. What do you do she tried to make him go when he first fainted but trying to drag a 6'4" 20 stoner isn't that easy.
In those circumstances I would have rung 999 knowing he wouldn't go to A&E or even the doctor - some people never go and he was one of those. I get the impression he presented very well and wasn't seen as an emergency! Like my neighbour I told you about with what I suspected was PMR last summer - he's now blind with GCA. There must be loads out there not seeking treatment.
There seem to have been a lot of these sudden cardiac deaths recently - here too, a couple have been sportspeople who I thought were monitored for it. And they are nearly always young people, 30s and 40s.
Did you know it accounts for HALF of all heart disease deaths?
my.clevelandclinic.org/heal...
No I didn't know those statistics - thank you for the attachment.
I've never been to a Green Burial before but it was lovely - in Suffolk - the best and most informal one I've been to - he wasn't religious and his girlfriend and mother put a lovely service together without the need for a vicar - even had a bench put near to the grave for my husband and me to sit and be part of the service - hubby can't walk or stand for long. Lots of people came from around the world that she didn't know - he travelled a lot in earlier years. He would have been 50 next week - and was to be married on midsummer's day. Hope I haven't gone on too much!
Such a shame - do hope the death before the wedding doesn't cause problems for her. And the birthday being just after will be an awful memory.
The aunt of my daughter's husband had a green burial out in the depths of a wood in Yorkshire somewhere - after days of rain! With a willow coffin that cost thousands apparently. Cardboard will do me.
Of course you haven't gone on too much - it needs saying to put it in context.
Thank you. I thought my reply had been 'moderated' as it seemed to disappear when I sent it - so relieved when I got your reply. The choice of coffin was limited, apparently due to his size, but it was cheaper overall than a conventional funeral. You can also choose just a shroud! And don't plant crocus bulbs on the grave as the badgers dig them up! They're going to him on his birthday to have a celebration of his life. You have to when it's so close to these events.
I was discussing with family that I wanted a green funeral so nice to here of one without celebrants etc. Glad it all went off as okay as it could.
It’s made us think again - so much more a relaxed way to go whatever your religion - what more could you want than a beautiful woodland setting. Worth looking into - I shall be looking what Yorkshire has to offer.
Well I am staying in my beloved Yorkshire. Have donated my body to science so presume there will be some of me to grow a tree.
Yes, meant to add that, take anything of any use at all first - won't be any use to me will it. No idea if anyone would WANT it mind!
Ditto
Very good....
Really - just a bag? Now that is my idea of sense. I don't want anything, just cremate me in the hospital incinerator and spend the money on prosecco for a party!
Good idea!
An uncle died when I was 16 and I didn't want to go to the funeral. My Dad said "go, you'll have a good laugh!!! I couldn't believe what he said, but I went anyway. And we DID laugh (all of us). Uncle had left a list of what he wanted at his wake - whiskey, beer, wine, tea (he'd left the cash for this). He'd also left a list of things he'd done, said, etc in his life. We were in histerics! (His wife disappeared occasionally (understandably).
That's how I would like to go.
No indication of making appointments longer! Ours are 10 minutes, it takes the doctor about 5 minutes to speed read my notes which doesn't leave much time for me.
4 more days on 3mg then stop!
PMR diagnosis from GP
NHS shingles vaccine will be offered to almost one million more people
GP visit
GP Visit 
