I phoned my GP to ask for an update as it’s been some time since I had a blood test and I’m still waiting for an appointment with the endo.
Was told; why do I need a blood test ? And. Have I seen a endo yet. ?
I explained my story from start to finish and they were surprised. They said 2 surgeries had merged into one so that may be a reason for the mix up. They also said a quicker way if I had a hospital endo letter would be to ring them direct. As I was awaiting to tell the endo if I was having the operation to remove my thyroid or not I thought it odd I was waiting this long so rang.
The hospital put me through to his secretary. She looked online and said. Hummm. Odd your GP has closed your file that usually means you’ve maybe moved GPs or area then we mark it for a new GPs update. Meaning we wait until we’re contacted from your new GP. But you say it’s not the case. You are still on the medication right. I said yes. It’s repeated each month. Right Ask your GP to arrange your bloods and contact us, we’ll sort it out from our end but we need your GP to action it.
My GP has said there are no face to face appointments now so you’ll have to go through a brief question phase so we can decide if you can speak to a nurse. She’ll then decide if she should ask your GP if it is indeed needed. He will the ask the nurse to arrange an appointment to come in and have one done. Although I don’t think we’re doing blood tests at the moment so I’ll have to check. I’ll also check about your thyroid problem that you say you have. I interrupted and said the GP told me I had and the hospital want to remove it. Not me thinking I have a thyroid problem. Excuse me. I don’t like the tone Your taking and if you don’t calm down I’ll have no alternative but to end this call.
I said I hope so soon. I’ve been on 20 minutes now just asking for a blood test and update. The line went dead.
What the hell has happened to the GP service over this Covid period. ?
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Billyboy2u
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What the hell has happened to the GP service over this Covid period. ?
Many surgeries have decided that patients are just an irritation and a nuisance who really have only themselves to blame if they need a doctor or testing, and their expectations are much too high.
As you’re only likely to get TSH tested on NHS …..suggest you organise full thyroid and vitamin testing yourself
Are you currently taking Carbimazole
Are you still taking levothyroxine
Looking at previous posts…..can’t see that you had high TSI or Trab antibodies
Have you had TPO and TG antibodies tested
For full Thyroid evaluation you need TSH, FT4 and FT3
Very important to test vitamin D, folate, ferritin and B12 at least once year minimum
Low vitamin levels are extremely common, especially with autoimmune hypothyroid thyroid disease (Hashimoto’s or Ord’s thyroiditis) or with Graves’ disease (hyperthyroid)
Recommended on here that all thyroid blood tests should ideally be done as early as possible in morning and before eating or drinking anything other than water
This gives highest TSH, lowest FT4 and most consistent results. (Patient to patient tip)
Private tests are available as NHS currently rarely tests Ft3 or all relevant vitamins
congratulations , you win this weeks award for "most rubbish thyroid treatment"
surely these 'triage' people on the telephone could see from your record that you are taking carbimazole and Levo for relapsed hyperthyroid.. or does this new 'first line of defence' not even have access to records when trying to fob people off ? if they don't , then the system sounds potentially dangerous.
I presume you are still on block and replace ? who do they think is monitoring this ?
when did you last have a blood test to check your thyroid hormone levels ?
Assuming they do eventually manage to find your notes /remember who you are, they will probably find an endocrinology report saying "sod him .. he has the audacity to have an opinion of his own about keeping his thyroid"
or maybe this is just a new tactic to shorten the phone queues ?
Wind us up to the point we loose our temper , so they can say we're abusive and put the phone down. Next call please.
Last bloods were over a year ago possibly year and a half. The last time I asked there was a shortage of something and all blood tests were on hold. I’ve a letter from Aug saying they would arrange an appointment to discuss if I’d made my mind up to keep my thyroid or not. As I’d told them a years ago by now I was keeping it. I’ve still not changed my mind.
healthunlocked.com/thyroidu....... i think you must have had bloods done more recently than a year ago ... according to the above post you relapsed in april this year, and said they took bloods that were as bad as when you first went hyper.
(mind you ... it's been a very long year)
are you saying they put you back on carbimazole and Levo back in April and they haven't even done one test yet to check your levels ?.. if so that's terrible.
What doses of Carbimazole and Levo are you taking ?... do you feel alright ?
Yeh dragon. On Levi too. Had a relapse 2 years after block n replace so he decided it was best to just whip it out. I disagreed and was surprised he gave up so easily after first go so he told me to have a think about it and he put me back on block n replace dose again. Which seems odd to me. Their stopping my body producing it and then giving it to me in tablet form ?
Considering Graves is stress and anxiety driven it just makes everything so much worse.
With Block and Replace the clue is in the name :
Whilst the AT drugs block your levels rising any further - you are being given back a controlled measure of T4 to " just to tick you over " and hopefully save you suffering too much from the symptoms of hypothyroidism.
If you wished your last comment to be for SDragon you needed to press the reply button under her post to you:
P.S. You haven't dropped off forum members memories - so stay strong and take good care :
Lol. Thanks. The worse part of this year was 3 days before Xmas my partner got a letter from a scan in Aug say she’s got cancer so I’ve not given myself any thought really. All the best for next year everyone.
It’s just appalling lately, any excuse not to actually see/treat patients seems like a good one. Have you considered writing to your GP? It’s my plan now; recorded delivery listing my symptoms and concerns and asking for an urgent appointment to discuss treatment.
To be fair to the Government this is just the COVID rubbish at GPs that they have been complaining about. My GP practice seems to have sorted themselves out now and I can easily get blood tests and GP appointments.
I assume you have an appointed GP in this merged rubbish practice. Write to them or your practice and explain all this nicely using their complaints system if necessary. Do they have a website? Do you know about Patient Access online?Keep notes and when you are past this phrase complain to your local health authority.
I was diagnosed with an overactive thyroid in August 2021. I have previously suffered from this back in 2016 for a year or two. I had a blood test in August to check my thyroid function (due to having symptoms I had previously when diagnosed with a thyroid condition). I was told I was being referred to Endo unit at the hospital and was put on Carbimazole.
Basically cut a long story short, I hadnt heard anything for a while, no blood test, nothing, so I called docs where I requested a blood test and got told to chase the hospital. Phoned the Endo unit at hospital to be told there is a year waiting list for an appointment. 2 ways I can get seen quicker keep pestering my docs, they could try and boost me up the waiting list or go to A&E.
Now I feel in limbo, my symptoms are all over the place and no one is really doing anything about it.
Go to A&E. that’s what I’ll be doing if I have a flare up again. However I will say for some strange reason where bloods show I’m really over I do have it mild as all I feel is really run down and sit there all day doing nothing and in a few days I’m back to normal ?
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Reply to a post from Tats which I wanted to share re., cardiac symptoms.
No thyroid..
Evidence for meeting with Lord Hunt
How does a named patient for NDT work do I have to pay for meds on that deal or not?
Endo update 
