Doctors

mikeyrob73

Ok so i need to see a doctor, nothing urgent but an ongoing issue, called this morning
" can i have an appointment" 
" is it Urgent" 
" not really urgent" 
" next appointment is in 2 weeks, but i can get a doctor to call you back today to speak to you" 

WTF !! why is it so difficult to actually just make an appointment? 
surely its just doubling a doctors workload that they have to call me, then they have to see me? if they call me they will then ask to see me today, which means i have to speak to the doctor twice today, when all i want is an appointment sometime in the next 7 days. 

oh and to make it worse i was stuck on a call at work, could get my mobile in time, so called back, only to get a bollocking from the Receptionist for " wasting the doctors time" FFS 

randella

The receptionists at mine have gone, seemingly overnight, from treating you with abject contempt to actually behaving in a breezy, pleasant and generally helpful manner.

It neatly coincided with the merging of two surgeries into mine which has now become some sort of super-surgery serving god-knows how many patients - it's more like a cottage hospital.

I suspect they had a kick up the arse, they needed one.  I feel your pain for sure.

VimFuego

if it helps, we've needed the GP 3 times since living here, each time we've phoned up and got an appt that day.

mikeyrob73

Receptionists, surely a condition of the job is being able to speak to people without being condescending and rude? 

mikeyrob73

@VimFuego guess thats my frustration, i dont actually NEED an appointment today, just sometime in the next week, but the only way for that to happen is to get the Doc to call me back, then go and see him today, so i am taking the Docs time up twice, and away from people who probably need to speak to, or see him, more urgently, just seems a stupid backwards system to me. 

Heartfeltdawn

My disappointment at this thread not being about the popular BBC daytime soap is palpable. 

randella

mikeyrob73 said:

Receptionists, surely a condition of the job is being able to speak to people without being condescending and rude? 

You'd think, wouldn't you?  Mine are clearly capable of it, they just apparently chose not to for a number of years.

I dunno, I appreciate it's a crap job dealing with all sorts of angry timewasters and not a sketch I'd choose to do in a hundred years; that said, I've had a serious spinal complaint in the past and been in and out of that bloody surgery like clockwork, never ONCE missing an appointment and only using the same-day emergency effort when I literally couldn't walk despite the industrial-strength painkiller regimen.  I always felt they ought not to be taking it out on me.

Anyway, all in the past - you might get lucky with yours if they send them on some sort of customer-interface course

jellyroll

Heartfeltdawn said:

My disappointment at this thread not being about the popular BBC daytime soap is palpable. 

Have you seen a doctor about that?

mikeyrob73

jellyroll said:

Heartfeltdawn said:

My disappointment at this thread not being about the popular BBC daytime soap is palpable. 

Have you seen a doctor about that?

course he hasnt , he would have to call and speak to the Doc first 

57Deluxe

What pisses me off (not enough to seek medical help over though) is that you are no longer allowed to go to Docs and say I have a couple of things to run past you - even if you can rattle them off in the 10 mins allotted consultation time - you have to go away and rebook ! HFS is that??

randella

mikeyrob73 said:

jellyroll said:

Heartfeltdawn said:

My disappointment at this thread not being about the popular BBC daytime soap is palpable. 

Have you seen a doctor about that?

course he hasnt , he would have to call and speak to the Doc first 

He could always ask his Neighbours.  Depends if he's Home and (or) Away.

</coat>

guitarfishbay

mikeyrob73 said:

Ok so i need to see a doctor, nothing urgent but an ongoing issue, called this morning
" can i have an appointment" 
" is it Urgent" 
" not really urgent" 
" next appointment is in 2 weeks, but i can get a doctor to call you back today to speak to you" 

WTF !! why is it so difficult to actually just make an appointment? 
surely its just doubling a doctors workload that they have to call me, then they have to see me? if they call me they will then ask to see me today, which means i have to speak to the doctor twice today, when all i want is an appointment sometime in the next 7 days. 

The issue is supply and demand.

There's plenty of demand but only a finite number of appointments.  You'll be one of 1-2,000+ patients per GP depending on area.  That's a lot of potential people to need an appointment.

What's happened here is triage, and if it's working correctly it'll make it more likely you can get an appointment than not.  

The receptionist asked if it is urgent, if it was they'd either try to get you seen urgently by a GP or if appropriate either tell you to attend A+E or even call the ambulance for you if there was a reasonable chance you'd be unable to get to A+E under your own steam (e.g. possible stroke/heart attack symptoms).  You were offered an appointment which is better than some places who will tell you to keep calling back when the phone lines open in the morning (only to miss out continually), and were offered triage by the Dr.  If in 2 weeks you're fine you could always cancel the appointment, or if you got worse you could call again.

The doctor would be calling you to triage how soon they'd need to see you, or if the problem could be dealt with over the phone (as it can be in some cases).  

There's no perfect system, perfect receptionist (this one was a bit harsh), perfect doctor...  but better that the surgeries try to prioritise appointments than they just let it get booked up according to what people want as not everything is urgent.

What I'd recommend is checking if your surgery does online booking, there can be slots that are available purely for people who book online.

mikeyrob73

OK Doc has called me back, after a 10 minute chat on phone where i was asked a multitude of Questions i now have to go in at 510 today, so what should be a 5 minute follow up has taken 20 minutes of the Doctors day up. and we wonder why the NHS is struggling ? 

TheBlueWolf

My current surgery is the rare one that doesn't treat patients like scum who are wasting the good surgeries time, turning up being all ill and shit. I've had a fair few like the OP though.

mikeyrob73

@guitarfishbay ;
i explained on the intial call it was a follow up appointment, that it wasnt urgent but needed to be dealt with in he next week or so, there are no appointments available for 2 weeks so they only way i can do this is by getting the doctor to call me, waste 10 minutes of both our days talking about what i am going to talk about when i go in later. 

i understand all your points, Triage etc but surely it would make more sense for an appointment to be available sometime in the next week, there are obviously open slots as i have now got one, than to waste the doctors valuable time talking about the same thing twice ? 

57Deluxe

Triage should be the name  for the (rather obtuse) Olympic sport and Dressage should be the name for the titting about with the nurse stuff..

revsorg

My policy is to live in denial about worrying health issues, then when the receptionist asks whether my request for an appointment is urgent then the answer is always "yes" because I'm literally about to die, or some part of my body has ceased functioning.

AliGorie

I have 4 consultants I see 4 times each a year - two of the conditions are deemed 'serious', I can call up and get to see them - no problem. I take medication for a heart condition - only, enough of the sob story's.
A couple of months ago my wife and I were due to go out, I was to drop her off at the hairdressers and go on and pick up my grandson, I didn't feel quite 'right' - kinda odd. I phoned the GP and got a telephone consultation half an hour later, told him my symptoms and guess what - he told me to have a packet of crisps !. I worked and payed my national insurance for 40 yrs and only go to the doctors when I 'need' to. These guys are on upwards of 100K and you cant get near them though I'm well looked after by the 'specialists'.
Oh, I didn't have a packed of crisps so took some salt - felt ok after half an hour - low blood pressure ?, who knows.

BigBearKris

Don't you worry my mate, all the millions they'll pump into NHS due to Brexit should solve that issue...

richardhomer

mikeyrob73 said:

Receptionists, surely a condition of the job is to be condescending and rude? 

FTFY

Heartfeltdawn

57Deluxe said:

Triage should be the name  for the (rather obtuse) Olympic sport and Dressage should be the name for the titting about with the nurse stuff..