GP Appointments - Breach of Contract?

[Disgruntled_Employee]

Thanks for your comments but I do think you're missing the point. My previous GP (inner city) You couldn't get an appointment for love nor money unless you make it over a week in advance (crystal ball anyone?).

 

They have a system of only booking so many appts then the rest are dished out on that morning, nice idea in practice (sorry for the pun) but it means their phones melt at 8am and you hit redial and redial and byt 8:15 they have all gone and you just get told try again tomorrow

 

My new GP (rural but covering a huge area so many more patients) I get through first time at 8am, get an appointment and the staff are friendly and happy to speak to me and DO offer advice if you need it.

 

Having staff that guard appts with their lives and are generally gruff and rude is nothing to do with the patients but i've been on the receiving end of enough receptionists bad attitudes....

 

I used to work for a major IT provider for the medical profession repairing their systems and I can guarantee that GPs and their staff were always the hardest people to work with/for compared to the shops, leisure centres and all the other places I used to also work at.

 

What we really need is for OAPs to stop booking all the early morning appts when they can go all day long that's the problem here anyway why do they all seems to need appts between 8-9am???

[practicemanager]

Sorry, I didnt mean to go on, but it is very hard to please EVERYONE and thats exactly what people expect.

We open our surgery doors at 08.00 and start to book appointments at 08.30, when I come into work there is about 20 - 30 people already waiting to book appointments and thats before we start to take appt calls, so it is no wonder when people ring through at 8.40 they are on 11.00 appt times.

We offer pre-bookable appts and over 100 appointments 'on the day' and it still isnt enough, we also offer chronic disease management clinics, t elephone consultations, family planning and womens health clinics, treatment room services and the list goes on, but there will always be someone not happy, we wont be offering what THEY want, How on earth can we do EVERYTHING.

I do understand how fustrating it can be for patients when they dont feel well and they have to wait for an appointment, but my reception staff are (usually) always nice to patients and try to offer an alternative only to be faced on a daily basis with abuse and swearing, its not what they come to work for and its not fair.

All I am trying to say is that there are always two sides to the coin and as much as patients think reception staff are there to guard appts, it is the last thing they want to do, their job is to offer appts, but as I said when they have gone they have gone, thats when the fun begins, but we are one of a few surgeries who dont acually turn patients away, we pass on patients concerns or wants of an appt to our Emergency doctor who will decide if they can wait or need to be seen the same day, all based on a CLINICAL need.

[Family Man]

I can give you two Very Bad issues that I have received with regards to appointments. The 1st was a 45 mile trip to a Doctor appointment in a cancer hospital, I waited over 90min then told that the Doctor has now gone home and he would phone me the next day, Well he did call me not the next day but the following to inform me that the cancer I have is terminal....(Great thanks)..

The 2nd was many trips (over 100 miles) to a hospital and having to wait 2 to 3 hrs past my appointment time, I was told to be there for 10am then not seen until 3pm then I had to spend the next 2hrs on the M1 driving back home...What can you say or do, On one visit I talked to 5 other people waiting to see the same Doctor at the same time on the same day as me...

[The Chez]

I had the same problem with appointment times at my old surgery. The GP's were also useless and not worth the 3 week wait it took to get in to see one. I went with problems related to my menstrual cycle, and within 3 minutes the GP was ready to write up a prescription for prozac and contraceptive pills! How can you possibly know if someone needs to be on very strong and potentialy dangerous drugs in 3 minutes? He told me (dispite me saying I had had very serious bad reactions to BOTH these drugs in the past) they they were the only treatment for my problems and there was no point in doing even a simple blood test.

 

When you called to make an appointment you were put on hold straight away, that was the first thing they said 'can you hold the line' then it went dead for about 10 minutes.

 

When my boyfriend received a obnoxious letter from the practice stating he had been very aggressive over the phone (which he had not), I changed surgeries. My new GP has run some tests and is investigating my problem. No question of ANY prescription yet.

 

I don't know what it is with some GP's, they remind me of legalised drug dealers who are trying to sell magic pills. I know some GP's are offered HUGE bribes by drug companies to push their products, my new GP obviously turned them away lol.

 

Healthcare is supposed to be about just that, health and the best interests of the patient. I do not beleive anti depressants should be given out at whim as a cure all for off label uses. These drugs have the potential to cause suicidal behavour and should really be given as a last resort and VERY closely supervised by a psychiatrist, not the GP.

Even depression can have physical causes such as Thyroid gland, and I think tests should be done first to rule these out.

 

Are we so often told that our illness is 'all in our mind' as this is the area GP's get bribed to push drugs in? I am NOT anti drug treatments, they can be lifesavers for some people, but I am anti them being given out as a quick fix and to anyone for anything. It's easier to get a prescription for prozac than it is to buy alcohol at the right age these days!

[alanfromderby]

This topic was closed on 03/07/19.

If you have a problem which is similar to the issues raised in this topic, then please start a new thread and you will get help and support there.

If you would like to post up some information which is relevant to this particular topic then please flag the issue up to the site team and the thread will be reopened.

- Consumer Action Group