G P surgeries hiding appointments

[jrb]

I had and still have tonsillitis.

Rang the Doctor.

The next appointment to ‘speak to the Doctor over the phone’, not to see him or her in person was in ‘2 weeks’.(ha!) Booked it.

Then I remembered I had private healthcare via work. Paid for it out of my own wages. Haven’t used it yet. Rang up. Was offered an appointment to speak to a (video) GP later that night or the next day, I took the next day appointment.

There have been numerous occasions where I have popped into my Doctors surgery in the morning and in the afternoon. The waiting room was empty every time. Not a single person. Yet you can’t get to see a GP. And you have to wait up to 2 weeks for a phone call appointment.

The system is broke. GP’s no longer want to see patients and people in person. After COVID they decided telephone appointments where the best way forward, and they were here to stay. The day’s of seeing your Doctor are over unless the receptionist deems it an emergency, and there is a space available on the day for you to see the Doctor. If not the Doctor will ring you back at some point, so keep your mobile with you.

 

[city saint]

i went the other day about my bad knee .could only see a physio there were no docters in the practice at the time just a community nurse and two physios.what are the docters actually doing

 

[heslops barnet]

Was told to have a video appointment for my bad knee……!

 

[Blue Mist]

My wife suffers from Bursitis and has previously been told that Physio is no good, she needs injections, which she's previously had.
Last Thursday she was in pain so tried to contact the GP. She had to fill in an online form where she requested a further injection.
Today she has received two different letters, both telling her she has an appointment at the hospital for.....physio.
The GP has never contacted her but presumably refered her on. The hospital have wasted money on sending 2 letters and giving her an appointment that is of no use.
The usual BM tirade is to blame the Tories for everything and funding nothing. Bollocks. The money is there it is just wasted. We seem to have forgotten the basics. Why the GP couldn't be arsed phoning Mrs Mist I don't know so I will refrain from calling him an over paid lazy wanker.

 

[denislawsbackheel]

i went the other day about my bad knee .could only see a physio there were no docters in the practice at the time just a community nurse and two physios.what are the docters actually doing

All the stuff they get nice fat bonuses on top of their wages for doing, like flu jabs and all the other things on the QOF.

 

[bavarian blue]

Too many celebrity doctors on tv.

 

[inbetween]

i went the other day about my bad knee .could only see a physio there were no docters in the practice at the time just a community nurse and two physios.what are the docters actually doing

Most don't realise that GP surgeries are owned privately and whoever owns the surgery takes on a contract with the NHS which has a minimum service level etc. It's similar to an NHS dentist which is always just a private dentist surgery that takes on an NHS contract which allows the practice to take on NHS patients.

It's all about money though. The reason why there are less NHS dentist appointments is because the NHS contracts pay a lot less nowadays so dental practices don't bother to take on NHS work anymore. They can earn a considerable amount more from private work so most if not all appointments are reserved for that.

GP surgeries have to fulfil their NHS contract however that's a contract with the surgery. The GP's themselves are employed by the surgery, basically as contractors and so they can work part-time or whatever hours they have negotiated with the surgery. So a GP could do 20hrs in your surgery but then do 20hrs working as a private GP for BUPA, I think you can imagine which pays more...

They could nationalise GP's and bring it all under the NHS but why would a GP want that? In the NHS they will be locked onto the NHS banding and right now they have no chance of getting a payrise. Plus, all of that lucrative private work is gone.

I don't blame them for it but if no GP is available because they aren't in then it's very likely that it's because they're earning money elsewhere.

 

[Bill Walker]

got told this week by doctors in Heywood they don’t do face to face anymore.

Fucking shame on them and the idiots they have sat in their receptions.

So what do you do if you have a funny looking mole or lump ?
Take a picture and email it ?

 

[blue saturday]

If it`s Anything like my doctors surgery, you get there and there is nobody else there or one person there. but its a real struggle to get an appointment

one woman in the waiting room and an old guy shuffled out while the wife was with a doctor so there were at least two doctors around.The old fella went up to the receptioist to book an ECG-earliest one was July 28 -shocking really when an old guy who was really struggling has to wait over two weeks to get somethin like that done

 

[flook]

The money is there it is just wasted.

Absolutely spot on, NHS is funded better than its performance suggests, problem is that so much is spent or wasted (depending upon your point of view) on "procedure" (ie politics and red tape) rather than treating people.

As an example, engineering standards are written for clinical areas, but are commonly implemented in admin areas, meaning an office job on a hospital site can cost 2 or 3 times what it would commercially with little practical benefit