How are your Doctors / Health Centre ?

seaodyssey

seaodyssey

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My wife is trying to see a doctor, she had an mot test last year and the Doctor was supposed to phone about her blood pressure, they never did.
She put in for a repeat persciption, which was denied and was left a text message to call and make a telephone appointment.
It took well over 2 hours trying to phone after 8:00am to make an appointment, she was given a telephone appointment 2 weeks later anytime during the day.

The doctor did call but my self and my wife tried to answer her mobile phone but failed. We called the receptionist and was told the doctor would try again, They did not.
My wife filled in an online request form and the reply was to phone again after 8:00am to make another appointment.

My wife is on a "InyourArea" chat thing and there is pages and pages about how impossible it seems to get an appointment.
I have been on the NHS website to see about changing, but the current reviews are about how hard it is to get an appointments at most of the local doctors.

Are all doctors like this
Are there other ways to get an appointment apart from trying to join a telephone queue at 08:00.

Back in the old days I seem to remember calling at any time and getting an appointment in the next day or two.
 
Ours is pretty good. A call in the morning got me a Dr's call back that afternoon and I've managed to get a face to face appointment within a week. I get a repeat prescription on demand via the SystmOnline system (which works well) and non regular scripts get sent through to the pharmacy next door within a couple of days.
 
At ours you have to go on askmygp at 0800 they limit the number to 100 a day.
You leave details and if your lucky you get a call back later. Been trying for 4 weeks to get a face to face to sort out eye problem eventually they said go to opticians as our equipment is 'out dated'
 
We must be very fortunate, we can book appts on line after 8.00 for that day and we have a choice of Drs or Nurse Practioners but trying to get through on the phone at 8.00 is a nightmare.
 
It sounds like we are lucky. Repeat prescription requests are online at our surgery, 2 day turnaround. The telephone appointments we have had during the pandemic have been same day/next day and face to face appointments within a week. Appointments to see the nurse for blood tests etc have been a few days.
 
We have the same problems exactly as you @seaodyssey although in my case persistence paid off when I recently had a chest infection - got a telephone appt and told the doctor my symptoms in detail, what the required prescription was, she prevaricated a few minutes then agreed and issued it. My repeats are done by system online too and seem to go ok. However my wife was supposed to have follow ups since two yeats ago for a benign but potentially problematic issue, nada. She recently tried for an appt, eventually got a telephone one; doctor did call but she was being sick at the time so couldn't answer, same as above - doctor said they'd call back but didn't. So she self-medicated and fortunately the problem went largely away.
It seems all surgeries in Wellingborough are the same. So different to when we lived in Bucks although I don't know what it's like there now.
 
Mine’s rubbish. I don’t bother trying to make an appointment anymore as it’s just a waste of time. I get an occasional call from the surgery asking how my pain levels are, I have arthritis and am mostly on wheels, when I tell them it’s always the same,” someone will ring you back to discuss the matter!” They never do. Repeat scripts are frequently messed up and I’m frequently left without any pain meds at all.

The last decent doctor I had had the audacity to die on my and it’s been downhill ever since. Now, I’ve no idea who my doctor is!
 
I have not tried to get any appointments but I request a repeat prescription every 4 weeks via the NHS app. I do it on a Sunday and the local chemist drops it off, normally on the Tuesday. Our GP surgery was rubbish but it has merged/got taken over by another practice which seems more professional. The Flu jabs and the Covid jabs were all arranged efficiently.
 
Terrible, to the point we've had ours put on special measures before.
They still ignore our sons pop-up, and tell us to go to A&E constantly.
I don't bother at all with then I just deal with illness, anything more I go to the nearest walk in who see you within a couple of hours.
 
Not too bad, although to be honest I don't visit the Doctor's as much as I used to, I now only have to go up twice a year for the Diabetic blood tests, the most recent one was around the middle of last October so it's due again mid April and then October again.

It's also good that I've been going to the same Surgery most of my life so they all know me.
 
Our local surgery has been shut since march 2020 so we have to try and get an appointment with their other surgery 6 miles away. No face to face appointments, only telephone or facetime and you have to go through the Spanish inquisition with the receptionist before you are even put on the list, that's if you can through as there are 2 receptionists for the entire surgery which probably now covers a fair few people.
Thankfully I've only had to go through it once, but I know others locally who are not at all happy.
 
They were great before the local practices merged into one "super practice". I'm told this is Govt driven because extra funding is given to a "super practice" but not normal practices. What this means for me is that instead of ringing my own GP surgery phone line, I ring a "central" line and might get an appointment with a GP from any one of the practices in the "super practice". But I now have to contend with all the other patients registered to the "super practice". Locally, there are three groups of super practices and ours is the easiest one for access!
 
My GPs online system is pretty good. One nurse triages them all and you get contacted by the right professional. This can be by text/email, phone or an appointment arranged. I've been through a tough year ending in a second amputation and I've always been able to get the result I've needed within 24 hours if urgent and 72 if not. Nothing they could have done would have changed the outcome but the flexibility of approach made it all a lot smoother
 
Our was absolutely brilliant was always easy and qucik to get an appointment, and pick which doctor you saw, but it was taken over recently by a commercial practice and is now utter s***, near impossible to get an appointment, phone always engaged, seems like most doctors there are now on a 2 day week and it's filled by locams. I know many many people are looking to join a different practice.
 
3 weeks ago I had a minor asthma attack and this later developed into a cough. After 3 days it was getting worse but negative COVID tests. I telephoned my Doctor and received a call back from the triage Doctor an hour later at about 1015. I described the symptoms which were similar to Bronchitis which I had some years previously. She ask me to attend an appointment at 1115. I actually only just got there in time. I was examined then prescribed anti-biotics and steroids which I collected from the pharmacy an hour later. It all cleared up within 3 days. The service seem to be about the same as before COVID.

Dave
 
Ours has seemed to be much as normal, albeit with some telephone consultations for non-urgent things that would have been a face to face appointment in the past.
 
Just a quick update.
She did a blood pressure check yesterday afternoon, which was very high. We called 111 and spoke to someone after 20mins, They sent an ambulance round within 40 mins and my wife was checked over, they said go to the local Urgent care place near the hospital which we did. She saw a doctor afte just over an hour and he prescibed some blood pressure meds and put on the notes that my wife needs to see a doctor face to face as they don't manage after high blood pressure. They put that into her notes and today the doctors called my wife for an appointment at 13:00 today, We have just back, just going back out to collect the meds now. My wife has another appointment booked for a month.

So the correct result after a lot of worrying.
 
Glad you're getting her sorted.
 
If you call at 08:00 ours is a PITA as you'll be stuck in a long queue but call later in the day and the reception staff seem willing to talk and make an appointment sometime within a week or so. Thankfully no one here has needed an appointment any quicker.

The online booking system is down and has been for months.
 
woof woof said:
If you call at 08:00 ours is a PITA as you'll be stuck in a long queue but call later in the day and the reception staff seem willing to talk and make an appointment sometime within a week or so. Thankfully no one here has needed an appointment any quicker.

The online booking system is down and has been for months.
Click to expand...
With ours if you call between 8 and half past that morning, you're a lot more likely to get a same day appointment as it's before all the old dears with every ailment under the Sun are even out of their pits!
 
Our local health centre is appalling been in special measures for year’s finally gave up recently and switched to another surgery a bit further away but has a better reputation
 
14 doctors (quite a few part time), have been 2 short for past 12 months but now 16 in the practice. Semi-rural. Abandoned online booking at start pandemic.

Phone 8am to get call back from duty doctor same day and/or appointment same day -- when they phone they may say come to the surgery.

For ‘future’ appointments phone any time during the day. Phone queueing system.

When they had online booking (which was very convenient as you got to pick a doctor to some extent), if no appointments or poor choice the trick was to try at midnight when new “SystemOnline embargoed” appointments would appear.

They could be improved (they don’t use SMS or email efficiently and don’t update their website immediately when changes are made) and don’t do video consultations and so on but good on the whole provided it’s easy for you to get to the surgery.

Systemonline is essential as you can read what they have written after a consultation — an sometimes see they have got stuff wrong, which could be critical! For example, on one occasion the GP wrote ”right foot” instead of “left” — fortunately not an amputation job!
 
Absolutely rubbish, to the point where I no longer know how many doctors we have in the practice - it used to be six, but seems to be two of the regulars plus a locum. Cannot get any face to face appointments. I have had severe pains in my joints since early March 2021 and I have only seen one specialist who seemed keen to fob me off. They lost my blood tests twice and I had one MRI scan last week, due another this coming week.
I think I may have had Covid early last year, but without any symptoms, or I have had a reaction to the first jab - who knows? Will I ever know?
 
I don't quite know what is going on at my local surgery. Not been there for 5 or 6 years. I get my repeat prescriptions every two months by leaving a recorded message.

No idea if I could get a doctor's appointment.
The website states "COVID-19 - We are still operating a closed door policy. " Beside that is a notice detailing two medical staff who ARE leaving 8 months ago.
 
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