Doctors

[Bigbob]

I had a 17'30 appointment at the doctors to get my 6 monthly cortrozone injections in my knees , First question which knee do you want done ", both of them" ,We only do one then two weeks later then other one in case you take a reaction and are house bound , " Pretty much like i am just now ?do my left then please its the one with little cartridge in it ". So he cracks on and sticks the needle in the outside of my knee only the last time he said we dont do that we always inject from inside the knee to miss the nerves , Then i said i need to talk to you about my stomach i was taking in to hospital in December they told me to enjoy my xmas then pester you to be put up for surgery , His comment i can only give you this injection make another appointment for that  .So after i was finished i stopped at reception can i make a app to see a doctor ?. sure phone at 08'30 tomorrow morning I said its no urgent i could have any appointment ,Well we do appointments ten am Wednesday but the first is second week in March , Fine book me that , No you have to phone at 08'30 tomorrow to book that . Turns out if you phone at 08'30am in the morning a nurse phones you back to see if you need the appointment what does that do but double the surgery's phone bill last time i tried to call at 08'30 i got threw at 9 am and i had made over 138 calls according to my mobile  

[billytheghillie]

1 minute ago, Bigbob said:

I had a 17'30 appointment at the doctors to get my 6 monthly cortrozone injections in my knees , First question which knee do you want done ", both of them" ,We only do one then two weeks later then other one in case you take a reaction and are house bound , " Pretty much like i am just now ?do my left then please its the one with little cartridge in it ". So he cracks on and sticks the needle in the outside of my knee only the last time he said we dont do that we always inject from inside the knee to miss the nerves , Then i said i need to talk to you about my stomach i was taking in to hospital in December they told me to enjoy my xmas then pester you to be put up for surgery , His comment i can only give you this injection make another appointment for that  .So after i was finished i stopped at reception can i make a app to see a doctor ?. sure phone at 08'30 tomorrow morning I said its no urgent i could have any appointment ,Well we do appointments ten am Wednesday but the first is second week in March , Fine book me that , No you have to phone at 08'30 tomorrow to book that . Turns out if you phone at 08'30am in the morning a nurse phones you back to see if you need the appointment what does that do but double the surgery's phone bill last time i tried to call at 08'30 i got threw at 9 am and i had made over 138 calls according to my mobile  

What pary of the country you in Bob.

[Bigbob]

Fife , But all my stomach muscles are split fife wont put the mesh in but i need to be referred to Edinburgh 

[billytheghillie]

Down here in the Borders i can phone at 8 am and be in the docs surgery by 9.30.  Phoned Monday for non urgent appointment and got one for next day.

[manthing]

I find our actual Dr's are ok talking about various things, it's the power mad "Keeper of the Appointment Book" that you have to give the worse illness to, to get in. 

Last time I called I got straight through at 8am and was 7th in line and by the time I talked to Her Highness, The Keeper of the Appointment Book there were no Dr's available. Booked to see a nurse practitioner and told her what I need to see them about, she gave me the old 1 ailment 1 appointment speech and I said OK Book me 3 appointments, can't do that. OK I'll only see them for soandso, got in there and we discussed everything I needed to...

[Bigbob]

The last time i started calling at 08'30 138 calls later i got threw about 9am to be told there's no appointments today fine can i have a home visit then ?. can you make a 12 o'clock app today ??. There's 6 doctors in that practice 4 of them are part time mine only works Monday to Wednesday and spend her holidays abroad helping the under developed countries them moans why dont you see me when you need a doctor Because i am not always ill Monday to Wednesday so i take any doctor Oh well fair enough 

[Vince Green]

My old surgery was absolutely awful.  Phone up to get an appointment and they just said no. What do you mean no?  We have no appointments at the moment. If its urgent go to A&E. That's what they told me and that's what I did.

My new surgery is much better

[mossy835]

i have no trouble seeing my doctor, just phone and im in.

[Jimscott]

If your GP practice is ****, change it, if possible. The variation in standards of service between practices can be very wide within the same heath authority, and even in the same town. I lived in Fife too until recently.

[sportsbob]

11 hours ago, Jimscott said:

If your GP practice is ****, change it, if possible. The variation in standards of service between practices can be very wide within the same heath authority, and even in the same town. I lived in Fife too until recently.

Not always possible, all of the doctors by me are run by the same trust and all are amongst the worst in the country.

[welsh1]

My wife's surgery is awful, phone at 8am it cuts you off if there are more than 20 in the queue so you have to keep calling, last time she called 120 times, finally got through to be told no appointments, took her 3 days of doing this to get an appointment.

My surgery is different, it is staffed by locum doctors as the health authority took it over, i called the other week, no appointments left but a doctor will call you this afternoon for a phone consultation, he called, diagnosed a chest infection which is what i had called for, a perscription was sent to my pharmacy, the only problem i had is when i picked it up i asked the pharmacist what they had supplied, he told me and i told him i was allergic to that, he checked his records and nothing there(the doctors should inform them so their records are correct), spoke to doctor who then called me into the surgery, he told me there was no record of the allergy , i pointed out that i had a mild reaction to it and informed the doctor, and a year later the doctor was shown the large blisters on my body where i had been perscribed it again and the doctor had added it to the list in my pressence, after much bluster he told me he had added it to the list (trying to cover his backside),i am allergic to 3 antibiotics, including penicillin, he then showed me it was there with the other stuff i am allergic to.

[JKD]

I too have the same issue trying to get an appointment at my surgery. Call at 8am to TRY to get an appointment, for that day only. I normally give up and if possible walk round there [5mins], but I once held on, waiting for my turn,,,, number 42 in the queue. I actually fell asleep during the wait, waking up 15mins before it was my turn,,,, an hour and 40 minutes wait !!!

Just a tip if no-one has thought of it.... I was desperate for a continued prescription for chest infection /breathing problems,and couldn't get through on the phone, and certainly couldn't walk round there, so I called an alternative number where I left a desperate message [answer machine] for the Practice Manager. She actually called me back an hour later, very concerned about my plight. She got a GP to call me within the following hour, who arranged for my prescription to be picked up at my very nearby pharmacy, including an emergency pack.

So, perhaps some could try this route ?

Edited February 9 by JKD

[Miserableolgit]

The best surgery we used some thirty years ago was one was you didn't have to take an appointment but instead you just turned up, let them know you wanted to be seen then sat in the waiting room until called. I can't remember the times during the day you could do this but think it was from 8 - 11am then a longer session in the afternoon into the evening. During these times they made sure they had sufficient doctors on hand and I don't think we waited more than ten to fifteen minutes to be seen. This surgery was in a small town back in Hertfordshire.
Prior to that I had stayed with the family doctor / practice who I had been with since I was baby and well into my 20's.
When we moved out here we were registered with a small village practice with attached pharmacy who were ok but my wife fell out with one of the Drs when she was pregnant so she moved to a larger practice in a nearby village who had a lot more facilities on hand. She got on well there so I moved too and immediately hit it off with the senior partner who was into shooting, in fact a proper countryman. My appointments used to overrun as we would always end up chatting about this or that. We moved to just outside the practice area but he agreed to keep the whole family on. Sadly he eventually retired but we stayed with the practice until I got hit by the Big C. While I was in hospital the consultant suggested that it might be wise for me to change GP's to the one in the village here but TBH they are really struggling to retain staff both admin and medical. The place is being swamped by new people from the extraordinary amount of new builds going up in the practice area.   

[Jimscott]

46 minutes ago, welsh1 said:

My wife's surgery is awful, phone at 8am it cuts you off if there are more than 20 in the queue so you have to keep calling, last time she called 120 times, finally got through to be told no appointments, took her 3 days of doing this to get an appointment.

My surgery is different, it is staffed by locum doctors as the health authority took it over, i called the other week, no appointments left but a doctor will call you this afternoon for a phone consultation, he called, diagnosed a chest infection which is what i had called for, a perscription was sent to my pharmacy, the only problem i had is when i picked it up i asked the pharmacist what they had supplied, he told me and i told him i was allergic to that, he checked his records and nothing there(the doctors should inform them so their records are correct), spoke to doctor who then called me into the surgery, he told me there was no record of the allergy , i pointed out that i had a mild reaction to it and informed the doctor, and a year later the doctor was shown the large blisters on my body where i had been perscribed it again and the doctor had added it to the list in my pressence, after much bluster he told me he had added it to the list (trying to cover his backside),i am allergic to 3 antibiotics, including penicillin, he then showed me it was there with the other stuff i am allergic to.

In 2003 I spent 6 weeks in Hawaii researching why doctors didn't use an $800m computerised patien record system. Eventually the organisation got a new CEO. He understood the system was a turkey and spent $2b on a better one, which the Hawaiians were happy to use. When I returned to the UK, the NHS digital info system team came to see me. After 2 hours they realised they were going to make the same mistakes as the HMO in Hawaii. One guy said, "We're screwed aren't we?", "Yes, if you commission the system the same way." I replied. That guy quit a month later. Then the Sec. Of State for Health and Social Care got wind of it and called me down to Whitehall. After listening to my research findings, he said, "We won't have those problems, we've tamed our doctors. They'll do what they're told." Yeh, right. The NHS has been failing to integrate its digital patient record ever since. And guess what, one of the contractors was Fujitsu, the same crooks who lied about their flawed Horizon Post Office system. A year later I quit health services research as a waste of my time and public money. What's the point if they won't learn?

[Newbie to this]

3 minutes ago, Jimscott said:

In 2003 I spent 6 weeks in Hawaii researching why doctors didn't use an $800m computerised patien record system. Eventually the organisation got a new CEO. He understood the system was a turkey and spent $2b on a better one, which the Hawaiians were happy to use. When I returned to the UK, the NHS digital info system team came to see me. After 2 hours they realised they were going to make the same mistakes as the HMO in Hawaii. One guy said, "We're screwed aren't we?", "Yes, if you commission the system the same way." I replied. That guy quit a month later. Then the Sec. Of State for Health and Social Care got wind of it and called me down to Whitehall. After listening to my research findings, he said, "We won't have those problems, we've tamed our doctors. They'll do what they're told." Yeh, right. The NHS has been failing to integrate its digital patient record ever since. And guess what, one of the contractors was Fujitsu, the same crooks who lied about their flawed Horizon Post Office system. A year later I quit health services research as a waste of my time and public money. What's the point if they won't learn?

What an absolute shambles, but not surprising.

Edited February 9 by Newbie to this

[Jimscott]

3 hours ago, sportsbob said:

Not always possible, all of the doctors by me are run by the same trust and all are amongst the worst in the country.

I gave my sister's address in order to switch practices. Its a war out there.

[welsh1]

7 hours ago, Jimscott said:

In 2003 I spent 6 weeks in Hawaii researching why doctors didn't use an $800m computerised patien record system. Eventually the organisation got a new CEO. He understood the system was a turkey and spent $2b on a better one, which the Hawaiians were happy to use. When I returned to the UK, the NHS digital info system team came to see me. After 2 hours they realised they were going to make the same mistakes as the HMO in Hawaii. One guy said, "We're screwed aren't we?", "Yes, if you commission the system the same way." I replied. That guy quit a month later. Then the Sec. Of State for Health and Social Care got wind of it and called me down to Whitehall. After listening to my research findings, he said, "We won't have those problems, we've tamed our doctors. They'll do what they're told." Yeh, right. The NHS has been failing to integrate its digital patient record ever since. And guess what, one of the contractors was Fujitsu, the same crooks who lied about their flawed Horizon Post Office system. A year later I quit health services research as a waste of my time and public money. What's the point if they won't learn?

I would like to say i am shocked and suprised, but sadly that is the nhs to a t

[Jimscott]

13 hours ago, welsh1 said:

I would like to say i am shocked and suprised, but sadly that is the nhs to a t

As a PS, also in 2003 I published, with I R Massie (another keen shot), research showing that dentists in England and Wales were beginning to abandon NHS patients, because they weren't getting paid properly. They were going private. We warned of an emerging critical shortage in NHS dental care. Did they listen? No. I blame NHS managers: too many of them, too well paid, and too self-interested. Thatcher created an absurd artifical and dysfunctional internal market, whereby the NHS was split into service commissioners and service providers. Its highly wasteful and inefficient. The old Health Authorities did both jobs. The system must change. Young people need to step up to guard their own futures. Their sense of entitlement is misplaced.

[JohnfromUK]

21 hours ago, Miserableolgit said:

The best surgery we used some thirty years ago was one was you didn't have to take an appointment but instead you just turned up, let them know you wanted to be seen then sat in the waiting room until called. I can't remember the times during the day you could do this but think it was from 8 - 11am then a longer session in the afternoon into the evening. During these times they made sure they had sufficient doctors on hand and I don't think we waited more than ten to fifteen minutes to be seen.

Yes, ours was like that.  Much the best way.

[London Best]

4 minutes ago, JohnfromUK said:

Yes, ours was like that.  Much the best way.

Except that you all caught each other’s diseases in the waiting room!

[JohnfromUK]

5 minutes ago, London Best said:

Except that you all caught each other’s diseases in the waiting room!

You still risk that now as having a 'pre arranged appointment' usually means a 15-30 minute wait.  During Covid, you waited in your car and they called your mobile when ready for you. 

[sportsbob]

11 minutes ago, London Best said:

Except that you all caught each other’s diseases in the waiting room!

Yep thats right, when you are ill you sit in a room full of all sorts and it either improves your herd immunity or sees you off. Now that  governments cant rely on this passive culling due to GP shortages  I wonder what will happen

Edited February 10 by sportsbob

[London Best]

1 minute ago, JohnfromUK said:

You still risk that now as having a 'pre arranged appointment' usually means a 15-30 minute wait.  During Covid, you waited in your car and they called your mobile when ready for you. 

I didn’t know that. I am fortunate that I rarely enter a GP surgery. Definitely not been in one since before covid.  

[JohnfromUK]

1 minute ago, London Best said:

I didn’t know that.

Worked quite well actually.  When you arrived and 'checked in' you gave car reg no and colour and (if you had one) mobile number (which in fact they usually had) and waited in your car.  Those who had mobiles got a call, and for others someone came out and got you from your car.  I guess having plenty of car park and most people arriving by car helped.  Not sure what happened if you arrived on foot.

[old man]

3 hours ago, Jimscott said:

As a PS, also in 2003 I published, with I R Massie (another keen shot), research showing that dentists in England and Wales were beginning to abandon NHS patients, because they weren't getting paid properly. They were going private. We warned of an emerging critical shortage in NHS dental care. Did they listen? No. I blame NHS managers: too many of them, too well paid, and too self-interested. Thatcher created an absurd artifical and dysfunctional internal market, whereby the NHS was split into service commissioners and service providers. Its highly wasteful and inefficient. The old Health Authorities did both jobs. The system must change. Young people need to step up to guard their own futures. Their sense of entitlement is misplaced.

At last, someone else able to see the idiocy?