Overloaded A & E Departments

[tintinthegingertomcat]

Overloaded A&E departments!!! I am putting a huge blame for this on the GP's.

Why?

Well today I tried to get a bookable appointment for my son outside of school hours. The first appointment was for THREE weeks on Friday!!! He does not need to see the GP as an emergency but he does need to see the GP before three weeks on Friday. All the receptionist could offer me was to call into the surgery tomorrow to get "an emergency appointment". It is NOT an emergency!!! So I am going to have to call the surgery tomorrow as an emergency....which means he will get an appointment sooner but it will be in school hours. Quite frankly I am not at all surprised that A&E departments get overworked if the attitude of the GP is this!!!!

Did notice that the office staff in the GP's surgery were not as rushed off their feet as the poor staff working in A&E.

Thankfully I have phoned the school to explain the situation that he will be going into school and then called out again when I can get an appointment. They were most understanding of the situation and sympathised with the fact that the dragon on reception at the surgery was totally unhelpful "They are Doctor's orders!" blah blah. This way round he wont lose attendance marks.

So yes I am blaming the GPs hugely for the overworked A&E departments. Shame on you GPs

[chickengrandma-2008]

Do you really think the GP wants it to be that he is so overworked he has to see people when he can fit them in?  I think I blame the public for going to see the doctor for the least ache or pain.  It takes wild horses to drag me to the doctors and that has been a whole once in the last 40 years.  I happened to have double pneumonia at the time.  I wouldn't have gone with anything less. 

If you had to pay until it was proved your visit was necessary, the waiting room would be half empty, your son could have been seen tomorrow outside school hours.

[notgrumpyreally]

I agree! It should be £50 to make an appointment with £40 refunded if you actually turn up & the other £10 refunded if you're actually ill.

[bitsnknots]

Must admit that at our GP's surgery, they're pretty good.  Also, our GP's surgery has an early morning surgery on a Wednesday from 7am to 8am.  Does your GP not offer a service like this Tintin?

[bankhaunter]

It does depend on how the surgeries are organised.

With the surgery I go to, I have phoned in the morning, had an appointment at 11.30 am, went from the surgery to the hospital for an xray, then back to the doctor's at 1.30 pm for the result.

My ex could use the EMIS system and make her own appointments online, she was able to view all the ones available and book the one she wanted.

[chips-and-brown-gravy]

I've made my feelings about this quite clear on here before.

If your son needs to see a doctor but it must be outside school hours then it can't be that urgent.

The practice offered you an appointment you decided not to take it. 

What are you complaining about? not getting an appointment when you wanted?

What do people think A&E stands for?  Anything and Everything?

[tintinthegingertomcat]

Chips................please READ my post a little more carefully - I DO state that it is NOT urgent but that he needs to be seen a little sooner than THREE WEEKS.

If you digest the post a little more carefully you will see that because he needs to be seen BEFORE three weeks I am going to have to treat it as an urgent appointment WHICH IT IS NOT.

You will see that the point I am trying to get across is that because many appointments dont fit into EMERGENCY but do need attention a little more quickly than THREE weeks - then that is why people are using A&E instead - they just cant get an appointment.

Please do read before criticising.

Yes A&E does stand for Anything and Everything to those coming into this country just to use our NHS.

[millielilac]

You cannot book an appointment at all now to see a doctor at our surgery.

You ring the doctors and explain to someone on the end of the phone what the problem is . This information is relayed to the doctor who rings you back later ...you speak to the doctor on the phone and he decides whether he want to see you or not.....

My husband loves this system but I can see it could be very difficult if you have hearing difficulties or when you are at work ...you would not probably wish to discuss your health issues if others could overhear....

I suppose in some respects it could be called viewed as progress ...it will weed out those people who do not need to be seen but some conditions may not be apparent over the phone ...the patient could have symptoms that may be picked up on visually by a doctor ....

[chips-and-brown-gravy]

I did read your post carefully.  I stand by everything I posted.

You stated you could not get an "appointment for my son outside of school hours"  that's pretty restrictive, and YOUR choice, as I said you are criticising your GP surgery because they could not fit in with what YOU wanted. I wonder how soon you could have an appointment without this restriction? Far sooner than 3 weeks I bet.

Most people are innapropriately using A&E, because they want it done, and they want it done now, and they can't be bothered to wait for an appointment - or by the time they have an appointment their cold, hangover, earache or other minor, self-limiting illness has gotten better. and they haven't the courtesy to cancel the appointment.  

"Yes A&E does stand for Anything and Everything to those coming into this country just to use our NHS."

Please don't believe everything you read in the Daily Mail. 

In many countries they don't have our GP Practice system and it is natural for them to a hospital it is  what they are used to - once this is explained to them the majority sign on with a GP.

[tintinthegingertomcat]

Some of us have teenagers who actually DON'T WANT to miss school for any reason - that is why it is to be out of school hours - but even so three and a half weeks for an appointment is not acceptable

[bankhaunter]

You stated you could not get an "appointment for my son outside of school hours"  that's pretty restrictive, and YOUR choice, as I said you are criticising your GP surgery because they could not fit in with what YOU wanted

It's an odd thing but I've always thought it was the users of the health service that actually paid for it and I've never thought it unreasonable to expect practioners in that service to fit in with what the public wanted.

I didn't realise however, they did it as a special favour to us.

[guardpig]

---

@millielilac wrote:
You cannot book an appointment at all now to see a doctor at our surgery.

You ring the doctors and explain to someone on the end of the phone what the problem is . This information is relayed to the doctor who rings you back later ...you speak to the doctor on the phone and he decides whether he want to see you or not.....

My husband loves this system but I can see it could be very difficult if you have hearing difficulties or when you are at work ...you would not probably wish to discuss your health issues if others could overhear....

I suppose in some respects it could be called viewed as progress ...it will weed out those people who do not need to be seen but some conditions may not be apparent over the phone ...the patient could have symptoms that may be picked up on visually by a doctor ....

---

Yep, it's great fun.  Son and doctor had a telephone consultation the other day to which son responded throughout with Yep.  At the end Doc said was I there - yes and I heard it all and understood - which saved him repeating it all. Son will take info on board, do what Doc suggests, stop doing it if it doesn't work BUT he'll not report back. mainly 'cos that'll mean making an effort and possibly actually speaking to the Doc.

Actually I quite like the system - it's great for some things but not if you are unwell.  Doc talking to son(and me) on the phone means I don't have to give up an hour or so of my time to actually get him there and back.  Whilst son may need a little pro-active support(and it's about time he got some) it really doesn't warrant endless appointments, many of which son will miss anyway.  The one thing he can do when having one of his attacks is talk!..

[wizilizi]

I tried to get an appointment on our automated system & do not in this instance mind if it is a couple of weeks hence

After going through all the hoops, the automated voice said 

No appointments are available

Eh?

I placed no restrictions on which GP I see, nor when.  I couldn't offer more flexibility!!

I'm hoping that if I can speak to/see a Receptionist that an appointment WILL be available!

If not, things medical are worse than I thought 

[carolyorkie2010]

Our surgery has the "book online" system, where there are a few pre-bookable appt's for early morning and mid afternoon; obviously no good for out of school hours, but I use the service and usually can get an appt within a week with my choice of GP.

[ed_blackadder_1]

My son who has Asthma, used to have to go to the Asthma clinic quite often, however it was for children yet it was in school hours, the school that he went to were quite rude when I said he had to come out of school to attend and said it would be on his records that he was missing school.  He never missed one day of school through illness, or holidays and I was made to feel like a bad mother.

The surgery now run the junior clinic alongside the adult clinic and the appointments run from 9am untill 7.30pm,

He finds it easy now that he is 21 and works shifts so he can always get an appointment.

[hansrey64]

Chips - around here where I live the schools will not allow doctors appointments during school time must be before school starts or after schhol ends.

[hansrey64]

I agree with you that is not acceptable. Even if I have a non urgent app It would not be 3 weeks ahead!! Prolly 48 hours at the most.

[rose2008-2008]

It is very difficult to make an appointment at my doctors, she only works a couple of days a week which is worse and you like to see the same doctor or at least i know i do!!!. It never used to be like this. You have to ring on the day or thats what they tell us. It is infuriating at times!!!!.