"Problems with e consult"

We have been trying to make a routine appointment for one of us with his doctor who knows him to discuss the progress of his Parkinsons and related problems, his osteoporosis diagnosis and effects of his falls earlier this year including the bone scan he had done in Portugal as QA did not have an appointment before we went out there for several weeks. We are quite happy to use computers. However the e consult is useless for this type of request. We filled in the box saying in detail why he wanted to see his doctor and then clicked through several questions with the answer "Not Applicable". The next page had a list of problems to which the answer "none of the above" would have been appropriate but was not available. We did try picking one which resembled a Parkinsons symptom but the subsequent questions were irrelevant and at the end it said dial 111 which was stupid. So we rang the surgery and got a dial back and the helpful receptionist said she had filled in an e-consult for him but whether it explained exactly what he wanted we are not sure of as we have not yet received an appointment.

We can understand the need for some kind of triage for routine appointments and are happy to fill in a request on line as we did in the first box on the e consult but consider the rest of the form to be totally unfit for purpose for triageing routine appointments. We should add that this is not the first time that we have used or tried to use e consult to contact the practise and every time have found it unfit for purpose. We would appreciate your views on how to make routine appointments in an efficient way that wastes less of our time and that of the surgery staff as well as ensuring that the Doctors time is used appropriately.