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Staying up untill midnight to get an appointment

Story from nhs.uk

"Staying up untill midnight to get an appointment"

About: The Grange

It is impossible to get a doctors appointment over the phone or in person. When trying to make an appointment i am always advised by reception staff that there are no appointments available the same day next day or in the future and to use the online system.

In order to get an appointment on the online system you have to log on just after midnight. If your lucky there may be an appointment but it is for in a weeks time.

I have on going health issues following cancer treatment

I feel unsupported by the surgery.

When discussing my problems with a GP recently I was stopped and

I was told by the GP that I could only discuss one issue with one appointment

The GP went on to tell me how busy they were and didn’t have enough time.

Looking stressed and putout I was told to make double appointments in future as they only have ten minutes.

This time could have been spent listening to what I wanted to tell them.

It is not possible to get a double appointment.

I have several ongoing issues plus require results from tests that have been conducted. I have now found myself constantly seeking appointments to resolve my health care issues and feel because I am regularly at the practice I am not being treated with respect.

At my last appointment (not the one described above ) I was spoken to in a manner I can only describe as condescending to say the least.

I am a whole person and need treating as such and not each problem in isolation.

There is no continuity with the GPs that you see and therefore there is no treatment plan.

I have spoken to family members who do not live in this area and they do not have the problems getting appointments and seeing The same GP. at their own surgery.

Please consider changes to your appointment system where double appointments can be made by patients with complex needs for better use of a GPS time, to assist the GPs to provide a service that is beneficial to the patient in these times where the NHS and staff are being stretched to its limits.

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Responses

Response from The Grange 5 years ago
The Grange

Submitted on 10/10/2018 at 08:23
Published on nhs.uk at 11:06

I am very sorry to hear of the difficulties that you have been experiencing in booking an appointment at the surgery. We do understand that we have a huge daily demand for only a limited number of appointments, and our receptionists do their very best to ensure that appointments are given to those patients who need them most.

We do have some pre-bookable appointments available, but the majority of our appointments are available to book as on the day – urgent – appointments.

Our receptionists will do their very best to ‘care navigate’ the patient when they contact the surgery – i.e. directing them to other services and organisations if appropriate, e.g. dentist, opticians, and will also ask patients to give a brief description of their problem, as again this helps the receptionist to decide which clinician is best place to see the patient, and also whether the patient does need to be seen that same day, or is happy to wait for an appointment later in the week. This is to ensure that our appointments are available for those patients who really need them.

The online service is available for patients to use at their convenience 24 hours a day. It can be used to book appointments and also to request repeat prescriptions. Some of the appointments are released at midnight, but others are released at 7.50am.

Currently there is one online appointment allocated per GP session, per day. If the appointment is not booked up by an online user on the morning of the appointment, then it will be available for our receptionists to book so as to ensure that it does not go to waste.

With regards to the comments you made about discussing one problem per appointment; we do ask that patients adhere to the ‘One Appointment One Problem’ policy. Discussing several issues with a clinician takes times and causes appointments to run late. I am sorry that you have difficulty in booking double appointments, but if you explain to the receptionist that you need to book a double appointment, then they will do they very best to arrange this for you. I am sorry if you felt that the reasons why you were unable to discuss multiple problems wasn’t explained to you during your consultation.

With regards to test results; we do ask that patients do not contact the surgery regarding test results. Receptionists are unable to give out test results over the telephone, and if a result is abnormal then we will contact you.

I am very sorry to hear that you feel unsupported by the practice in managing your ongoing health concerns, and it is also very disappointing to hear that you feel that you are not being treated with dignity during your visits to the surgery.

As a practice we pride ourselves in ensuring that all of our patients are treated with dignity and respect, irrespective of how often they may visit the surgery, and I am very sorry that this is not reflective of your recent experiences.

We understand that patients value continuity of care, and want to see the same GP. Where a patient expresses a preference as to which clinician they would like to see, our receptionists will make reasonable efforts to accommodate this request however, if you need an urgent appointment then you may need to discuss your concerns with another clinician.

When we have to employ locum GPs at the practice, we do try to employ them on long-term contracts to again help with continuity of care. However, seeing different clinicians at the surgery should have no impact on the care and treatment that you receive.

If you wish to discuss your concerns in more detail, or to raise any specific concerns, then please contact the surgery directly on 01977 610009.

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