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[groundhog]

Good morning,
Just wondered how difficult it is for you all to see a GP?
My surgery currently has NO GP and I was offered an appointment with a paramedic? 
Is this normal or indeed acceptable?  I was told to go to A&E if not happy,  even my regular helpful receptionist has been replaced with some dinosaur. 
It's been pretty dire for months but never this bad,  it makes me very very anxious.
Wondering what your experiences are?
Thanks ladies xx

[walking the dog]

No GP ?! Never heard anything like that before, id have to change surgeries but that's just as I need consistency. Hope you get something sorted groundhog xx

[Tinkerbell]

Ours is a nightmare, to see a GP of your choice it is normally a 3 week wait, even a telephone appointment is nearer the 2 week wait. This is hopeless if you want any continuity of care there is no chance as getting to see same doctor twice is low!

You can phone in the morning and the duty doctor will ring you and will see you the same day if they feel it is needed.

Blood test appointments are difficult to get and they tell you to go to the hospital. I personally think that is wrong for routine ones.
Our best female most knowledgable doctor has now left and another one is leaving. This will leave us with one female for a very large practice, so this is going to throw up more problems.

[Tinkerbell]

But yours looks worse than mine

[Ju Ju]

‼️ This is what happens when the NHS is under so much financial stress. And when would the paramedic do his normal duties!? Plus his training is limited. Highly trained to keep you alive as far possible before handing you over to doctors at the hospital, if necessary. I shall ask my son, a paramedic in the USA, but still in contact with paramedics over here, what he thinks.

It is appalling particularly when you need the security of being able to access a doctor.

I am fortunate that at the surgery I go to has several doctors, many women who work pt. Even so, routine and non urgent appointments have to be made well ahead of time. This is getting more and more difficult. My daughters surgery is awful. Rude receptionists, horrid waiting room and poor service. She had to fight to get the right medication, lactose free, when she needed it. The pharmacist in the local chemist had to go into battle for her. Fortunately, she has no need to go there at present. In the cathedral city, near here, they have a private practice, where you can get a appointment for £30. Not ideal, but in an emergency.... One of the GPs is occasionally a locum at my surgery and lovely, so my daughter would go there in an emergency.

[Taz2]

No GP? One of our surgeries closed because it couldn't offer a GP when they all resigned within a short space of time.

Ours is terrible at the minute. I feel so sorry for the overworked receptionists and all of the staff to be honest. I have got an appointment for 11th August which I made three weeks ago. It was the first available appointment with any doctor. I really wanted a lady doctor (my own lovely gp has left) but that would have meant waiting until the 16th September! They do the usual triage system now where you phone and a GP will phone you back. This is supposed to be within two hours but when I needed advice on a possible urine infection the other week I had to wait six hours for the call back and then a further two hour wait at the surgery for the emergency doctor. The doc told me that two on call doctors had to make 162 triage calls that day and they were still ploughing through them. It was 6.20 pm then. He had stayed on for an extra five hours to help out. How can this be right? We have got twelve full time GP's at our surgery plus a full nursing team etc.

Taz x

[Two hoots]

My doctor asked me in February to come back and see him in August so last Monday I phoned and was told no appointments for 4 weeks phone again Wednesday. On Wednesday I phoned and guess what, no appointments phone again on Thursday. Thursday I phoned and told sorry but you have to phone at 8.00 a.m. to get an appointment and because I phoned at 9 a.m. they had all gone, when I asked how many appointments were available I was told 5, that's less than one hour of the doctors time.

I'm away at the start of September so I have to wait now to try and get an appointment sometime in September. 

If it's an emergency a doctor will phone you back and let you know if you can have an appointment, otherwise it's a telephone consultation.

[CLKD]

We are currently fortunate to be able to see a GP the same day - I feel that a letter to your MP is important but Groundhog, you probably don't have the energy  .  Anything that we can help with?

This is why A&E are stretched.  Maybe ring your local Dept and tell them that your GP Surgery has told you to come along, is there a 'better' time to attend?

[Scampi]

At ours, it's usually 3 or 4 weeks to get a non-urgent appointment with a random GP (longer if you want a specific one), or you can turn up when the doors open at 0730 and wait ....  You can only raise one issue at a walk-in appointment, and if you have a 'complex issue' or more than one thing to discuss you have to make a double appointment through the telephone system.  It's not great, and extremely difficult for those of us who work full time a distance from home.

[Pennyfarthing]

Our surgery is really not too bad at the moment. It's a large practice with 3 health centres several miles apart. 

I have to say, a few years ago you couldn't get an appointment within a few days for love nor money and weeks of waiting were the norm.  However, we had a lot of East Europeans living here then and now that their own countries economies have improved, they've nearly all gone home now.  Also many of them have worked hard and saved their money to take back and start afresh in their own countries.
So the waiting lists are a lot less which is good for us. 

[groundhog]

Thanks all.  I don't think we have the option of moving surgeries as out postcode decides what surgery we go to.  I know a few members in the community have involved the MP and health board etc and it's being looked at.  The problem started when my long term GP  retired last year and a few colleagues followed her .  Since then we have had locums and then the practice was taken over by health board.  Since then it's been a disaster and even getting locums has been difficult.  But I think what's happened now is one GP off sick and two on holiday and no available locums.  So all they can offer is a paramedic in full kit who sees you and then phones a doctor if a script is needed.  Not good and for people like me who have chronic health problems it's quite a worry,  they have always been excellent with me I have to say but if there are no doctors what can they do.  I refused the paramedic as no disrespect but couldn't face explaining it all when even some Doctors aren't familiar with my problems.
It does seem from the replies this is a widespread problem and so I suppose we just have to hope for the best.  Plus avoid getting ill at weekends and in August or if you live where I live,  ever!

[dazned]

Ithink it is very much a postcode lottery. When our lovely gp died the practice he had built up from nothing went to pot,locum after locum until a new partner bought it then it settled for awhile ,then the other doctors had a vote of no confidence in him and it transpired he had been fraudulently been taking money and opiates ! Then 18 months of different locums never the same one twice . Its now run by a medical business over 100 miles away but at least now we do have permanent gps albeit that nearly all of them are part time. They are online and I have found that usually you can get an appointment within a day if you use that as long as you're not bothered who you see.

[Joyce]

Ours is on reduced staff over the summer, so appointments are very hard to come by, more so than normal. Telephone appointments can be made for a few days in advance, unless a big emergency.

[Pennyfarthing]

I mentioned the benefits of local health facilities on here a couple of months ago. We were the same, we had GP surgery at his house where we waited like you say. a district nurse would come out if people needed help at home.  IF you needed an operation we were sent to the local cottage type hospital just about 10 miles away and there were a couple of convalescent homes if you needed more time to heal.

FAst forward and they try and make you go to a hospital 14 miles away if you need blood tests (they say it's quicker!) if you need an operation which involves a stay in hospital you now have a 60 mile round trip. All the convalescent homes are closed.

[Kathleen]

Hello ladies.

I agree that we've seen lots of changes in healthcare, some improvements undoubtedly but we've also lost a lot.

Perhaps convalescent homes would reduce the readmission rate and the main reason for bed blocking by the elderly is that social care has been cut. It's all about money and where we put our resources.

Such a pity that the 350 million the Brexit people promised us won't be going to the NHS after all!

Take care ladies.

K.