Getting through to a GP

[Bruno 10]

Many surgeries have a "Floating GP " to see patients who feel the need to see a GP in an emergency.

You need to call the surgery as soon as it opens of a morning and they should have appointments for that morning .

It may not be the GP that you see regularly , or the one who prescribed the medication in the first instance , but they will have the details on the screen and be able to help you .

 

I agree they will have details on screen, I don't feel it's an emergency and would sooner not bother a GP who is on call for emergencies, all I wanted was for the GP to print a script out so I could call in pick it up get on my way etc.

 

I know it's not the receptionists fault although I did express my disappointment of it taking 5 days to get a response of a GP telling me to stop taking something that I already told the receptionist I'd stopped 5 days previously lol.

[mikebatty 10]

There doesn't seem to be much likelyhood of this service improving anytime soon……

suggest everyone reading this joins the rally to save our NHS in Weston Park at 5pm on Monday 25th August.

A group of Mums from Jarrow are marching from Jarrow to Downing Street trying to save the NHS from privatisation.

On Tuesday 26th August at 10am they will be setting off from Sheffield Town Hall . 10.30am at the Hallamshire Hospital and 11.30 at Nether Edge. lunch time Graves Park. Even if you can only join the walk for 10 minutes, it will help. google Save our NHS for further details.

 

---------- Post added 22-08-2014 at 11:11 ----------

 

http://999callfornhs.org.uk

 

You are absolutely right to encourage as many people to join the ranks of the concerned at the way the NHS is being systematically dismantled .

We ourselves , in Northallerton are constantly experiencing curtailment of services at the Friarage hospital , which are being moved to the James Cook hospital in Middlesborough . Whilst the James Cook is a first class hospital - which no one can dispute - with the curtailment of services it means a 120 mile round trip for people in the top end of the Dales i.e. Hawes , with no transport.

The people in Hambleton / Richmond have made their feelings fealt in no uncertain terms , but the determination of the trust still grinds on with stealth.

Encourage as many people to protest as loudly as they can .

[medusa 16]

Maybe the cost of your appointment could be deducted from the cost of your prescription?

 

That way only those that don't need any treatment have to pay for an appointment.

 

So my OH, who has been in for 3 separate blood tests at fortnightly intervals and 3 GP appointments to discuss the outcome of these tests and what needs to happen next would have to pay for 3 or 6 consultations in a 6 week period?

 

How about the fact that his monthly medications are prescribed on a batch prescription so that he only has to bother the doctor once every year for all of his standard medications? Does he get a rebate for not going in every month for that?

[Mr Bloke 1,445]

So my OH, who has been in for 3 separate blood tests at fortnightly intervals and 3 GP appointments to discuss the outcome of these tests and what needs to happen next would have to pay for 3 or 6 consultations in a 6 week period?

 

How about the fact that his monthly medications are prescribed on a batch prescription so that he only has to bother the doctor once every year for all of his standard medications? Does he get a rebate for not going in every month for that?

Hey give me chance!

 

As I pointed out in post #30 I can't be expected to redesign the NHS in a 15 minute coffee break!

[medusa 16]

But for all but a handful of people being poor or not is a choice.

 

The vast majority of us have a choice in how healthy a lifestyle we lead and also how we spend our income. Perhaps if, as some have suggested, it cost £5 a visit to your GP, people would stop bothering them with trivial complaints and there'd be more appointments for those who genuinely need them?

 

If you could see my monthly budget you'd understand that being poor is not a choice for me. My OH works hard but is in a very low paid job so that even working on his days off he isn't at all well off, and I have static income in a world where costs of living, food, utilities and petrol are going up steadily.

 

In a few years' time (if I'm lucky enough to still be around) I will become able to receive means tested benefits for the first time, as the threshold for means tested benefits gradually overtakes my static income. At that point my living costs will actually go down because I will no longer pay full council tax and will start to get prescriptions free and the like, but at the moment I am unable to work to earn more money and I don't qualify for any handouts- how is that a choice?

 

---------- Post added 22-08-2014 at 17:54 ----------

 

Hey give me chance!

 

As I pointed out in post #30 I can't be expected to redesign the NHS in a 15 minute coffee break!

 

Think faster

[Joe-b-1 10]

We should set a cost of £5 per GP vist, this way the goverment will reduce cost by millions, queue is be shorten as poeple will stop going to gp for a chat instead of asking for medical help, a gov website should be introduce so people can get professional answer on the net instead of crazy people on internet forum that knows everything or post becuase they think its cool to have 1 billion post count and have no life

Well it looks like you need to look in the mirror and get a life then. 201 posts already and you joined last month .

[iansheff 84]

Well Dave and his crew are going to help us out with increasing the number of Physician associates. Although the Patients Association has raised concerns that hospitals will become more reliant on physician associates because they are paid less.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-28896625

[alternageek 10]

I've only ever been treated by a PA in a GPs office - when in the States - and found their care satisfactory, sometimes better than my doctors. They mainly handled small things like head colds and jabs, and being able to hand out an RX, leaving the main drs to handle issues with cancer and more serious issues.

 

I dont know if I would feel comfortable using them in A&E, though.

[mikebatty 10]

I agree they will have details on screen, I don't feel it's an emergency and would sooner not bother a GP who is on call for emergencies, all I wanted was for the GP to print a script out so I could call in pick it up get on my way etc.

 

I know it's not the receptionists fault although I did express my disappointment of it taking 5 days to get a response of a GP telling me to stop taking something that I already told the receptionist I'd stopped 5 days previously lol.

 

I am implying an emergency " life or death" , I am suggesting an urgency on your part as a patient.

[TheBlueDragon 10]

I now don't bother with my GP. If I have any issues I email my Rheumatology Doctor and she sends me to whoever I need to see

[999tigger 10]

I think its easier to see a GP with the internet and booking over the phone. Perhaps ive just been lucky. I dont think ieve ever had to have an after hours DR but think that system has gotten much worse in the last 25 years.

[JFKvsNixon 11]

Except that privatisation would actually make the NHS more efficient and more responsive to its customers.

 

Do you really think that adding another layer of bureaucracy would make the NHS more efficient? Also, we all know how hard it is to get our insurance to pay out, so do you really want a faceless bureaucrat deciding whether or not you can have your treatment?

 

Also how would removing the profit that private companies would want to make, from the treatment budget, make the NHS any better. Are you suggesting that the NHS could do more with less money?

 

Remember that with any private business, private healthcare stakeholders are the people who own the business, usually the shareholders, not the patients.