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I’m fuming! Why the hell can’t we get an appointment with our doctors!!!!!
I have just got through after constant phoning for 30 minutes and then told no Appointments available , till POSSIBLY Monday!!! Advised to go to after hours clinic!!
Surely they not swamped now with Covid cases! Will it ever go back to what it was or in my mind the doctors prefer it this way and don’t want to !
Who do you complain to about your surgery, I think it’s very wrong?
Is everyone finding this with their surgerys?

I am having exactly the same problem, and when you do get an appointment, it is a phone appointment. A+E is the only other option which is unfair on them.

It is happening everywhere.
A chemist who works opposite a doctors surgery had to ring an ambulance for a man with a life-threatening condition, as people struggle to get an appointment with their GP.
https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/pensioner-rushed-hospital-after-being-21537688

Hightown Surgery, its the worst one in the area. They're currently under investigation from the ICO for losing confidential patient data.

Even before Covid getting an appointment with my doctors was very hit and miss, offering appointments in 10 days time was a bit pointless. Its a shame, if you do get to see them they are generally very good.

I thought there was an edict that they had to offer next day and same day appointments but while same day is usually booked up, I've never been offered next day appointment, nor were they available with online booking.

I wonder if the stats for how many people use A&E, walk-in or out-of-hours against registered surgery are available - that could be very telling.

Now we appear to have loads of categories of services:-

Walk-in centres
Urgent Treatment Centres
Minor Injuries
Minor Injuries and Illness Service
GP
A&E

I notice the second floor of the Birkenhead Medical Building (built for Miriam and Cavendish clinics but it also housed numerous privatised NHS facilities) is available to rent.

Same for a friend of mine. Been suffering with hip and walking for the last 2 weeks. Phoned surgery for an appointment . Given one for 2 weeks time .... by telephone.
She said the doc will probably tell her she's got an ear infection !


Seems clear that many are having the same problem, nationwide . You can sign this :

https://www.change.org/p/govuk-sajidjavid-restart-face-to-face-gp-appointments

I’ve noticed that certain chemists have a medispot room where if you need a consultation privately for a fee of course you can speak to a doctor in minutes. It’s done by zoom in front of a screen. Think this service costs about £49 for consultation or £149 for an annual payment for as many consultations as you need……Not sure if pharmacist helps out with doing the tests blood pressure etc.. I won’t be using the service.

The latest national GP patient survey that took place in March 2021 showed that over 86% of Wirral residents who took part, said their overall experience of their GP was good, and in some areas was above the national average.

I would have liked to see that survey.

https://www.wirralglobe.co.uk/news/19604368.wirral-doctors-ask-patience-busiest-ever-period/

I've heard so many people saying the same.

3 months ago my Husband called an ambulance; I was very unsteady on my feet.

Ambulance arrived quickly but we were told a 6 hour wait. I was examined and then paramedic spoke to hospital Dr who said the responsibility was with my Dr! So whilst my Husband stood there worried sick it felt like we were being passed back and forward.

Not long after I kept having distorted vision I went to A&E Dr concerned I'd had a stroke; was there until 4 in the morning after having a CT scan; I arrived at 8.30pm. I was fortunate I got a very good Dr.

Had to go to Walk in Centre kept blacking out with pain in my neck after my fall. Dr gave recommendations to my Dr to do an x ray incase I'd injured myself and blood tests to identify why this was happening; my Dr ignored this and it was 7 weeks after I ask another Dr for help and it was discovered I have spondilosis! I'd seen an A&E Dr about this and after waiting 5 hours I was told to take paracetamol and do physio that I could find on google!

Having been in A&E a few times, I heard many people saying they were too ill and distressed to wait. Many I heard saying that they couldn't get an appointment at their Dr's. Also the paramedic that took me to hospital had made clear that A&E was overwhelmed due to Dr's NOT seeing patients. So wrong that hospital was like Beirut and Dr's and staff overwhelmed; at the end of the day the staff in A&E are suffering but so are members of the public.

Not long before this happened I had a fall and was in agony with my back. Dr phoned me at home and said it was Sciatica but this continued and despite helping myself and doing all I could to get well there was no improvement. I ask Dr to do MRI scan but he said he wasn't allowed to arrange that but I had to see Physio; I have been waiting 5 months for the appointment. We paid privately for an MRI scan due to our concern. I'd aggravated an old back injury and a bulging disc was touching a nerve. I am still waiting to see Physio!

I hardly go to Dr's but unfortunately I have had one problem after another throughout this pandemic and what has made it worse is despite helping myself and consulting with a chemist I was unable to book an appointment when I felt the need.

Very worrying times isn't it! I have heard others that have done their best to help themselves and chemist etc.... but felt more anxious due to the fact that they couldn't see their Dr because there are no longer appointments to book when one needs them!

I am a full time unpaid Carer and have cared for over 33 years and then over the past 7 years for 2 members of my family that had life threatening illness.

That is sad Longnails. The NHS is a sorry mess at the moment and our GP's are not helping the situation.

Really very sorry to hear of your story/ traumas with your health and the NHS, Longnails.What awful experiences, that don't help the stress levels.

I have heard many really bad reports of A & E at AP. over the last few years. Make a complaint and they all close ranks and it goes nowhere.
Also some of the Ambulance crews don't have the greatest attitude.

It would be interesting to know why it's so difficult to get appointments at some GP's practices too.
How having a telephone appointment, to be followed up by a visiting appointment make things easier , I don't know. That's 2 appointments which could have been just 1.

Hope you feel better soon, Longnails.

They can fit you in for your flu jabs etc , no bother, money for surgery every jab given….

Much the same here in NZ - very difficult to get an actual Dr's appointment as they prefer zoom calls (which I haven't a clue how to do and don't see why I should learn just for them). When you do get an appointment it is normally for several days ahead even though I have never seen the waiting room full (it has full glass windows facing onto the road) and there are normally only one or two cars in the carpark. Not sure about UK but we only have doctors open Monday to Friday.

Some months ago, whilst out walking, I was attacked by a dog and someone rang for an ambulance and was told they were too busy and for someone to physically take me to the A&E department and to not have anything to eat. Luckily a young girl ran me to the hospital (a 30 min drive away) and then used her phone to contact one of my grandsons to come to the hospital. At the time the dog attacked me I had neither phone nor purse on me and wouldn't have been able to drive anyway. Had a 3 hour wait at hospital, and after 40 stitches in my wrist and hand and a couple in my arm I was sent home with instructions that my GP must change the dressings every day for a month - to save the trauma of trying to make appointments I just turned up each day with my hospital referral letter and they really couldn't not see me. It worked, but we shouldn't have to go to such lengths - we are supposed to be civilized countries!!!!

Looks as if you're in a worse place than we are, moretonkiwi . We only hear what goes on in our little island these days. Very self centred really, because all it leads to is constant demands off the public wanting more and more, as no one can see how others suffer in similar or in many cases of a differnt nature, much worse than we do in UK.

I love this country, but wish that as a nation we could be so much more positive. We have truly become a nation of miserable , disatisfied and moaning about eveything people, with the help from the media and politicians. It's not good for our children and it leads to depression in minds that are unable to grasp or understand our negative view all the time . Children are full of life and happiness but keep getting shut down by listening to the moans and groans of society. What miserable beings we are and have turned them into.

I'm surprised to hear that, all the ambulance crews I've come across have been brilliant. I guess they have to have their off days, some patients are terribly uncooperative and crews must be bored out of their skulls when they have to wait in 4 hour queues at APH, not just waiting with patients on trolleys in corridors but also getting the admittance admin sorted out can take many hours on some occasions.

The last time I was with a crew member they were pleased to get the admin cleared in less than one and a half hours and said it had been three hours the day before. On my way out on the same occasion one of the long corridors was chocker with trolleys and ambulance crews who were looking brain-dead from the wait, then I found the queue carried on round the corner.

If over half your shift is spent waiting in queues it has got to be psychologically damaging plus with that sort of time granularity, the odds of finishing your shift anywhere near on time has got to be low.

There should be take-over staff at the hospital to let the ambulance crews do their jobs instead of becoming one of Lewis's.

Not heard that expression for a long time DD, one of Lewis's