Making an appointment with your doctor

[stevewool]

I have been feeling a little unwell, just under the weather so they say and I thought I would make an appointment with my doctor,

I was not expecting to get in today or even tomorrow but when they did answer the phone and said 3 weeks time, well I had to say something,
3 WEEKS, I COULD BE DEAD BY THEN

Is it a emergency, I was asked, well I dont know I am not a doctor,

Well could you tell me what you want to see the doctor for I was asked

I have a lump and I dont want to bother the doctor but what do you call a emergency I asked,

I shall get the nurse to call you back sometime tomorrow i was told,
I shall wait for tomorrow and see what the nurse has to say,

But this got me thinking, we ring the doctor to ask his advice on something we are not sure of, how do we know what is an emergency or not, and if you cant see it too,

3 weeks waiting to see your doctor is silly to me but dont what to be silly saying yes its a emergency too, we British with our stiff upper lip :NoNo:

[Michael Parnham]

I don't know about stiff upper lip Steve but is your lump something else that's stiff ( only joking). On a serious note Steve, I hope it turns out that it's nothing to worry about! :xxgrinning--00xx3:

[Dedworth]

A joke :cwm23: - if you'd just jumped off the back of a lorry you would be put to the front of the queue.

An elderly neighbour told me today her quacks can't give her an appointment till April for the nurse to give her an injection

[Slip]

I couldn't get a doctor when I first moved to this area about 10 years ago. I phoned around 5 in the area and they all reckon they were full! So in the end I rang the NHS and they appointed me one. I had to go for an interview if you like, the first thing the doctor said to me was "I hope you're not going to cost me money". I said, "I pay for you remember, if you want to go private then get out of the NHS...!" He only has a pokey little two doctor practice in the downstairs of his house after all!

Anyway, never seen him since that day, he wrote me a letter to say he had enough patients and was "giving me" to his partner in the practice!

I normally am lucky and get an appointment within a few days though

[raynaputi]

We are quite lucky on where we live. Keith and I can get an appointment to the GP the same day usually. We never experienced waiting for a week or so unless it's our choice. I once had rashes in the past (I believe I posted it here) and when I called the surgery, I had the appointment the following day. :xxgrinning--00xx3:

[Arthur Little]

Luckily, our practice has a system, whereby ... if you phone anytime between 8 and 9 o'clock in the morning, then an appointment can be arranged for say ... :anerikke: ... an hour or two later.

May not be your usual doctor you see ... :anerikke: ... but your medical records are readily on hand in the event of it being a different GP.

[Doc Alan]

It’s understandable - whether or not you’re a doctor - that if you’re feeling unwell, you want a diagnosis and remedy to make you better :smile:.


Unfortunately successive governments have encouraged patients to feel they are entitled to immediate treatment of anything, at any time. Demand for GP services in England has risen from around 300m consultations in 2008 to an estimated 340m today.


GPs spend an average of 8 – 10 minutes with each patient. It is helpful therefore to have a list of problems – symptoms and signs – BEFORE the appointment. “ Feeling a little unwell, just under the weather “ is, with respect, extremely common, and not diagnostic of anything. “ Having a lump “ really needs to be more specific – where ? How big ? For how long ? Symptoms like pain / bleeding ? The GP receptionist is not entitled to be told the details, just how severe the symptoms / signs are :xxgrinning--00xx3:.



It’s impossible to give a list of all emergencies – but life-threatening conditions, requiring an ambulance / paramedics / should mean dialing 999, unless the GP is able to make an urgent home visit.

These include :

• Loss of consciousness

• Persistent severe chest pain

• “ “ breathing difficulties


• Severe uncontrollable bleeding from ANY site.



For less urgent situations where you need fast medical help, try the NHS 111 service. Of course an increasing number of people use A + E services – some inappropriately, the clue being in the title : “ Accident and Emergency “. Then there are Minor Injury Units and Walk In Centres.


Thankfully I’m not a GP, and it’s not my intention to rise to the bait of responding to those who think GPs are “ quacks “, overpaid, unavailable out of hours, or unable to communicate. The GP contract agreed under the last Labour Government allowed GPs to opt out of providing out-of-hours cover.


There is a system for complaints, which varies according to where you live in the UK. Wherever you are, it should start ( promptly ) with your GP, and if necessary - in England - progress to Clinical Commissioning Groups ( CCG ). All English GP practices belong to a CCG, who are overseen by NHS England.

(http://www.nhs.uk/Service-Search/Clinical%20Commissioning%20Group/LocationSearch/1 ).

(http://www.england.nhs.uk/contact-us/ ).


You could also write to your MP, with your complaint, and telling them that “ recent UK wide polls of GPs have shown about half have had to cut back on the range of services they provide for their patients, most are worried that patient waiting times are going to get longer in the next two years and half feel they can no longer guarantee safe patient care. “.



The solution - according to the Royal College of General Practitioners - is to increase the current 8.5% share of NHS funding spent in general practice, so that the service can cope with demand while remaining free at the point of use.


Alternatives include introducing a means-tested fee for visits to GPs ( as happens already in many other countries ) and encouraging more doctors to go into general practice. At present there are around 64,000 GPs out of the 260,000 UK doctors.


http://www.nhs.uk/choiceintheNHS/Yourchoices/GPchoice/Pages/GPappointments.aspx


http://www.nhs.uk/choiceintheNHS/Yourchoices/Choiceinanemergency/Pages/Yourchoiceinanemergency.aspx


http://www.nhs.uk/choiceintheNHS/Yourchoices/GPchoice/Pages/GPcomplaints.aspx

[marksroomspain]

Luckily, our practice has a system, whereby ... if you phone anytime between 8 and 9 o'clock in the morning, then an appointment can be arranged for say ... :anerikke: ... an hour or two later.

Same here Arthur in the North East also at our practice you can make an appointment on line for the day and time of your choice.

Funnily enough the further south you go the harder it seems to be to get appointments like that.

Just IMO...:smile:

[stevewool]

Well lads and lasses all is well in the Woolley household, the nurse rang very early today and she wanted to see me at 10-10am, after checking me over she said it could be a hernia, she was not worried but i must get in touch if it gets any bigger,

While i was there i have got myself a date for a complete check up, that will be in April