Bad local bus service makes telephone appointments a hit!

Well, Hello, then. Hi, Jane. And how are you? Fine, thank you. Hello

So my question to you guys is around your experience, Uh, of the GP surgery recently. Could you talk to me a little bit about that, please? Yeah. Um, when I did this before, I thought the telephone appointments were great

And I still do want to a point. Um, we live in an area where there isn't a very good bus service, so we've we've got to walk to Ashton, and it's about half an hour's walk. And if it's raining or snowing or slippy, I'd have to cancel

It was really bad. You know what I mean? Like, yesterday when we had gale forces that, uh, blew the fence down, I wouldn't have gone out in that, um or if you've got a telephone appointment, it's good for two reasons. It's good because you don't have to walk anywhere

And it's also good because you're waiting at home so you can do other things while you're waiting for the telephone call. Uh, but I did find when I had one appointment after I got off the telephone, I kept thinking, Oh, I should have asked that I should have asked that. And if I was there, which the last appointment I had with the nurse

I was there, And, uh, I did forget things. And just as I was coming out, I remembered. Which you can't do with the telephone call

Well, you should put the phone down. You You've had it, haven't you? So I found that quite bad. But if it's something that nothing's altered much Oh, I only have one or two questions so I can write down those questions before the telephone appointment in case I forget

And, um, yeah, it's great. Um, that's about it. Really Something else? No

So what? Um, what about the? So talk me through the experience recently, Let's say specific specifically recently or, um or more generally about, you know, about getting the appointment about what? The what? You know about how the experience of the people you talked to was, uh in terms of various people, not just the doctor, um, and whether you were happy, you know, just if you could just talk me through it and what the what the positives were and what the negatives might be. The biggest drawback is getting through to the doctor. I've been on a telephone for quarter of an hour, sometimes before

I've got an answer, you know, before anybody picks up, that's the problem. But it's It's always been bad on the Monday morning, but now it's more or less the same all the time. You you have to wait a long time before you get through, but when you get through, uh, it's not that, Um, well, it's very good

Our doctors, they Yeah, it's good. Our doctors. I have no complaint about the actual doctors

Like I say, it's just the length of time it takes to answer the telephone that there's a big problem. Yeah, and sometimes you have to wait a hell of a long time for your appointment. Cool

So, uh, compared with stories I've heard from other doctors, you know, from other people about their doctors, we've got a very good one. So no complaints there? Yeah. Good

And and, uh, what about when you when you do go in, how do you How's what's that like Since particularly post covid in the last sort of 12 months, I'd Sorry. Post Covid. We're still going through it

Aren't we, But since sort of the start of covid, what's it like when you turn up? How does it How do you feel? What's the experience of being there? Well, I've only been sort of immersed for injections and aspirin and things, and that's been good there. There's never been anybody in the waiting room when have got there, because you go downstairs to the waiting room for the nurse, and, uh, you do have to stand outside a bit quite a long time. Sometimes for her to sit this two usually on

And you, I've got to wait outside to before you go in. But we've not had too bad a time because it weren't raining very hard. Was it when we were going through, so we weren't waiting too long

5, 10 minutes, maybe. And then you're allowed in and you can wait in the waiting room until it's your turn sort of thing. She'll let you in

Well, say there's three people outside. She'll let the three people in Well, two are being treated. One will sit in the little waiting room, so yeah, yeah, it's good

And the they're very the the nurse that I see about asthma is superb. She tells me everything. Yeah, she's very good

Yeah. Oh, that's great. And what what about you? Because your ear as well at your end of it

What What's your experience? I'm all for this, uh, for phone calls, because, um, I can't drive anymore. I have a problem with my eyes. More like walking about what? To stop me from driving

So I don't have to get on a bus and mix with people. Not everyone has a mask on and and, um, we don't have to wear to We don't have to on in in action. Like we go for injection, we have to wear it

And obviously, but, um, whenever I'm talking to anybody, I always say my wife see that? All right, so certainly so Jean can put write anything down, because I I tend to forget things. So then we've got a good idea of the to us, or you can ask a question, and I I'd say they could should recommend that if you got this phone call, you got a relation or a friend that you want them to join in? It will help. Talk about you can talk about after they can write down anything you just you might tend to forget

So I I think this form things a lot better. Course he panics when he's a doctor. You think I panic when a doctor? Yeah, I don't worry as much as that's basically it, but I think it is a good idea

It is brilliant phone call, and it said I used to drive. It saved me parking money. A good thing

It's a lot quicker and a lot more persons, I thought. And And do you feel how? How what's the experience when you talk to a GP? Then so you've got you've got all the benefits to get in the phone call. Um, like you've talked about and what? How does it feel and and what took me through the experience of having that conversation with the GP and and perhaps how it how it's different, even positively or negatively from before, Uh, covid that much different, really, you say, Oh oh, the the So I spoke to one that I've never seen on on the telephone when I started with this asthma thing and he diagnosed it immediately over the, um, the phone and put me through to the asthma nurse, which, uh, yeah, I thought it was really good, because you're supposed to blow into them spirometer things, but they don't do it that now they do have a little blower thing that you blow into, but because of covid, it's too dangerous to use the even though you don't use the same mouse piece, it's too dangerous to use the actual spirometer

But it's proved it was right. You know what I mean? There there's no there's no doubt about it now that that's what our goal. But, um, yeah, you're happy with that

And what about you? You say? Well, Jean accuses you of panicking, do you? Is that because of the phone? Or is or is that you know? What's your experience of of using the food more easy than Jane? But about a month ago, I had to go to Manchester Royal. That was another thing. A bus to Ashton, the tram to Manchester and a bus to Oxford drove, and I had to go try to do this test on me and like an hour and a half two hours

But four out later, they phoned me back said, Everything's OK and nothing to worry. You still got your problem, but it's not got any worse. And we're going to send for you again in two months time

So I thought that was brilliant. I didn't have to go to Manchester and back, and that's That's down to phone calls again. It's I think it's a brilliant idea

Oh, good. I'm really pleased. Now, I, um I'm gonna, uh, stop on the recording in a minute, but before I do, I just wanted to check that

Is there anything you haven't had a chance to say that you definitely wanted to say on this subject? I don't think so. No, not no, I don't think so. Well, thank you very much

I really appreciate it. I'm gonna press stop.