Woman talks about continuity and call back system with GP

thank you so much for your time. Can you tell me a little bit about what it's been like to access GP services over the past few months? It's a bit challenging, accessing the GP like, for instance, with the appointment you need to call on the day by eight o'clock, and I find out that most of the time when I've called, I never get to speak to anybody. You just put on hold until 20 minutes later, and when you finally get through to the receptionist, you're told that all the appointments for the day is gone and then you'll be put on a cancellation list. If anyone cancels, then you get a call back from the GP

But most of the time you never get a call back and then you'll have to ring the next day until you're finally lucky. And the last time I called to get for an appointment for an ongoing issue with my tummy, the same thing happened. I got to speak to the receptionist 20 minutes after being on hold, and then I was told there was no appointment for the for that day, but they put me on a cancellation list

So I did get a call back, but from a paramedic, I don't know if the paramedic is attached to the GP surgery or not. So I spoke to the paramedic and explained what my symptoms was and told him I'd been in contact with a doctor previously about the same issue. So he said they will put me on the the drug I've been on

I can't remember what it's called now, and I was gonna get a call back from the GP. But I never got a call back from the GP. So I had to ring the receptionist back after a few days

And then she said she was gonna put me on the doctor's list of people to call, but that wasn't going to be until the week after, So they gave me a date, and that was like a week after my contact with the receptionist. So on that day I did get a call from the GP, and then we went through what has been going on. So they put me on the same drug, Lazo

So I'm to take it for four weeks, and if the pain in my tummy persists, then it's gonna send me to. It's gonna send a referral to the hospital for for the for the check. So I'm just a week and a half into the prescription now

So fingers crossed. Everything is gonna be resolved at the end of the four weeks. So I think I don't know if the pandemic has got to do with it, but it's difficult now for people trying to get a doctor's appointment

And when you do get a an appointment, it's always over the phone. So I think it's not, I suppose, in the situation we just deal with whatever we've got. But I think a face to face appointment is better because that we they cannot actually examine you because you can't really get your point across over the phone like being examined whilst you're you're in the room because I remember sometimes back in I think that should be

In March, I was having pain in my left foot, and then I called the GP surgery, and then I was told I need to fill an online consultation form, which I did, and they said the doctor is gonna get back in 48 hours, and I didn't hear back. I was in pain all through the weekend. And I'm somebody that I don't really like checking out my symptoms online because sometimes you get things that are scary, and then you're anxious all through the week before you get an actual call from the GP

So I tried as much as possible to avoid that. But I was in so much pain all through the weekend, I couldn't go out. I couldn't take the kids to school

The last day of school, my husband had to do the school run and he was walking. So but because I couldn't walk, it was too painful to walk and my legs were swollen. So I was in pain off through the weekend, just taking painkillers

But luckily, because I'd had a bad, bad experience with, um ibuprofen. So I didn't take ibuprofen, but I didn't get to speak to a doctor. So in hindsight now, it was a good thing that I didn't take ibuprofen for, because it would have exacerbated my symptoms

What was going on? So the doctor rang me back on the Monday and then when I explained my symptoms, was just told me to drop everything I was doing and head straight to the hospital. So when I got there, I was examined. I think I was there for about three hours before I got seen

So when they check my leg and I had to go for is it a or something? So they find out that I had a clot just above my knee. It was behind my leg before, but it had travelled over the weekend because I wasn't seen. It had travelled up, and it was just above my left knee

So I was placed. I was put on a course of, um which I had to take for six months. So I've just come off it now and then in the hospital, I was told that I shouldn't take any, um anti-inflammatory which ibuprofen was, but because the pain was I was tempted to take the ibuprofen before I got sent to the hospital

But if not because of the bad experience I had, I would have taken it. And only God knows what would have happened, because later I was told I'm not supposed to take it, so I just think more resources need to be put into the NHS and G GP surgery because they're quite straight, and I think they're missing out a lot of a lot of ailments getting undiagnosed. And by the time they see people, it's kind of getting late

And for some people, it might just be too late to do to do anything about it and seeing people face to face. Because whilst I was on the, uh the I had a pain in my shoulder and then I rang the GP surgery up, and then the one of the doctors called me, and then she spoke to me and she she she was gonna give me, um, the ibuprofen. So I had to remind her that I've been told not to take ibuprofen

So I thought before they ring people up, they would have gone through my notes and see that I'm not supposed to. But if it's not somebody that is away, or if I hadn't been told at my hospital appointment that I'm not supposed to take ibuprofen while on the block, I would have just gone for that. So I had to be the one to remind her, which I don't think should be the case

So that's been my experience. Thank you very much. Um, when you So you've spoken about, um, speaking to GPS on the phone? Is it the same GP that you speak to are different ones? Um, when I spoke to the lady, that's a different one

But when I've had the stomach pain, I think I've I've been speaking to the same doctor. Thank you. And, um, I just wanted to ask you you mentioned about changes

Maybe because of the pandemic. So before the pandemic, where you are able to book apartments in advance, or has it always been that system? It's always been the system before, before the pandemic. You have to call by eight PM on the day

But it's actually difficult to get an appointment when you call on the day, because because before the pandemic, people do go there by eight PM to queue up. So the people that are already there, they get the preference. So by the time you finally get through to somebody on the phone, me tell you no, there's no appointment

So the times I've got got an appointment before the pandemic is either I've had to wake up myself before work to go there or my husband had to go there to get an appointment for me. And then while I do the school run and just show up for my appointment. So I don't really think it's an effective system because except if you've got nothing to do because you never get through immediately, you call

You're on hold for. And for some people that I know that use the same GP surgery, it's been the same experience they've had. I think, I suppose, sometimes for Children

If you're calling to make an appointment for Children, they do try to to work out something, even if it's something later in the day. They do try to make, uh, a room if it's for Children. But for adults, you tend to wait quite a while before you get an appointment

Thank you for that. Is there anything else that you want to find? Um, I'll just say I think that they're doing a good job or they could do better, Thank you very much.