Has anyone managed to make any sense of Patchs?

[Harry Bloomfield]

My docs surgery, has stopped using Sytmonline, for many appointments, which was all fairly obvious to the user, and is now insisting patients use a thing called Patchs, for all messages, and to try to make appointments. It's near impossible, to get as far as actually making an appointment, it insists on asking inane question, after question, doesn't offer an appointment selection day/time, a location for the appointment, nor even ask you whether you need a nurse, doctor, or what.

It's totally crazy!

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

After multiple attempts, over several weeks, I seemed to managed to attempt to make an appointment. I received an sms from them yesterday, inviting me to make an doctor appointment, to review my latest bloods. I rang, they said no appointments available, they don't put them on Systmonline, go on Patchs and make one there.

Patchs, seems to be deliberately set up, to test the most patient, of patients, working through an endless series of mostly irrelevant questions, without you even being sure you are going down the correct rabbit hole, for an appointment. It seems my message of 'blood review appointment', made it through, because I later received an SMS back, saying doc would ring 6th October - yes, that's what it said the 6th.

 

[morqthana]

Less than a year to wait then!

 

[securespark]

Everything changed when COVID hit. And it never changed back.

But some surgeries are easier to get in touch with.
One I know elsewhere in Greater Manchester allows you to send emails, but not ours.

You have to ring on the dot of 08:30, along with every other poor bu99er, to try and get an appointment. It's incredibly difficult.

 

[morqthana]

I've often wondered if the mad way so many of them implement appointment booking is down to a sneaky ruse to avoid falling foul of some mad target for waiting times.

i.e. if nobody can book an appointment for any day except the day they phone in, there'll be nobody waiting for more than a day for an appointment...

 

[big-all]

I've often wondered if the mad way so many of them implement appointment booking is down to a sneaky ruse to avoid falling foul of some mad target for waiting times.

i.e. if nobody can book an appointment for any day except the day they phone in, there'll be nobody waiting for more than a day for an appointment...

i remember years ago tony blair was horrified that you could not book a same day appointment easily and all would change -----it did for a bit and you could get an appointment to be seen the same day but as the system couldn't cope so further steps added meant yes you would get an appointment on the same day but for a future date

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

But some surgeries are easier to get in touch with.
One I know elsewhere in Greater Manchester allows you to send emails, but not ours.

I changed surgeries recently, from one that was a bus ride away, to a more local one in the same village, simply because it was a quick mobility scooter ride away, rather than perhaps an half hour wait for a bus. I was also hoping I would be finding it easier to get appointments, and have a better system in place - I was very WRONG. It's totally chaotic, made worse by them insisting on using this Patchs system - it seems to be directing you towards paying for an instant, paid consultation.

i remember years ago tony blair was horrified that you could not book a same day appointment easily and all would change -----it did for a bit and you could get an appointment to be seen the same day but as the system couldn't cope so further steps added meant yes you would get an appointment on the same day but for a future date

It seems to be a system, deliberately set up, so the fittest, and those most persistent, are able to get the appointments, whilst people who are really feeling ill, may just give up. Why should it be so much easier, getting through to a vet, and get a suitable appointment, than to get to a doctor?

 

[morqthana]

Because vets run businesses which only have paying customers. If these customers cannot easily book then they will go elsewhere and the vet's business will suffer.

My experience of websites where you're captive, and not a purchaser with money to spend, is that they are almost invariably designed by total idiots and about as reliable as a folded newspaper hat in a hurricane.