Making an appointment with your doctor - Arrrgghh!!!

[nstreet]

I don't know about yours but with our doctors surgery, you had to phone on the day you wanted an appointment. So you would spend 20-30 minutes playing telephone lottery to get an appoint, no point ringing after 8:30 as all the appoints are gone.

Tried phoning yesterday to find that they now have another system.

Here's how the conversation went after spending 20 minutes trying to get through.

Hello i'd like to make an appointment with Dr Jekyl please.

Today?

Yes, thats why I'm calling.!

Would you like to speak to a nurse first?

No, I would like an appointment to discuss ????????

You cant see him today, you need to make an appointment in advance in future

Why??? (getting rather irate)

You need to speak to our triage team first and then we will make an appointment.

OK, can I speak to them?

Yes, can I have your phone number, someone will call you back within two hours.

What?, I'm just on my way out!!.

Can we have a mobile number then?

I don't have one.

We need a number so that we can call you, otherwise you will have to wait in.

Then it gets a little silly so I won't bore you any longer.

So if I want an appointment, I have to phone in the day, wait up to two hours to speak a to a triage nurse who may then make an appointment for later that day, without knowing anything about your history . So you basically spend a whole day in limbo, not knowing if you can attend work or not, waiting for a phone call. And if you go to work, you have to discuss your personal business in front of the whole office and you may have to leave after and hour or two to attend the doctors.

I thought the health service was for the patients benefit not the doctors. Also, how about letting the patients know about changes to the appointment system, rather than just changing it without telling anyone. It would save a lot of irate patients ringing up and time, especially mine!.

Thats todays rant over, I feel much better now.

 

[dg123]

I have never had this problem but also I would never tell the receptionist the nature of the complaint. They have no right to this info and should simply make the appointment (if one is available). Next time they are obstructive ask for their name, tell them this is so you can inform the doctor of their attitude.

 

[AdamW]

My experience hasn't been THAT bad, but the thing which always annoys me is my GP's child policy.

He makes a strict rule of seeing pregnant ladies and babies/toddlers/children. Sounds good, right?

Wrong.

Pregnant women, babies etc. don't generally have to get back to work. I can't have my mobile on in the waiting room, and I can't leave the waiting room or I will miss my name being called. I have, on occasion, waited 2 hours for my appointment. If they wanted me at 12, they should have said 12. I wouldn't need to miss much work for that. But they shouldn't say 10. Perhaps instead of GPs we need to have GPs for adults and GPs for hysterical women who don't have the faintest idea about how healthy their baby really is!

I know having a sick baby is worrying, but having worked as a doctor's receptionist I happen to know that urgency is seldom warranted: they get temperatures. They get sick. Sometimes they cry more than you think they should (they are human, they have moods and feelings too!) Would you go to the doctor and say "I did a runny poo this morning, I'm really really worried!" No.

But I'll have the last laugh: every time I go to the doctors, those wasted 2 hours hurt the national economy just a tiny bit. If this happens to every working man and woman, it will all add up. So in a few years when that baby has grown up and is working, the economy will be rubbish. And it's all their fault. MWAHAHAHAHA!!!!

 

[andy]

come home from work yesterday really ill so phoned docs. 9am. earliest time was 5.20 so i took it. now since i had been throwing up all day i was a bit dehydrated. so i was given a bottle 2 return thismornin. now just been told its been sent 2 hospital and i have 2 phone back after 2 2mro. now, that wouldnt be so bad if it wasnt for the fact that nothin is helpin with the pain and i can hardly move and its hard enough 2 stand up. and since they dont kno what it is yet, they only give me something what might help the pain. not that it is. id rather be o.k and at work!

 

[petewood]

been stroking any chickens lately?

 

[empip]

Pay upped to £100k per annum, less work, BMA is the strongest union apart from law society in the country, continually holding NHS to ransome ...
Still they all signed up to the hypocritical oath I s'pose !!
Ah for the half pay final pension plus 3 times that as a tax free lump sum .. nirvanah !!

 

[Richardp]

reminds me of an old receptionist we used to have at our health centre, you'd ring to make an appointment with the doctor and she ask what was wrong you ?, well what are the symptoms ? are you sure ? sounds like tummy ache to me? have you tried rum and shrub? anon

 

[AdamW]

so i was given a bottle 2 return thismornin.

This is where the job of a medical receptionist converges with that of a bar manager in a bad restaurant: I too was in charge of a fridge full of p*ss.

One fine day as a medical receptionist, I glanced at the doctor's note. "Stool sample container to be issued, return tomorrow". Oh how I smiled as he walked out of the door... it was my last day, so I wasn't going to be the one to take the box of poo back off him!

Hope it all goes well Andy. We chaps get freaked out by this sort of thing, women with their poorly-designed equipment are used to the non-stop drinking of cranberry juice and general nastiness in that area (they only have 2" or so of pipework between open air and bladder: rubbish for keeping germs out )

 

[ohmygodwhathaveyoudone]

a week ago my wife had a really bad back pain and could'nt bend down and was really painful.she saw the doctor who said her back has gone into spasm and not to sit down and lay down flat or stand straight.as we've got 6yr old twins and the house is up for sale we have to keep the floors clean and the house tidy for viewings and not being able to bend over or drive for long makes life difficult.she has been given a prescription for 600mg of ibuprophen which does'nt ease the pain at all and has an appointment to see a back specialist at the hospital in 2 days.so we got a letter today saying the appointment has been changed to.
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29 DEC.

WTF

 

[empip]

Thankfully/luckily not 2004 !!

 

[Nige F]

I went to the doc.I said Doc. can you help me out.he said yes, which way did you come in

 

[empip]

a week ago my wife had a really bad back pain and could'nt bend down ...WTF

Pretty hard on you .. or maybe the reverse ..

 

[ohmygodwhathaveyoudone]

pain in the arse.

 

[Moz]

just been for my flu jab ,have no problems with receptionists at my GP

 

[andy]

just been for my flu jab ,have no problems with receptionists at my GP

if i go for the flu jab, i usually end up with flu/really bad cold days after it. so i give up gettin it and i usually manage...