Making appointments - must be an easier way!

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R

Radders

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Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
I am due for my 6 monthly checkup. I was sent an appointment which I couldn’t make due to work commitments. In order to let them know, I have to phone during office hours as they don’t use their voicemail. Then instead of making a new appointment while I’m on the phone with my diary, they tell me they’ll send another.
Guess what, the new appointment coincides with my holiday, so I rang from work thinking that since I have already had to rearrange once, they would talk to me about when I can go. The trouble is my job is about to hit its busiest time when I cannot take time off. I am convinced the new appointment will be smack bang in the middle of this period!
There must be a better way, eg at work we can share our calendars in Outlook making it much easier to arrange meetings. Does anyone’s clinic have a more streamlined system that I can perhaps suggest?
 
My GP practice has a website for cancelling appointments & ordering repeat prescriptions.

If you want to see a doctor that day, you ring at 08:30 in the morning. There are only a limited number of appoints available as the doctors allocate an hour before lunch & an hour in the late afternoon for urgent appointments. They also like to allocate their own follow up appointments for patients that need them.

It means EVERYONE is calling at 08:30 in the morning & queuing on the phone. Mondays & Fridays are the worse. If, when you get to the front of the queue & there are no more appointments left, you describe the symptoms you have & the doctors, already at the reception area, decide whether it’s urgent enough for them to see you. If so, you get an urgent appointment time. If not, you have to queue again, on the phone, the next day but, at least you’ll have some peace of mind knowing it’s not life threatening!

If you’re booking a future appointment, not the same day, you ring after 09:00, usually, or even after 10:00 on Mondays & Fridays after the appointments rush. Say who you want to see, nurses as well as doctors, & they’ll tell you when the next available date is. If it doesn’t suit you can change it: sync diaries as it were.

The doctors like to do things this way as they get to keep appointment slots open for the people that REALLY need them.
 
Can't do a thing on site at the main hospital in Coventry - the booking centre isn't even in Coventry.

Had the situation a few years back when I was told I couldn't have a Monday pm appointment for the next year. Doesn't matter said I - it's a whole centre which only deals with Diabetes and has clinics every day - so just book me in another day.

Ooooh NO!!! - we're not allowed to do that ........ I just stopped going there after that, hadn't been seen for 2 years cos though they kept sending me appointments, they cancelled every one and sent another. Least time gap between them was 6 months.
 
My surgery is a disgrace at the moment, my mum was there the start of last week, when she was leaving she attempted to make an appointment with the nurse for my 3 monthly on the Friday, there were no available appointments until today so I was cutting it very close to the cut off point of being able to be seen, like Lanny if you want an appointment on the day you must phone when the surgery opens and even then its pure luck if you get seen to, 9 times out of 10 a Dr will call back, ask whats wrong and try and prescribe something over the bloomin phone! 😱 xx
 
For my GP I can make an appointment online for within the next two weeks from today online. If there are any listed. Might only be certain periods on 4 days at least a week away.
I don't make appointments with the nurse at this practice. The nurse books the appointments.
I don't do the hospital for my diabetes. For non diabetic clinics, I've been able to change appointments by phone.
 
Try this for size!
Had my three month blood test on Thursday and rang for the result yesterday.
Test results back but receptionist not allowed to give them out by 'phone.
Can I make an appointment to see the doctor? No because she has marked your results normal and no follow up.
Can I book a telephone consultation then? No because you're normal and it would make her cross because her time is so limited.
I wonder what normal means?
So unless I drive a wasted fifteen miles round trip to the surgery I will never know, changing doctor's is not an option as this is the only surgery that covers our village.
 
Oooh! 😡 JMyrtle, I’m feeling your frustration there!
 
Blimey! My surgery used to operate the 'ring at 9am' stupidity when I was still at work, and it was hopeless trying to get through to them while in an office! Fortunately in recent years they've improved their system vastly, and they are only 10-15 mins' walk away anyway, so I can walk up there or phone.

My husband's surgery has gone completely down the toilet, so the other day he was so fed up with them he transferred to mine - at least you can get an appointment at mine, whereas at his they kept telling him they had no appointments whatever for weeks, and he couldn't see any of the doctors at all for a blood test let alone his own one. He doesn't have D but he has a family history of it so they should check him yearly (as they used to), but he has medication for other things which need regular checks. So now he's being signed up at mine, he has already seen the health care assistant (who is lovely) and he has a form for a blood test - result!
 
JMyrtle said:
Try this for size!
Had my three month blood test on Thursday and rang for the result yesterday.
Test results back but receptionist not allowed to give them out by 'phone.
Can I make an appointment to see the doctor? No because she has marked your results normal and no follow up.
Can I book a telephone consultation then? No because you're normal and it would make her cross because her time is so limited.
I wonder what normal means?
So unless I drive a wasted fifteen miles round trip to the surgery I will never know, changing doctor's is not an option as this is the only surgery that covers our village.
Click to expand...
I actually complained, in writing, to my old practice about not being told things like the HbA1c results.
You should consider complaining.
 
JMyrtle said:
Try this for size!
Had my three month blood test on Thursday and rang for the result yesterday.
Test results back but receptionist not allowed to give them out by 'phone.
Can I make an appointment to see the doctor? No because she has marked your results normal and no follow up.
Can I book a telephone consultation then? No because you're normal and it would make her cross because her time is so limited.
I wonder what normal means?
So unless I drive a wasted fifteen miles round trip to the surgery I will never know, changing doctor's is not an option as this is the only surgery that covers our village.
Click to expand...
I have to say that this is an absolute farcical disgrace and the receptionists comments are totally out of order.
 
JMyrtle said:
Try this for size!
Had my three month blood test on Thursday and rang for the result yesterday.
Test results back but receptionist not allowed to give them out by 'phone.
Can I make an appointment to see the doctor? No because she has marked your results normal and no follow up.
Can I book a telephone consultation then? No because you're normal and it would make her cross because her time is so limited.
I wonder what normal means?
So unless I drive a wasted fifteen miles round trip to the surgery I will never know, changing doctor's is not an option as this is the only surgery that covers our village.
Click to expand...
This is dreadful. I agree with @Ralph-YK and @Vince_UK . I think you should complain to the practice manager. Imo it is not up to a GP’s receptionist no matter how qualified they are to decide who can or can’t see/talk to their gp.
 
We can get our results - we have to ring on a Tuesday between 13.00 and 14.00. If not - we can't get them on the phone.
 
JMyrtle said:
Try this for size!
Had my three month blood test on Thursday and rang for the result yesterday.
Test results back but receptionist not allowed to give them out by 'phone.
Can I make an appointment to see the doctor? No because she has marked your results normal and no follow up.
Can I book a telephone consultation then? No because you're normal and it would make her cross because her time is so limited.
I wonder what normal means?
So unless I drive a wasted fifteen miles round trip to the surgery I will never know, changing doctor's is not an option as this is the only surgery that covers our village.
Click to expand...
I must have been very lucky with my surgery, or caught the receptionist on a good day. When I rang for my last results she told me they were 'normal'. When I explained to her that the DN had said my last result on cholesterol should have been 'actioned', that the new result was the same and that I wanted to discuss the result with the GP she arranged a telephone consultation for me.
 
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