Surgery waiting times

[frazerd]

Our Doctors' surgery won't offer appointments unless they can see you within 48 hours. You are made to keep calling them every day until an appointment is available.

My wife was in chronic pain with an arthritic problem and has been fobbed off for over a week now because appointments have not been available.

She eventually made a fuss and was then offered an appointment for over a weeks time.

I believe there are NHS 'targets' that mean a patient has to be seen within 48 hours? Can anyone enlighten me as to what these targets are and who one should refer to if you are unhappy with the service?

We shouldn't have to change Doctors simply because the practise manages it's appointments outside of guidlines should we?

[sqad617]

That is disgusting and your practice offers a standard of care below which one would be expected of it.

Complain to your local FHSA

Totally unacceptable standard of health care.

[sophie_1003]

Our doctors have a similar system where you must ring on the day to get an appointment then by the time you get through it's 'emergency only' left. This frustrates me no end as I've never been exactly 'emergency' but have had things bad enough to not to want to wait weeks on end. If this happens again explain the problem to the receptionist and they should be more accomodating. I've also heard somewhere (it may not be true) that if you ask to speak to a doctor, and they let you do this, the doctor will be far more accomodating than the receptionist.

[CAJ1]

Whenever I have this problem I tell them it is an emergency and I manage to get an appointment that day. I know I maybe shouldn't do it but it beats waiting weeks for an appointment and if they provided a better service it would not be necessary for me to do it.

[k8bailey]

I can't answer your questions but I sympathise with your situation. I went to my GP this morning to collect a prescription and while I was there I booked 2 appointments, one for me and one for my 10month old daughter, I was told that there wasn't an appointment avalable untill weds next week, but when I booked my daughters appointment seconds late there was an appointment free tomorrow morning at 8.30!! At least they are looking after my baby!

I would insist that your wife needs an emergency appointment, they always have some time free!

[wolf63]

My surgery has different waiting times depending on how serious the ailment is.

* same day appoinments
* 48 hour appointments
* normal appointments are usually about a week away
* appointments can ususlly made up to 4 weeks in advance for routine stuff.

The first two categories - you must accept any doctor and not just your own GP.

It is not perfect but it works.

[bednobs]

a patient must be seen within 48 hours for an "emergency", so it seems like your surgery are keeping to the guidelines. Outwith this the surgery can arrange appointments how they like. You probably wont find it any different if you go to another surgery.
i'm not sure the fhsa exists any more, but in the first instance you should complain directly to the pratice and it's best you do it in writing.

You could also contact your local PcT's PALS service to discuss it with them

[bednobs]

plus by your account they DID offer her an appointment for a week in the future, so i can't really see how/what you would compain about

[oldmegan]

If your wife is in that much pain, either tell the doctor's receptionist that you will take her to A & E if you can't have an appointment today or if you prefer just drive there. Most A & E departments have doctors' surgeries in the same grounds to cope with emergencies. In my experience, if you stand up to the dr's receptionist they will give you an appointment because if you go to A & E they have to pay them!!!

[frazerd]

Thank you all for your responses. It does seem that the quest to meet targets overrides quality of service for patients. I will take OLDMEGAN's advice, write to my surgery, take my wife to casualty and let the practice foot the bill. Then I will pursue some answers from the responsible bodies. Wish me luck!

[New Judge]

This is another example of the �law of unintended consequences� rearing its head as a result of badly thought out procedures.

Doctors� practices are targeted to see all patients within 48 hours. In the real world, if that target is regularly missed it would highlight to management that more resources may be required. In the world that is the NHS, the GPs are paid bonuses if they achieve their targets (and this is one of many they have). So instead of using the targets to manage their practices, they give their staff explicit instructions not to make any appointments which may mean the target is jeopardised. This leads to the ludicrous situations described. My GP surgery will absolutely refuse to make any appointment more than 48 hours ahead. This means if the doctor asks you to return in a week you cannot make an appointment on the way out, but have to go through a ridiculous rigmarole five or six days later.

Similarly, A&E departments have a �4 hour� target, where emergency admissions must be dealt with in that time. Once again, this could be very useful to management to highlight deficiencies. But, once again, hospital managers receive bonuses based on this target so they give their staff instructions to manipulate the throughput of patients so that all are dealt with within target time. I was unfortunate enough to be in an A&E department last year. I saw patients being �discharged� and readmitted just before their four hours was up, so that they did not appear as �failures� in the statistics.

The result of all this (and many similar ridiculous manipulations)? GP surgeries and hospitals appear to perform wonderfully; according to the statistics, everybody is being treated within the government targets; doctors and managers receive their bonuses for achieving those targets; the hapless patients are messed about and often receive sub-standard attention.

[sqad617]

New judge......well written and I agree with all you have said.

When will the electorate realise that the concept of "targets" is political.

[Lil O'lady]

My GP has a receptionist who will ask what's wrong with you, then say 'no, we can't treat that - go to A&E'.
And gets very huffy if asked what her medical qualification is.

[bednobs]

the gp surgery DOES NOT pay for extra visits to A and E, and to be honest, you would probably be waiting for hours to then be told to make an appointment with your gp and be even more discontented. If your wife needed any change in medication for example, the a and e department probably wouldn't offer her a prescription either (would say see your gp) or offer her a hospital prescription which would mean you waiting another few hours at the hospital pharmacy. The meaning of "A and E" is ACCIDENT and EMERGENCY. If you are saying your wifes ailment is an emergency then tell that to the gp surgery and they will give you a 48 working hour appointment as previously discussed. If it is not an emergency, what do you expect an emergency department to do? They are not GP's who work at a and e and a chronic condition such as arthritis would probably be out of their range of expertise, and much more within the range of a gp, meaning you may get the wrong advice. You have said that your gp surgery offer both "emergency" appointments and an appointment that could be booked a week in advance, so what is the problem?
Alternatively, each PCT area should by summer of this year have a "walk in" gp surgery whereby you can still be registered with another gp, but if it is more convenirent you can go there, and they are open 8am-8pm, 365 days of the year. A and E is a very bad use of resources for problems such as you describe, and i guaruntee you will will be even more dissatisfied when they tell you to go home and see your gp! I hope (god forbid) should you ever suffer a serious emergency, your treatment is delayed because someone wants to give their gp surgery a lesson by turning up and overwhelming A and E!!!

[bednobs]

of course, in that last sentance i meant "is NOT delayed"!