The 8am rush for a GP appointment

[Fluke]

I read recently that this practice of making everyone call at 8am to get an appointment was to end. Not at my surgery it hasn't. All I need is a prescription for a medication that I need to take now and again as required and I've been prescribed it many times before, I called in to the surgery yesterday to request the prescription and received a text message a while later to say I needed to make a phone appointment with a GP. I went to the practice website to see on the off chance If I could request it online, the only slots available were for health care assistants. So I joined the queue just after 8 this morning and at 5 to 9 I was still only number 16 in the queue. I gave up. Madness.

[pje16]

do they not offer you an online prescription repeat service, or is it too intermittent
My GP practice offers an online booking service for appointments, so I don't have to join the 8am phone call yawn

[monabri]

Sign up to "patient access " online and you can order online.

https://www.patientaccess.com/

[Tedx]

Sign up to "patient access " online and you can order online.

https://www.patientaccess.com/

Yeah, and recently the pharmacist refused to give the wife a repeat prescription of mine because I hadn't ordered it in 2 years and, right enough the online, patient access had greyed out the item. So I used PA as a messaging portal really and it worked. A day later the prescription was ready for collection.

[AsleepInYorkshire]

Sign up to "patient access " online and you can order online.

https://www.patientaccess.com/

Just touching on this, I recently had a quiet chat with my [new] GP about trying to get an appointment with her. Apparently (and I didn't know) I could do it online.

AiY(D)

[pje16]

Sign up to "patient access " online and you can order online.

https://www.patientaccess.com/

It's very efficient if the pharmacy has got their act together
last time I ordered at 7.30 am and got a text at 2pm to say it was ready
(Amazon Prime has a rival)

[XFool]

I read recently that this practice of making everyone call at 8am to get an appointment was to end. Not at my surgery it hasn't. All I need is a prescription for a medication that I need to take now and again as required and I've been prescribed it many times before, I called in to the surgery yesterday to request the prescription and received a text message a while later to say I needed to make a phone appointment with a GP. I went to the practice website to see on the off chance If I could request it online, the only slots available were for health care assistants. So I joined the queue just after 8 this morning and at 5 to 9 I was still only number 16 in the queue. I gave up. Madness.

Ooh! Takes me back.

This 'issue' keeps popping up, one way or another. It sounds like my GP circa five years ago - we also used to have a morning raffle (literally) in the waiting room. I'd had a minor stroke (didn't know), lost the raffle so went home and forgot about the matter. Couple of years on I had a bigger stroke and ended up in A&E.

Anyway, I gave up on this years ago when online registration came in. I signed up early on - Patient Access - precisely so I could avoid all the nonsense and make appointments online. Far easier. Then the Pandemic happened and everything went very 'off-line'! (I have described all this previously elsewhere on TLF).

By a series of random accidents, trying to understand what was going on and, in particular, hearing a women GP on a radio program effectively describing the 'New Model NHS' I eventually accommodated to how things now work. (In summary: It's gone electronic. Visit GP website, access third party Triage company system, fill in Triage Form. Await outcome: Text messages to mobile, phone contact or live appointment with GP.) As previously mentioned here, continuing medication is requested online via Patient Access system.

The issues here seem to be:

1. Communication. That is, lack of. It's as if decimalisation happened and the government forgot to mention it to the populace.
2. It seems ad hoc. Not all GPs seem to be signed up to this 'New Model NHS'. Why I cannot tell, perhaps because GPs are independent businesses?
3. Older people. Interestingly, last time I was in my GP's waiting room, I noticed the most frequent 'GP' that patients were being called to see over the call system was a certain 'Dr Triage Online'. So possibly there was a room available with a terminal and help?

[Alaric]

1. Communication. That is, lack of. It's as if decimalisation happened and the government forgot to mention it to the populace.
2. It seems ad hoc. Not all GPs seem to be signed up to this 'New Model NHS'. Why I cannot tell, perhaps because GPs are independent businesses?

I have the impression there are competing systems out there and varying degrees of implementation even within the same system such as Patient Access. With Patient Access you do have to do a bit of experimentation to find what you are looking for. For example I think I found that the tab marked "prescriptions" only took you to a page for ordering a new presciption with no link for repeats. That's somewhere else coupled with appointments.

I disagree that "old" people don't necessarily "understand" computers. Fifty years of trying to use the things or rather the systems that have been designed and implemented on them should count for something!

[XFool]

I have the impression there are competing systems out there and varying degrees of implementation even within the same system such as Patient Access.

The GP/NHS wants me, and presumably everyone else, to use the NHS App approach. Still time to get around to getting a smart phone before I die.

I disagree that "old" people don't necessarily "understand" computers. Fifty years of trying to use the things or rather the systems that have been designed and implemented on them should count for something!

Yes, of course. But what about those that never even saw a computer while they were working? Plus, it's more than knowing. You have to have the ability to read the screen and operate a keyboard - cannot be taken for granted at advanced age (I always took it for granted I could easily walk, until suddenly I find I can't...). That's before we even come to such as dementia.

Then again, as a +70 year old without a smart phone, I recounted the amusing experience during the pandemic when I was alone in the GP waiting room (Shingles vaccination?) and a young man clutching a smart phone came in. He needed a certificate for a flight out of the country next day and a to-do started between him: " 'They' told me to come here" and the GP receptionist "That's nothing to do with us!" *

For a time, neither of them understood what on earth the other was on about! Ironically I did and nearly intervened to help them out. Fortunately they both eventually aligned their understanding. So...


* 'They' were presumably the NHS, telling the man with the phone he needed to go to his GP surgery to sign up for online access so the NHS App could read his recorded vaccination status. The receptionist had presumably been told "NHS App nothing to do with us" to forestall patients seeking IT assistance via their GP surgery.

[Fluke]

Okay hold on a minute. Via my practice website there is a thing that I can select to make an online appointment:

You can request an appointment with a doctor or clinician by using our online service, SystemOnline. Your request will be assessed and assigned to the best person to help you with your concern.

When I click the link I have to sign in which I'm able to do so I've obviously registered for this service before although I'd forgotten, but, when I signed in the only options available were for specific timed slots with a health care assistant, there was no option for making a phone appointment, or any other appointment with a GP. So is this service different to patient access as mentioned above, or can I register for that as well?

I'm confused.

[pje16]

Okay hold on a minute. Via my practice website there is a thing that I can select to make an online appointment:

You can request an appointment with a doctor or clinician by using our online service, SystemOnline. Your request will be assessed and assigned to the best person to help you with your concern.

When I click the link I have to sign in which I'm able to do so I've obviously registered for this service before although I'd forgotten, but, when I signed in the only options available were for specific timed slots with a health care assistant, there was no option for making a phone appointment, or any other appointment with a GP. So is this service different to patient access as mentioned above, or can I register for that as well?

I'm confused.

with mine, you fill in what your symptoms are, and then they will call you back by 6.30pm the next day (it's normally the same day though)
patient access is separate, follow the link in the earlier posts

[Fluke]

Meant to add, you can also request a prescription online which is the online equivalent of the paper form I'd already filled out the previous day at the surgery which resulted in the text message asking me to book an appointment.

I do have a separate repeat prescription which I get through pharmacy2u, anyone used that? it's really good. They just send you your medication through the post a few days after ordering. They take care of all the approving with your GP etc.

This particular prescription is very intermittent so probably doesn't qualify for repeat, it could be a couple of years before I need it again, hence having to go through my GP each time.

[XFool]

Okay hold on a minute. Via my practice website there is a thing that I can select to make an online appointment:

When I click the link I have to sign in which I'm able to do so I've obviously registered for this service before although I'd forgotten, but, when I signed in the only options available were for specific timed slots with a health care assistant, there was no option for making a phone appointment, or any other appointment with a GP. So is this service different to patient access as mentioned above, or can I register for that as well?

All I know is that Patient Access is a different system to the Online Triage service used by my GP, through which appointments are made - if deemed necessary. Since the pandemic I cannot make any GP appointments via Patient Access. There are also different systems (other than Patient Access) available to access your records etc. Plus the NHS App system, which I am unfamiliar with.

The basic idea is you don't now just make an appointment with your GP, rather you go via an electronic Triage system to establish how to proceed.

[bungeejumper]

All I know is that Patient Access is a different system to the Online Triage service used by my GP, through which appointments are made - if deemed necessary. Since the pandemic I cannot make any GP appointments via Patient Access. There are also different systems (other than Patient Access) available to access your records etc. Plus the NHS App system, which I am unfamiliar with.

The basic idea is you don't now just make an appointment with your GP, rather you go via an electronic Triage system to establish how to proceed.

Out here in the sticks where that fancy new-fangled so-called interweb thing ain't ever going to catch on, oooh arrr, we still jump in the car (ten minutes) and turn up at the surgery to make an appointment, because it's less horrible than being 29th in the phone queue while being crooned at by an endless cracked tape of Barry Manilow.

Oh, sure, the surgery say that they currently only accept telephone bookings, and I don't think my SystmOnline account lets me request an appointment online. And the last time I sent the surgery an email describing a problem and requesting an appointment, they told me to make a telephone booking. Harrumph! But the trick was (and is) to bypass all that malarkey and present your case in person.

Quite recently, showing up at the desk with a photo of the afflicted family member's body part ( ) was enough to secure an appointment within an hour. And again, the other week, I went in to request jabs for pneumonia virus and for shingles, and was given a slot in three days' time, which I thought was pretty good for a non-urgent fixture.

The thing is, our surgery forms part of a local alliance of six or seven surgeries, and they all refer patients to each other. Which is what I'd call joined-up thinking. While I was last there, I also requested a conversation with a physio about the tendonitis in my arm, and sure enough, an independent physio clinic phoned me back the very next morning. (Presumably the NHS pays them for the service?) And the physio (ex armed forces, apparently) spent half an hour going through my issues, followed by a 700 word report to the surgery which duly went onto my SystmOnline for me to read.

Once in a while, it's quite nice to be able to report on an NHS set-up that's working well.

BJ

[Lootman]

Out here in the sticks where that fancy new-fangled so-called interweb thing ain't ever going to catch on, oooh arrr, we still jump in the car (ten minutes) and turn up at the surgery to make an appointment, because it's less horrible than being 29th in the phone queue while being crooned at by an endless cracked tape of Barry Manilow.

Yes, my GP still does walk-up appointments, and it only a few minutes walk from my house. In fact they will see you that day if you are sick enough, you just have to wait.

Have never made an appointment by phone or online. Sounds to me like some parts of the NHS are trying to drive customers to the private sector

[GeoffF100]

I can request repeat prescriptions online. That works flawlessly, except when the prescription has to be reviewed. I can do that, or request a GP call back by phoning in at 8 a.m. That is bit hit and miss. I can be too early or too late. There is narrow time window which starts 8 a.m. plus or minus a short random time interval. Too early and I get an out of hours recorded message, and I am then too late when I try again. Too late and I am too late. If I do get inside the time window, I can press a key to request a call back from reception, keeping my place in the queue. I am then granted a GP call back, which happens the same day.

There was a time when the only reliable way of getting an appointment was to turn up in person at 8 a.m. (I expect that was to deter sick people from seeking appointments). They stopped that, but, who knows, it may work again.

[mc2fool]

There are some misconceptions/misunderstandings/confusions around the online systems here, which is not surprising as they are piecemeal and inconsistent....

The first thing to understand is that your definitive patient record is held by your GP. Yes, it (nowadays) will be held in a database but it's on your GP's systems (and there are a variety of those), not the NHS's. There is a centralised NHS database holding a Summary Care Record for you but it is created and updated from your GP's patient record for you. And it is a summary, although the NHS has been trying to get more of GP records into it, although it is still just a partial copy of the GP's record, which remains the patient record for you.

The second thing to understand is that full* patient apps, like Patient Access, the NHS App and SystmOnline are, by and large, functionally identical -- you can do the same things through any of them, it's just the interfaces that are different (more or less friendly/usable).

However, what you can do (with any/all of them) is determined by your GP. So, from the point of view of what you can do, it doesn't matter if you use Patient Access or the NHS App or SystmOnline, etc, you'll be able to do/not do the same things.

* There are also "non-full" apps/websites, mostly pharmacy ones, e.g. the Boots, Lloyds Pharmacy, pharmacy2u ones, that can only access your medicines and prescriptions, and not anything else.

A few other odd things:

The GP/NHS wants me, and presumably everyone else, to use the NHS App approach. Still time to get around to getting a smart phone before I die.

The NHS "App" doesn't need a smart phone, it's also available via a web browser. https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-app/

It's very efficient if the pharmacy has got their act together. last time I ordered at 7.30 am and got a text at 2pm to say it was ready

I can request repeat prescriptions online. That works flawlessly, except when the prescription has to be reviewed.

All repeat prescription requests have to be approved by a GP, each and every time. So it's not just up to the efficiency of your pharmacy as to how quickly you get notified it's ready after putting in the request, it also depends on how quickly your GP practice gets round to approving it (my practice puts one GP each morning onto prescription-review-and-approval duty).

when I signed in the only options available were for specific timed slots with a health care assistant, there was no option for making a phone appointment, or any other appointment with a GP. So is this service different to patient access as mentioned above, or can I register for that as well?

Just because the system has the facility for you to make appointments online doesn't mean that there'll be any available to make. Not sure which access method you're using but, unfortunately, neither Patient Access or the NHS App tell you that there aren't any available of a particular kind, i.e. they don't say "you could book a GP appointment but, sorry, there aren't any available right now", they just don't mention that type of appointment at all, unless and until there are some available.

My practice releases the online tranches of appointment slots for the next day (and for two weeks hence) at 9pm in the evening. So, as well as the 8am phone rush there's a 9pm online rush. Log in at 5 minutes past and good chance at least all of the next day appointments will be gone. At least you're not listening to muzak for 30 minutes, only to then find all appointments have gone....

[Dod101]

I have so far had little experience of my GP practise but certainly I can get a repeat prescription by phoning a dedicated line at any time or I can submit a request at the surgery. It is ready for collection at my nominated pharmacy(used to be called ‘chemist’) in a couple of days.

As for seeing a doctor, not so easy, but if I call before 11am I can get a call back by a doctor the same day. As I discovered today, if I just turn up at the surgery and can make a good case I can see the emergency doctor within an hour or so. He might of course be out on a visit which would complicate matters but on the whole I think our surgery is good and they do their best.

Dod

[Fluke]

The second thing to understand is that full* patient apps, like Patient Access, the NHS App and SystmOnline are, by and large, functionally identical -- you can do the same things through any of them, it's just the interfaces that are different (more or less friendly/usable).

However, what you can do (with any/all of them) is determined by your GP. So, from the point of view of what you can do, it doesn't matter if you use Patient Access or the NHS App or SystmOnline, etc, you'll be able to do/not do the same things.

* There are also "non-full" apps/websites, mostly pharmacy ones, e.g. the Boots, Lloyds Pharmacy, pharmacy2u ones, that can only access your medicines and prescriptions, and not anything else.

Thanks Mc2fool that's helped unravel some of the confusion, so if there is no bookable GP slot available on SystemOnline (accessible via my practice website) there won't be on Patient Access or the NHS app either. Also useful to know the difference between full apps and partial ones, makes sense once it's explained

Just because the system has the facility for you to make appointments online doesn't mean that there'll be any available to make. Not sure which access method you're using but, unfortunately, neither Patient Access or the NHS App tell you that there aren't any available of a particular kind, i.e. they don't say "you could book a GP appointment but, sorry, there aren't any available right now", they just don't mention that type of appointment at all, unless and until there are some available.

It's SystemOnline and yes that's exactly what it is, no indication that GP slots are fully booked, just doesn't mention them at all.

My practice releases the online tranches of appointment slots for the next day (and for two weeks hence) at 9pm in the evening. So, as well as the 8am phone rush there's a 9pm online rush. Log in at 5 minutes past and good chance at least all of the next day appointments will be gone. At least you're not listening to muzak for 30 minutes, only to then find all appointments have gone....

Also good to know, bet my practice does the same, just need to find out what time they release them, probably about the same sort of time I would think.

[Alaric]

it's on your GP's systems (and there are a variety of those), not the NHS's. .

That presumably accounts for the variability of experience in what's available and what isn't. Thus if Patient Access and the others are set up to be able to access all possible options, there will be some which aren't available.

Logically it would seem desirable for all GP practices to use the same record keeping methods but no doubt that's regarded as too difficult, or if tried would proceed at the pace of the slowest to embrace newer technology.