Has anyone managed to get a face to face appointment with their own GP without having to wait a couple of weeks lately? I get offered phone calls and appointments with other doctors who always list ne to my symptoms and tell me I need to see my own doctor which wastes my time and theirs. No doubt the box ticking is going perfectly but the real picture is different.
When I was a kid you just turned up and waited. Now you wait ages for an appointment and then wait anything up to three quarters of an hour to see them. Progress?
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
GP Appointments
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
12 comments:
Thats what happens when you elect a Labour Govt:
Here in the States I have to pay (a lot) for my medical care (private insurance plus co-payments) and still I wait an hour in the doctor's office from the time of my appointment for him to see me. Then I am sent off to a clinic to have blood drawn (again for a fee) and have waited there from one to three hours. The whole process can take up to half a day off work which I have to do to have warfarin monitored twice a week. It isn't Labour or Conservative governments - medical care is overwhelmed whatever the system, everywhere in the world.
Good point 1016 but its the same here, I was 40 mins late on my last appt: I then needed a blood test, I was offered an appt: 2 weeks ahaead I tought the receptionist had made an error no she said 2 weeks then a further 6 days to see a doctor and get the results not actually light speed NHS is it. Also now they want you to tell some stranger what you want to see the doctor about sheesh how embarrassing. Not the same as it used to be. ergo my original quote.
11.53 I share your view but I only add that each visit to the doctor with a follow up to the clinic for blood work costs me $250 - twice a week. That's 340 pounds a week out of my pocket. Three days in hospital last month cost me 6500 pounds out of pocket. That's what my insurance would not cover.
I guess that's the only bit of comfort you have that I don't as far as health care is concerned. And I live in a country where 47% of the population has no health insurance whatsoever. It could be worse for you, I promise!
I can only assume that the wind-up merchant who looks back on the state of the NHS under the conservatives with approval is suffering from memory loss. Their oft repeated prescription for all ills in this and other threads, of reverting to such a government, suggests a delusional state as well. How can anyone pretend all was sweetness and light before May 1997?
The problem locally is that rather clumsy performance targets have been applied and need to be altered so they work properly. The target has been to ensure that you see a doctor within a couple of days but this causes delays in seeing your own GP if that is who you want to see.
Ahhh the righteous come forth(1038) blame someone for something that happened over 12 years ago and 3 general elections. The NHS is in a disgusting state hospitals that kill peopel because they are so bad, malnutrition on 38000 patients who leave hospital MRSA rampent, waiting list to long( personal experiences) questioned why you want to see the doctor even AFTER you say its personal matter. Dont please lecture us on the NHS it has sytematically been destroyed by Nuliebour its adisgrace and the sooner the better when the disease ridden govt: is out .
Perhaps that smooth young man, whats'is name, should adopt the slogan "100 days to save the NHS." Oh wait a minute didn't someone equally as smooth already do that in 1997?
Think you'll find that the surgery has its own management system which isn't too bothered about which political party is in government. Call me cynical, but sometimes this seems to be more about meeting the needs of its staff rather than those of its patients!
Not entirely. They are given targets for these things from on high and money is involved to give practices an incentive to meet them. The problem at the moment seems to be one demanding that patients are seen by "a" doctor within a certain time rather than bby their own doctor coupled with this triage system they have adopted.
What we do not need is to go back to having a government that regards the NHS as a safety net for those who cannot afford private health insurance, and that was where it was heading under you know who.
There's only one set of people to blame for the decline in the NHS and that is this corrupt govt: not something that may or may not have happened 12 yrs ago.The NHS is a mess and all they do is insist that targets and league tables are met. The problems with the NHS will bring down this govt: along with the economy,education,imigration,EU illegal wars orwellian laws, sleaze, expenses............oh s&d it I cant go there's much to much to type.;
I do enjoy these tirades but saying the election of Tony Blair as PM is the start of modern political history gives him a little too much importance.
Of course there was no sleaze before then, no mad-house economics, no 1980s recession caused by the aforesaid. No collapse of manufacturing industry. All was sweetness and light. Ahhhh. Then we were expelled from paradise. By a landslide vote as it happens.
I agree 9.16am that we don't want to go back to where we were BUT I do think the medical centre has a lot to learn in terms of patient care...most other practices routinely make appointments available with 'a' doctor of the patient's choice be it their registered GP or not. To do otherwise is to pander to the inadequacies of individual GP's who, without this system, would find themselves snubbed by patients on a routine basis.
It seems to be a little known fact in Swanage that patients actually have the right to request an appointment with any GP within the medical centre without justifying their reasons.
The other concern for those cynics amongst us is how high the current wages for GP's are (ie far in excess of 100k pa) when apparently their working hours are limited to not much more than basic office hours. Hardly overworked and underpaid that's for sure.
Time for routine inspection of the medics I say because running this medical centre as a business is not improving standards of patient care that's for sure.
Post a Comment