I’m still in awe of people working in the NHS during Covid; how they managed the Covid vaccinations; how they managed to keep going despite the risks, underfunding, lack of resources and operation backlogs.
But (and you knew there would be a ‘but’!), as we’ve emerged from the pandemic (or have I spoken too soon?), it seems that many of us share a common frustration of having to deal with our respective GP practices. Clearly, practices had to come up with different ways of working during the pandemic… face-to-face appointments were extremely rare; telephone consultations were the only things on offer. It was all very understandable… but very frustrating nevertheless. But, it seems to me (and, hey, maybe I’m wrong?) that GP practices have been very slow to try to revert back to ‘normality’.
It seems that the ONLY way to get an appointment these days is via a phonecall to the GP surgery (gone are the days when you were able to book an appointment online)… and that, as you will well know if you’ve ever tried, is a simply appalling experience.
This is just ONE example (believe me, I could give you many more):
I received a text message from our GP practice offering me my annual Flu jab. If I didn’t want the jab, I was asked to text a particular number with the word ‘DECLINE’ (fair enough), but if I DID want one then I needed to ring and make an appointment via the usual (and only) practice telephone number. So, yesterday, I rang the number (it was mid-afternoon, I decided to avoid the ‘busy times’)… and duly received the usual stream of messages about ringing 999 if I had any of the following symptoms etc… there was also that annoying standard message saying “we’re currently experiencing an exceptional high call volumes”. This is frankly ridiculous because this is ALWAYS the message you’re given EVERY time you call the surgery… SO IT’S NOT ‘EXCEPTIONAL’, FOR GOODNESS SAKE!
Yesterday’s somewhat typical ‘call experience’ went as follows: I was informed that I was 7th in the queue (not bad, I’ve been 15th before now!)… and I waited… and waited (all the time being reminded that they were experiencing ‘exceptional’ call volumes, of course!). Eventually, after 30 minutes, I’d got to the head of queue and now had the ring tone… and I waited… and waited (and continued to get reminders about exceptional call volumes and to phone 999 if I had particular symptoms). After a further 15 minutes, I gave up.
This is 'just' for a flu jab, for goodness sake. There MUST be a better way?
During the course of my ‘prolonged’ wait, I was able to look up the practice’s website and find an online form I could complete for options of ‘A Suggestion/Praise/Regarding a problem/Other’ – which I duly did (because I had nothing else I could do!). In my response, I asked if the Practice Manager or any other senior Doctors had EVER tried to ring the practice in order to get some idea of how awful the experience was? I look forward to receiving a reply (but I’m not waiting with bated breath!).
I still haven’t been able to book my flu jab (and, of course, I can’t even book an appointment by calling into the surgery in person).
PS: I tried again this morning, but gave up when told I was number 14 in the queue.
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