I’VE GIVEN UP WITH TRYING TO SEE A GP
■ APPOINTMENT CRISIS PROMPTS BIGGEST EVER METRO READER RESPONSE TO A STORY ■ SURGERIES AND GOVERNMENT BLAMED FOR WIDESPREAD BREAKDOWN IN PRIMARY CARE
■ I recently tried to make an appointment to see my GP – both knees were badly swollen and I was in considerable pain. A very helpful receptionist offered ‘a telephone consultation’ some ten days later. When I questioned how the doctor would ‘see the extent of my problem’ by phone, I was informed that was all that was available. I decided not to bother.
RMD Collins, North Somerset
■ I called 101 times and when they finally picked up, I was told a nurse would call for a phone consultation in two weeks. I am a breast cancer patient and have not seen a doctor in two years.
Fatima, Camberwell
■ We unfortunately had to take my baby son to A&E very recently. Even the nurses there said they’d been struggling to get GP appointments. They also suggested an atrocious ten-hour A&E waiting time at the weekend was the knock-on effect of people not having access to GPs.
PB, London
■ My GP service is atrocious. You have to start calling at 8am to have any chance of speaking to a receptionist – and this is after listening to a ten-minute prerecorded message about abuse.
When you finally get through, they tell you there are no phone appointments available and ask you to call back later. If you make a fuss they sometimes agree to get someone to call you. We finally saw a locum doctor when my five-year-old had suspected appendicitis. This is not acceptable. Should we stop paying National Insurance?
Antonie Roose, Sandgate
■ I am 65 and have health issues. I gave up a long time ago on making an appointment because the receptionist has always failed to give me an appointment, saying my GP is fully booked.
KB, via email
■ The NHS is crumbling. The Tories instruct the NHS to give patients the runaround, then stoke the fire about waiting lists they helped create. More privatisation will be the next move.
SLBV, via email
■ Doctors’ workloads have increased massively during the pandemic, yet their numbers have shrunk. They have increased the number of appointments but demand is outstripping supply. This, unfortunately, is what people voted for. More money in your back pocket, less access to services.
Neil, Sutton Coldfield
■ If government ministers were to be denied private healthcare, it would change everything. It wouldn’t be anywhere near as difficult to get an appointment and we’d have an NHS that was a great deal closer to being fit for purpose. This government’s priority is to keep the upper echelons of society sweet while the rest of us can go hang.
Dave, Epping
■ I phoned my doctor and was told I was number 22 in the queue. I left the phone on loudspeaker, got in the car and drove there. I still had to queue, with no one seemingly taking calls. I was gone fully an hour. I got back and was still number ten.
Peter, Essex
■ I work in a hospital. I understand what is being said about reducing risk with vulnerable patients in waiting rooms but phoning endlessly only to be told there are no appointments and to call back tomorrow is not telephone triage – it’s slamming the door shut in someone’s face. This pushes more people into A&Es, which are under tremendous pressure.
Drew, Edinburgh
■ I believe GPs are getting too used to not seeing people – it’s making life a lot easier for them. Covid is becoming an excuse for a lot of things at the moment.
Mr A, Buckthorpe
■ Don’t blame GPs for the lack of appointments. Blame the government, who have gaslighted the profession for years. Staff are leaving in droves and not being replaced. Not enough doctors equals not enough appointments. The government’s answer? Privatisation of the NHS. Don’t fall for it.
William T, Harpenden
■ Until I’d read your article, I thought the GP appointments crisis was something
isolated and that maybe I was unfortunate to live in an underdeveloped area of London. But no!
Every month I wonder why I need to pay taxes. I’ve never used the NHS and never will do because I can never get an appointment.
As a high-salary individual paying more than 45 per cent of my salary in taxes and National Insurance, I get nothing. Please bring the privatisation of the NHS forward. At least I will pay towards something and know why.
Eduard Comaromi, via email
■ I tried to see a doctor regarding a recurrent problem. I rang at 9am and was told I would be contacted by a GP. It was 5.05pm by the time I received a call, which was no use at all.
I realise some doctors are still working but a lot of GPs are sitting frightened in their offices.
L Hatton, via email
■ Recently, I struggled to get an appointment after trying for a couple of days. When I got to the surgery, the place was empty so I could not understand the problem. With the majority of people jabbed and wearing masks, a few more in the waiting room should not be an issue.
One other reason could be my council, which continues to allow the building of large estates without consideration for the impact on doctors’ surgeries.
James Porter, Yorkshire
■ During lockdown, I’ve had my elderly mum fall and require pain medication and stitches – the hospital was amazing, the follow-up care at her GP’s abysmal. The receptionist seems to have attained a new level of rudeness and even telephone appointments are impossibly difficult to get. I ended up taking my mum to outpatient services to have stitches removed and aftercare. My dad’s care has been even worse. He has aggressive Parkinson’s and started to get very confused. I tried for days to get a GP appointment but he ended up falling. The paramedics came out and he was rushed into hospital with dangerously low blood pressure – a scan revealed a strangulated umbilical hernia with part of his bowel entwined. Emergency surgery followed as he was bleeding internally and we were told he may not survive.
If he had spoken to a GP earlier, this might have been picked up or the low blood pressure investigated.
Alison T, via email
■ I had a remote appointment for a hand injury. Was a farce. The doctor kept asking me to hold the phone closer because they couldn’t quite see it.
Tania, Sidcup
■ Last October, I had an X-ray for a hip replacement. During a telephone consultation I was told I’d be referred so I waited, thinking things were slow because of Covid.
I tried to see a doctor about pain relief six weeks ago, only to be told I’d never been referred. So I’m only now starting the process that should have begun last October. I saw the surgeon last week but the waiting list is four to ten months.
I walk with a stick and by the time this operation happens, I’ll be in a wheelchair. I came out of that face-toface appointment and sat in my car and cried. If this is the NHS, I can do without it. Where is the caring?
Maz, via email
■ The problem is that we are all trying to get through to the same number. So many people who phone aren’t even wanting an appointment, they are phoning for outcomes of results or to get medication prescribed by hospitals.
There should be an automated option list offered so people aren’t clogging up the system for those who really require the urgent same-day appointments. Then we wouldn’t be stuck in a queue, which makes you feel frustrated and like no one cares.
Helen Silver, Oswestry
■ It is impossible to get to see a doctor. As a 69-year-old man, I’m expected to share personal information with a 17/18-year-old receptionist who will decide whom I see. And if you say the issue is personal, they refuse to action it and hang up.
I was fortunate enough to have a nurse calling on another issue and I received support. However, I then got a long letter from the practice manager saying the receptionist was upset. Not as upset as me. They seem to forget who the patient is. P Quinn, via email