What Are Your Thoughts on GPs Offering Phone Appointments?

My mum needed an appointment as her blood pressure has been high. They gave her a phone appointment. . Over the phone they were like , I think it'll be best if you came in . Lol

I don't mind having a phone appointment with my GP if it's for an initial assessment only.

I had a rash the other week and was given an appointment for the following week, I had sent a photo via the app. The rash had nearly gone by the following week so cancelled appointment. I then had problem with my ankle and I had a telephone call, explained and talked about my symptoms and the paramedic I was speaking too I no idea what the problem was. She said see how it goes and get in touch if it carries on or gets worse. I much prefer to see a qualified doctor.

I’ve had telephone appointments before and been happy with the service. It’s saved me a lot of time and hassle, especially when they sent my prescription straight to the pharmacy and I collected it the next day.

I have had phone appointments and I suppose it’s better than none at all but I do struggle to hear correctly or they do to get across exactly what you need to. Also some things need inspection or examination which you need an in person appointment. It’s hard these days to get through in the first place.

I've found it increasingly difficult to get an in person appointment with my GP. Consistently referred to chatbots, websites, pharmacists etc.

I think it's a good idea for repeats but I don't like the fact it's the receptionist ask what it's about and then they decide if I should have a phone appointment or see face to face it should be down to the person making the appointment

I'm all for it if it stops clogging up the surgeries with unnecessary people.

I used to have to go and see a doctor to ask for a medicine that they wouldn't allow on repeat. I used to have to get MrsChimp to make sure that she wasn't working to take me down, wait for my appointment, just to be in there for 2 minutes and my prescription being approved. All I do now is give a ring and it's all done over the phone.

I don’t mind if it’s a condition that i have and know a decent amount about but i don’t see how they can diagnose properly over the phone.

My GPs is annoying because they can never tell you when they will ring and if you miss the call you miss your appointment

Phoned 21 July told the earliest phone consolidation with Doctor is the 17th August

Not every interaction with a GP needs a face to face appointment. For example discussing blood test results or asking a few questions about ongoing issues that do not need an examination. I wanted to change my diabetes meds recently and it took a very brief phone chat to sort it out. I have regular blood tests and wouldn’t dream of taking up an appointment in the surgery to discuss the results. I can access the results online so it takes very little time to go through them.

Of course new problems may very well need an examination so this isn’t a problem but I know quite a few people who insist on having a face to face appointment to get another prescription when this can be done online, by phone or, in the case of our surgery filling out a form to drop in the prescriptions box.

In many cases a problem can be dealt with by seeing a nurse, many can prescribe things.

if everyone could be educated on these issues it would be easier to see a GP in the surgery when there is a genuine need.

After hanging on the phone for 20 minutes I got through but was refused any type of appointment by the receptionist.,,Five days later I ended up as an emergency admittance to hospital

Go to the drs to sit there waiting to be seen sitting next to people coughing and spluttering,no thanks, I'll have telephone appointment,

Anything is better than nothing or beggers can't be choosers seems to be the attitudes these days

Personally from own experience if I have reached out to my GP service with an urgent issue it has been dealt with there and then, can't fault my GP practice, as I say only speaking from own personal experience

My surgery has a receptionist triage system! i want to talk to a Dr or Nurse not a receptionist. has that person studied at university for a degree? no! so why should i be triaged by a receptionist and wait 3 weeks for telephone appointment! its ridiculous these days.

And not to mention if you do go into the surgery its EMPTY of people! so why wait 3 weeks for telephone consultation

I think most GPs should be ashamed of themselves. I’ve recently had an awful experience. There must be a legal case for The people vs the GP. Since Covid, the service has been shocking!

My young daughter needed an appointment recently. We were offered a telephone appointment fairly quickly but that appointment resulted in her needing to actually see the doctor so we now have to wait till the end of the month! (3 weeks) For her next appointment.

I think some people don't use their common sense, others panic too much, especially if making an appointment for a child or elderly person. But thats sometimes human nature, as some symptoms may be indicative of something more serious as well as something minor. I agree that it should not be a receptionist who makes the decision as to who a patient sees, as they are simply not qualified. My surgery allows online nurse and GP bookings, which is great. They expect you to fill in a reason, I just write personal. I worry that serious issues are being missed. I am a carer, one of my ladies wasn't seen, I was told it was flu and treated her as such. I emailed her surgery, with a photo of her looking ill and tried to say it wasn't flu. She passed away a few weeks later from pneumonia. I believe it could have been avoided, had she of been seen.

I have had phone appointments & then had to go see the gp as a result , I don’t mind in fact in one way I think it is better , at my surgery there was so many people that really didn’t need to see a gp & were clearly wasting the gps time & also at least you are not at risk of getting worse or catching anything else from the other patients sitting in a room full of people

The chimp I get it that the old peeps are lonely but hopefully they get sent in the right direction , there are so many places where they can go & lot of the time they can get a hot meal & Cup of tea at really reduced price or sometimes free

I totally think that where GP surgeries are concerned that they need to be looked into .If as a surgery they choose to offer 2nd rate service then payments to the surgery should be at a reduced rate . I genuinely cannot remember when I had my 1st vaccine during covid that my registered gp was at the facility doing the injection .I went to him and he did my injection and his 1st words were now u have had your vaccine the reasoning the surgery use to do telephone conversations is now redundant . Roughly a month later I needed to book an appointment and I called the surgery and I was offered a telephone conversation and I said but I now have had my vaccine so I dont need an telephone consultation and I mentioned the doctor saying this to me when I had the vaccine .The receptionist asked who had told me and I said the doctors name . I then found for what he had said to me he was reprimanded. The hospitals I cannot fault and they rightly hold the surgeries in contempt .

Absolutely keep phone appointments! A good GP (of which there are plenty, despite some people's personal bad experiences) will definitely ensure you are seen face to face if appropriate! For many, it's much easier to access remotely whether it's due to work/disability/far distances etc. I am not a GP but work in healthcare, they are doing a brilliant job despite the immense pressure and hate they receive. No wonder they're leaving the UK or the whole medical profession in droves! And do not underestimate the knowledge of nurses and pharmacists to when you are referred to them.. don't forget they also went to university, please do not belittle them.

Also, it's not personally the GPs fault you have to wait a while on the phone to get through.. they also go through the same thing as you if they need to be seen. It's a broken system with too few GPs.. again.. not their fault.

My family and I are very lucky as we have an excellent GPs surgery and are 100% confident that if we need a face to face appointment we can have one on the same day. That being said, we don't object to a telephone appointment if that's appropriate, and it gives the doctors more time for the essential face to face appointments. One thing that really does annoy me is the large number of patients with whom a telephone appointment is agreed but then are not at home when the doctor calls. It reminds me of the days before covid when so many people made appointments but just didn't turn up, such people need a kick in the pants for wasting the doctors time and wasting appointments that could be given to other patients.

i dont like these appts i prefer face to face.

I for 1 like face to face as I never sit still and waiting for a phone call drives me mad sometime it only a 2 rings and carnt get to it fast enough I'm not taking my phone to toilet and you can always count on it they ring when you do

They are in some cases getting away with murder my local GP now won’t fax prescriptions to the chemist because they say the staff aren’t qualified to do so but they don’t seem to mind it’s the same unqualified staff that are making decisions on weather or not people need medical help the whole system is broken. I honestly feel the doctors are trying to bring it down from the inside so we all move to private medical practice then they will make much more money

Think it depends on what you actually want really, I think the patient should decide if they wish to book a virtual appointment or whether they prefer a face to face consultation .Surely overall it's not that much more time consuming for a doctor to physically see someone than if they did it online.

Yes I do mind I have mental

Health issues you can’t gauge someone’s sane mind thru a phone can you

Personally I prefer a face to face (if it’s for a non prescription issue) as I do find on the phone it feels like you’re talking to yourself. I also like to read their body language. I also think they need to see people you can tell so much for example if someone looks gaunt, pale, clothes hanging off them if suddenly weight loss etc

Covid unfortunately has opened the door to not see patients my old surgery was pushing for this before, making patients have phone consultations and then the GP would decide on that call whether you should come and they’d make the appointment, the receptionist was not allowed to make an appointment, I left the surgery in the middle of covid as you could not speak to anyone they shut the phone lines too.

My current surgery will give a choice but my parents (in their 70s) surgery the default is phone (or to do an e-consult which they can’t do as they have no internet and don’t want it but there’s no sympathy from surgery staff my parents are made to feel that they’re the problem because they don’t have a smartphone!) and they have to fight and are usual unsuccessful at getting a face to face, the response they get when they mention to the GP about it is just “well you’re speaking to me now aren’t you”

In this country, the general public and the GPs seems to forget that it’s taxpayers that pay their wages. There still seems to be this thinking that they are gods and must be treated as such and that they should not be challenged and that we should bow down to them and thank them ever so much that they’ve taken times out of their day to see us. They are in the service sector their job is to serve. They think they’re untouchable and times need change they need to be held accountable.

My consultant has had to fight with my GPs to do referrals for me to other consultants as been fobbed off for years but my condition has changed over the past 3 years to constant pain amongst other life affecting symptoms. I finally have tests this week with a consultant who was shocked over GPs attitudes and if something is found I will be reporting them to the GMC. Not something I would usually do but as the consultant said wrote to my GPs, she is at the end of her tether and he was being diplomatic about it!

Everyone has to keep fighting for the face to face appointments the GMC said there was no medical reason why GPs shouldn’t be seeing patients and recommended that they should be.

I also should add don’t believe that don’t have enough money. I have seen accounts of a local surgery who made £400,000 profit and they used to hide the value of their NHS payments from their internal accounts person - you only hide it from your own staff if you’re ashamed

Better than no appointment at all. Think remember the days when getting a doctors appointment was east

Many doctors felt in the past, that their chosen career was a 'vocation' - looking after people's health needs and advising whether further investigation was needed, but also forming relationships, albeit of a professional nature, so that patients felt comfortable and confident with them. Many symptoms of illness are visual to an experienced eye. How can those systems be recognised just by a conversation over the phone??? Is becoming a GP 'just another job' - using up their academic achievements, gained at University.

Surely the time taken to speak on the phone, and then eventually arrange a face to face appointment, if the doctor feels it necessary, is more time consuming than an initial face to face consultation in the first place!

As has been previously mentioned in other comments, the reason patients are filling up A & E Departments, is because the old fashioned GP no longer exists, and we have no faith in a 'telephone' diagnosis!!'

Covid is hopefully behind us, certainly in it's original form, so there is no reason for doctors not to return to their practice of seeing patients, any more than a person serving in a shop or any other establishment involving the public.

I hope my comments are not too offensive to anyone in the medical profession, as without our NHS we would all be in a sorry state. I just happen to feel very strongly about this particular topic.

I am disabled and so if it’s possible for me to have an appointment over the telephone I prefer that but I understand that it’s not always possible and sometimes you need a face to face appointment and it should be up to the patient to make that decision.

Seems like they all want to go to Australia and New Zealand but how many do they need over there?