UK Article : All GPs must go back to offering face-to-face appointments, health bosses say

Arnie Pye

Arnie Pye

Senior Member (Voting Rights)
Just thought people in England might like to know this. Article is from the Evening Standard.

Link : https://www.standard.co.uk/news/health/nhs-england-gps-appointments-face-to-face-return-b935059.html

Subtitle : NHS England said all surgeries must offer in-person reception services and appointments following concerns over remote access during the pandemic.

All GP practices must offer face-to-face appointments and an in-person reception desk, NHS England has said, bringing an end to the mandatory “total triage” system introduced during the pandemic.

In a letter sent out on Thursday, GPs were told the use of telephone and online consultations can remain where patients benefit from them, but physical appointments must also be available from May 17.

All practice reception desks must now be open to patients, in a Covid-safe manner, so those who do not have easy access to phones or the internet are not disadvantaged when accessing care.

Total triage was a system whereby patients were remotely screened and directed to the most appropriate health service for their problems, and was introduced as a Covid-19 precaution.

GP appointments were also conducted by telephone, video or online unless it was clinically necessary for a consultation to take place in person.
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Article continues at above link.
 
Guessing Total Triage was the system my GP put into place. The online appointment system has a new front end. It was a series of questions and took me a very long time to complete.

There was no way to book a date and time and I had to wait until I got a message. The appointments offered were always very early morning and 10 days or so away.

On some attempts I was eventually offered an appointment which could be any time on a given day.The GP would ring twice and give up. This was useless as one could be in the bath or loo or simply not able to pick up quickly.

Another time I was sent a message to say that a nurse would call me 3 days later. Which didn't happen.

The after hours service goes to a call centre out of area and has no access to medical records. I called during a bank holiday. Took 6 hours to get a callback and I was refereed to my local minor injury centre anyway.
 
I think there must have been a lot of people who struggled with GPs during the time they stopped seeing patients. I had a (non-life-threatening) issue that I would have preferred to see a GP about in person. I put it off and put it off because I can't communicate very well by phone, I'm too deaf. And of course I can't see people's mouths move on the phone or with masks on. In the end my husband and I worked out we could have a "conference call" arrangement with our landline phones, so he could be in the call as my backup ears for anything the doctor said that I didn't hear. I found it complicated because there were no visual hints as to when someone would start talking and when someone was going to stop talking. I have those problems to a lesser extent in person because I'm not good at interpreting body language, but not nearly so badly as I do on the phone.
 
We have to phone and book a phone appointment with our GP. This is no different than booking an in office appointment. At the time of the phone appointment the GP will determine whether or not you need to be seen in the office. Anything that can be handled over the phone (prescriptions and requisitions for testing) is done over the phone. The doctors here have never stopped doing in office appointments if they were deemed necessary (ie breast exams for cancer survivors, etc.). The reception desk has always been open; it now has a rail running the length of the counter so that you can't get within a couple feet of the reception counter and plexiglass across the front of the counter.
 
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hellytheelephant said:
I ended up doing e- consult, which was like filling in a job application, and not great for anyone with brain fog.
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Indeed not, and it's very badly set out. I did one only yesterday, because I needed to get something prescribed again that I'd used several years earlier. It starts with a general "what's the problem?" question, so I answered, fairly briefly. The following 3 questions, I think, then asked for details which I'd already put in the answer to the first question, so I had to type them all over again. Then I was asked several more questions, none of which I'd have thought were relevant, given my answers to preceding questions!
 
Wits_End said:
Indeed not, and it's very badly set out. I did one only yesterday, because I needed to get something prescribed again that I'd used several years earlier. It starts with a general "what's the problem?" question, so I answered, fairly briefly. The following 3 questions, I think, then asked for details which I'd already put in the answer to the first question, so I had to type them all over again. Then I was asked several more questions, none of which I'd have thought were relevant, given my answers to preceding questions!
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I did exactly the same- posted all the details then realised there were more questions. Because I was asking about migraine management it them asked if i had stroke symptoms etc. Sledgehammer to crack a nut.
 
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