Forum menu
It did strike me that if GP care worked better then A&E might not be so overwhelmed.
Absolutely true. And it would also save us money. The problem is that sorting out General Practice will take decades, and successive governments look for quick fixes and focus on the wrong targets, such as access, rather than the right ones, such as continuity of care.
As i posted above, on Monday evening I completed the form on my GP's website, this morning I had a call offering a face to face consultation on Friday.
I marked it as non-urgent so I would say the system's working fine.
Our surgery has several ways to book... and multiple types of appointment... all have been working fast and well for our family this year (just booked one over the phone for myself). This was far from the case for many years. They've really upped their game.
Sorry if this has been said already, but you don't need a GP appointment.
You need to get booked on for an NHS Health Check - and your GP should have been nudging you to get one done anyway.
It will usually be carried out by a nurse, with a GP getting involved if they want you to go on statins or anything like that.
Might be worth popping in and asking about this, in case there's been a mix-up. At my (not usually particularly helpful) GP practice there's a separate desk where a nurse books stuff like this in.
And they are sometimes offered by other providers as well. I know this because my company does them on behalf of local authorities in a couple of areas.
Google "NHS health check" and your area name to see. There's a CIC that does them for my area, I just found out.
Sorry if this has been said already, but you don't need a GP appointment.
You need to get booked on for an NHS Health Check - and your GP should have been nudging you to get one done anyway.
It will usually be carried out by a nurse, with a GP getting involved if they want you to go on statins or anything like that.
Just to update. My practice gave me a GP appt rather than a nurse health check. Possibly since my last contact with them was around 5 years ago.
Anyway got results by phone yesterday - delay was my fault. I had to take blood pressure readings at home for 5 days and took my time doing it.
Anyway, all good. Unlike my siblings cholesterol not high. Borderline as to whether stains are worthwhile on my q-riskscore. I declined as I have plenty scope to improve diet so I'll keep an eye on that and go back in a year.
Slightly curious to as to why I am the only one of four siblings without cholesterol levels requiring treatment. Best guess is that unlike them I exercise 5 or 6 days a week. Also two are retired while I work part time perhaps the low level activity getting out and about helps. Maybe because I am the only dog owner? So aside from my cycling/swimming/jogging I am out for a walk two or three times a day with thedogs.
Slightly curious to as to why I am the only one of four siblings without cholesterol levels requiring treatment.
Are you the youngest?
Age and gender are both factors for your qrisk2 score.
If I was eligible, I’d take a statin, not mess around with diet. YMMV.
We have an online system with requests triaged and contact from the surgery via SMS. My experience- thankfully limited - is that mostly you are booked to see a nurse practitioner, who may be enthusiastic and competent but who doesn’t have the knowledge or experience to accurately diagnose something which is either complicated or ambiguous. From there you can phone up the practice and moan, or call 111. I did the latter once and was told I had an appointment at our local “Urgent Treatment Centre”. However I never got to see anyone as there as a constant stream of people with blood leaking from them and they - understandably- bumped me down the queue. After an hour or so I was feeling too unwell to stay sitting in the waiting room so I went home.
The point being just to repeat that the lack of resources leads to inefficiency and waste of those resources. It seems to be a vicious circle.
If you can't get by in the system Dr J,what hope is there for the rest of us?