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News topic re doctor's appointments and targets
Tony Blair has been heckled by a woman complaining that she cannot make a doctor's appointment longer than 48 hours in advance due to the government targets that all patients should be seen within 48 hours and Tony Blair is gobsmacked because he had no idea that people couldn't make advance appointments!
He should take a look at Peel House. 48 hours isn't in it. You have to ring up or present yourself at the surgery on the day itself and hope you manage to get in! If you're lucky you get an appointment that day but that day only and it's probably going to be with a nurse who will then decide if you need to see a doctor. The rest who are unlucky have to go away and try again the next day, and the next and so on. 48 hours? We'd think it a luxury if we could book an appointment 24 hours in advance let alone 48. |
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peel house is a nightmare pensioners stood in the rain at 8-00 in the morning to get in at 8-30 to make an appointment.they can't get through or haven't got a phone.if they go at 8-30 many times the lines to big,and all appointments for the day have gone.this is fact its happened to me.its an absolute disgrace. i complained to a lady doctor about this and was told this was the wrong place to bring this up.well after being cold and wet for 40 mins or so what the hell would you do.
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If that was the wrong place to bring it up did she offer any suggestion as the where the right place was?
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Your lucky to get through when you ring Peel House,when you do you are asked to hold and listen to green sleeves for 10 minutes,you can no longer see your own doctor any more,when you ask for a call out,the receptionist wants to know what is wrong with you to see if you warrant a call out.
The set up down there is bloody abysmal. |
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Peel House is run by a set of complete muppets, masquerading as receptionists. Someone needs to tell these women that they do not have any medical training/qualifications and therefore have no right to tell you when or if you can see a doctor. They should not be asking what is wrong with you - its none of their business.
I resort to cheating to get an appointment. I either tell them that some test results have returned and Doctor X wants to see me about them or that I had an emergency doctor out last night and he has recommended I see my GP. That seems to be the only way I can make appointments for my family without them asking questions. The way I see it, is if I am worried enough to take the time off work to see a doctor, then I want to see a doctor, not a receptionist. |
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I'm only glad that my missus and me aren't under the care of Peel house, I think we would be kicking up daisies now. I called to see my G.P. a week last Monday at 8-30am, and I saw the doctor at 8-45am. He prescribed steroids for my asthma, and an appointment to see him again on Thursday of this week, when he changed my inhaler. My wife , unfortunately was diagnosed with diabetes this week, found after the annual check carried out by staff at Myrtle House, and this practice only has two doctors and three nurses, and receptionists who are human and listen to what patients have to say. I thank my lucky stars. T.C.
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Re: News topic re doctor's appointments and targets
Here's a "muppet" story for you. My daughter developed breathing difficulties following her accident, was seen by a hospital specialist and prescribed an inhaler for use as and when necessary. Letter sent to Peel House.
I went to PH to re-order a prescription for her when she was getting to the end of the one she had and the receptionist at PH told me there was nothing about it on the computer. I said she'd been prescribed by the hospital and the hospital had written to them about it. Receptionist checked th hospital letter and found refrence to the inhaler so requested a prescription from GP. I went back 3 days later to collect the prescription (as you do) and found that although one had been issued, there was nothing on the counterfoil for ordering again so no doubt we'll have the same palaver next time! |
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I've been at Myrtle House for 54 years now and never had a problem getting to see a doctor. Maybe they could set up training courses for other practices.
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Unfortunately there are a limited number of good GPs in this country therefore the numbers are very limited around here. The good ones tend to be at Peel House and Myrtle House. These GP's will assess you properly and try to give you the correct treatment. Some of the others will pass the buck and try to send you to the hospital when there is next to nothing wrong with you, or alternatively will write a prescription as soon as you walk in the door in order to shut you up.
From my point of view we get dozens of women each week who end up in our unit with simple urine infections who have been seen by the GP and sent to the hospital because the GP's don't want to know them once they're pregnant. We even had a GP send a woman to us with heartburn!!! I kid you not...... We rarely get women sent to us in this way from Peel House or Myrtle House which are both busy practices with good reputations. From working on the community for 8 years I can also vouch that these surgeries are full of timewasters. People with nothing seriously wrong with them who could take a couple of Paracetamol at home, but no....... Let's see what the quack says about my cold. People clutter the surgeries for sicknotes in order to claim benefits. The new in thing is stress or depression and these consultations take time. I met a lass a few weeks ago who is on incapacity benefit for depression aged 20. When I asked her if there had been a major event in her life which accounted for her depression..... abuse, terminal illness, bereavement etc. she answered "no." Funnily enough this lass is pregnant, one of the features of true depression is loss of libido, there appears to be nothing wrong with hers. It's timewasters like this who monopolise the services and take attention away from the genuinely ill or depressed. Peel House has a good reputation and some decent GPs that is why it is so difficult to get appointments. They have a massive caseload and their fair share of timewasters. Bear in mind that timewasters are very convincing and will often concoct a story in order to get an appointment, therefore denying an appointment to somebody genuinely ill. |
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my doctor at peel house lettie is brilliant,the complaint i have is the system,i.e.pensioners stood in the cold and rain hoping to get an appointment,this to me has nothing whatsoever to do with timewasters of which i agree on that point.i suspect you are viewing this with a little bias.
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It's all very well Peel House having good GPs if you can't get to see them.
Do you actually get to see your own GP Cashman? I've seen somebody different every time I've gone. On the subject of timewasters I was talking to someone the other day who took her child there because she had a sore throat. If mine have a sore throat they get a lemony drink or a lozenge to suck. |
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WOW! I needed to see GP following a hospital referal (from yet someone else other than my own GP) and had a letter from them asking me to make an appointment so off I duly trotted for the queueing up outside experience and even then I had to see a doctor I'd never set eyes on in my life before, who funnily enough turned out to be Busman's doctor (someone Busman has never actually seen himself!):D
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when i ring my surgery i always ask to see my own particular doctor & im not dissapointed,but getting through the receptionist's is the hardest work ever, i had to see a locum (my doc on holiday) 3 weeks ago, subceqently i was at b.r.i the day after with instructions from the doctor to ring him with the results, which i did, as soon as i got home, i was told, ring back at 4pm please, which i did & was told by a diff receptionist that the doctor would not accept the call, to which i said he was waiting for it, but no i could not get through, but i made an appointment for 2 days later & he hit the ceiling saying he'd wanted the results the same day, funny but i havn't seen that receptionist since.
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True, but the censor won't let me type what I really think!:)
I just find it so frustrating! I have only been at Peel House for 18 months as I thought it best for all the family to be under one GP and I didn't want to travel to Darwen for all my ante-natal appointments. Previous to that I stayed registered at Darwen Health Centre and it was worth the two hour bus journey to see my own doctor at my own convenience. Plus the receptionists at Darwen don't constantly chew gum AND they don't take ages to sort out another persons prescriptions (eh Willow!).;) |
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When this topic was aired with the Prime minister on Question Time last night David Dimbleby asked him whether this was the first that he had heard of the problem. He replied that it was.
This evening on channel 4 News, they presented a report which revealed that the NHS issued a memo in June of last year criticising the 48 hour target and saying that it was being used to manipulate figures. And then...they also mentioned a letter written by Tony Blair, in October last year, warning that the misuse of the 48 hour target was becoming a problem that the government would have to deal with. And yet, last night he claimed that he had not heard of the problem before. WHAT A BARE-FACED LIE! He was also asked a point blank question about a new rise in NI contributions after the election - he didn't say yes, he didn't say no, he changed the subject! A vote for Labour is now plainly a vote for liars. |
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do any of them tell the truth?it would be news to me!
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every time i goto hospital and i am asked why didnt i see a doctor as soon as i mention peel house they roll their eyes and say oh i see
the doctors apart from 1 of them are great its just that you cant see them i know of 1 person who turned up in the middle of having an asthma attack and was told he coulldnt have an appointment for at least 3 weeks as they were booked up and was sent away and colloapsed outside the system has now changed but not realy for the better as all the appointments get taken up by those waiting outside in the morning and within 10 mins of the phonelines opening all appointmernts are gone not everyone can get there early in the morning and wait outside another thing wrong is that you cant order perscriptions over the phone anymore so now to get your stuff you have to walk down , fill a slip in then return in 2-3 days and hope its been done or take up an appointment slot just to get a prescription again not everyone is good at walking and not everyone has time to waste making multiple visits for much needed things like asthma sparys etc however.. a select few are given the privalage of been able to book appointments when ever they like and with their own doctor which should be the right of anyone under a doctor i wish i could get to see my own doctor as i have now seen 4 different doctors with my problem and each time i have to explain it all over again and its as though i am starting fresh with treatment when infact i should have been seeing a specialist which i am now been refered to at long last peel houses current system will kill somone one day |
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i thought i would just add that my doctor is not with any mentioned on here, so suppose im lucky, but the perscripition ordering is changing to the same as peel house in june, just hope they get it right, i even asked if i could e-mail them mine, but to no avail.
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If I may add my twopenn'orth...
I registered with Dr Tuxford when I first came over here 40-odd yrs ago, so, subsequently, have been with Peel House since it's inception. In the intervening years, I can catagorically state that ALL members of my family, & close friends, cannot speak highly enough of the doctors & nurses based there. It's the receptionists who appear to be the problem... maybe they are trying to 'screen out' the timewasters, but, with insufficient training, they are unable to separate the bad from the good, so to speak. So, who is at fault for the current problems?? In my opinion, it is not the people,(doctors, nurses, receptionists), but the systems imposed upon them... By whom?? Why should any NHS worker have 'Targets' set... they are not bloody salespeople, why treat them as such?? Simply because, we have so many 'civilian' bosses who haven't a clue when it come to giving a service, which is, after all, what the NHS is there to provide. I'll never forget the phrase uttered to me by (the great) Dr. Bill Turner,during one of our frequent consultations, when he was wrestling with the same system I am using now (the infamous keyboard...like him, I am a one-fingered user!)........ "I didn't go through years of training just to join the NHS and become a bloody typist!!" Think that says it all!! Good luck & best wishes to Lettie & co.... It can only get better (can it?) |
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She never did go and find someone else to deal with us like she said she would did she? |
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I'm registered at Oswald medical centre. They too have a ring up on the day policy although I believe they keep teh odd appointment for advance booking.
When I was little you just went to the doctors and queued for about an hour, job done. Ian |
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Would that be when doctors knew your name and the names of the other members of your family and their ailments? How have we managed to deteriorate like this?
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We are now asking more and more often how we got in this mess. I asked the same question in another thread. I'm starting to wonder what I have brought my beautiful daughter into? :confused::eek: |
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I was only saying to Busman the other day that way back in the 50s and early 60s scifi films about the future all painted a rosy picture of technological development making life much easier and better, everything clean and efficient. Then along came a different viewpoint with all the depressing films about environmental contamination and depletion of resources. In those films the future looked bleak but we never believed that was likely to happen. How could it?
Just look at it now. Which version are we closer to? |
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The doors opened and very soon we were at the front of the queue. Being the gentleman, I ushered Willow to speak to the receptionist first and heard the words "9 o'clock" At that moment, another receptionist called me over .......and told me that a doctor would see me at 10;30!! I exclaimed in despair that my fiance (pointing to Willow as she was still being dealt with) has just got an appointment for 9am. "Oh, We've had phone calls since then" she says "The closest appointment is now 10;30" Now THAT is efficiency!! How many phone calls can you take in 30 seconds? In defence of the doctors at Peel House, on the ONE occasion in 15 months(yes, THIS appointment) I have managed to see a doctor, he was exceptionally good but what worries me is that I am the kind of person that would try to fit in an appointment around my work rather than take time off. The reason for seeing him was for a mole that was seemingly becoming aggressive. They soon cut it off and told me that it wasn't malignant..........but if it had been? Likewise, if I started having chest pains, at what point would I say to my boss, "sorry, can't do the school run"? As an over 50, I get all sorts of aches and pains but I have been brought up to regard work as a priority and in the past I have always had the option of making a doctors appointment at a suitable time. I love life Oop north but I find it so hard to get my head around the lack of funding here! Back in Bedfordshire, I would phone at 9am, get an appointment for 10am....arrive at 9:50, sit in comfortable leather seating with expensive mags to read and be called in at 9:55. Living in Accy will probably be the death of me:rolleyes: (but not for a while hopefully Willow) |
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Like the writer earlier on i too am at Myrtle House, and i find all the staff not just the doctors fantastic. Remember years ago though when my son need a finger lancing (no practice nurse in them days) we were sent to AVH to have it done, the doctor said to me that he was to squemish to do it. It still makes me smile now.
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Peel House is awful for appointments. I live about 1 minute away from it and even I struggle to get appointments. One time I needed to see my doctor for a review on some medication I was on. The tablets were running out and I had a few days left of them. So I trudged off to Peel House, and queued up in the cold with the rest of the people, by the time I reached the desk all appointments with my doctor were taken. Since I needed to see him specifically I said I would try the next day. It took me 4 attempts to book an appointment, 4 times I queued in the morning only to be told there was no chance. I even had to go a day without my medication, and when I told the receptionist this she just kind of looked dazed and told me there was nothing she could do.
Lets hope when this new 'super-doctors' opens up and Peel House closes, we shall have better service. |
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rishton dosnt have that many people in it so the doctors are naturaly more available
peel house has a reputation in both the hospitals and NHS direct for incompetant management of appoitments and there are many cases of people going without medication because they cant get to see a doctor the problem is where else can you go all the doctors in accy are full |
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another thing that can cause problems at peel house is repeat prescriptions, you have to put the repeat in a box- then wait 2 days to collect your prescription(unless its weekend or bank holidays,then its longer,anyone on regular medication who gets too low with their tablets etc,due to forgetfulness or has bin away a few days,will then have to make an unnecessary appointment with the docter(if they can) to get the medication they need.this to me is crazy and a waste of resorces-but theres nowt else they can do if they need it.thats nowt to do with bad doctors its just RANK bad administration.
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i think peel houses system where you see the nurse so she can refer you to a doctor if she thinks you need one is dangerous
granted cut fingers and dressings are one thing but should a nurse be deciding if you need a doctor or not doctors are trained to pick up on things and to look for certain symtoms and as far as i know a nurse isnt or they would be called doctors and not nurses i think its wrong that that reponsability is put on the nurses and they should only be used for taking blood, changing dressings and other nurse dutys i do not think they should be diagnosing patients granted this system probably roots out people who take up and waste appointments because they have a runny nose but unless a person has been through the same training as a doctor they shouldnt be deciding if people are ill enough or not to see a doctor personaly i think peel house has too many patients on its books and i hope when they move to the new premisses i hope they get more new doctors and slow down the intake of new patients at the end of the day its all about money though and as far as i know a doctor gets money for every prescription they write so more patients = more money i suppose |
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What`s wrong with people today ? Can they not organise themselves ? |
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Dear oh dear Chav.... You really don't have the foggiest idea what a nurses duties and training entail do you? Nurses are also trained to look for certain symptoms and pick up on them. Nurses participate in the training of medical students. Nurses in hospitals are there to stop the junior doctors accidentally killing people, which has happened to me and several of my colleagues in the past. Most senior nurses and midwives are perfectly able to diagnose what is wrong with someone with great accuracy and guess what, we aren't even paid for it.... Talk about cheap labour. Most nurses working in primary healthcare (GP surgeries) or specialist areas have further qualifications to enable them to take clients from the doctors (cheap labour again). Furthermore our code of professional conduct forbids us from undertaking duties for which we are not trained or are not competent to do. So the next time you are assessed by a nurse whether it be in a surgery or in A&E be aware that he or she is trained to do that job and probably hundreds of other roles which we have been trained to do in order to take work off the junior doctors. Also be aware that we do not get paid extra for doing these roles. |
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I totally agree with you lettie, if it hadn't be for the nurse at my surgery i wouldn't be on the treatment im on now, which has helped me know end up, im in the proccess of seeing her again cos shes great, & i feel nurses are more willing to listen to you & grasp quicker what you are telling them, i will support the nurses 100%.
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ime glad nurses are trained up to such high standards but a close friend of mine was bounced around peel houses nurses and the stupid appointments system for over 2 years only to find that he had cancer which his specialist said should have been picked up on a lot earlier because the symptoms he was showing were clearly showing somthing was serioulsy wrong yet he wasnt even examined in all those years once because he was told he was just suffering from constipation and sent on his merry way
only after spending a week in agony and blood pouring from his bum was he allowed to see his doctor who immidiatly sent him to a specialist turns out he had a cancerous tumour and it nearly killed him because he was left undiagnosed for so long as the tumour apparently would settle down for a while and start up again every few months or so but because he believed what he was told it was he just did as he was told and went away thinking he was ok apart from a bit of constipation if he had been able to see his own doctor his medical records would have shown the same problem reoccuring every few months and investigations could have started a lot sooner as the doctor would be familiar with his case but because he was only seen by the nurses who put his problems down to constipation he was sent away with the advice to eat more fiber or buy some senacot yes nurses are under appreciated and yes they are good at what they do but please leave the diagnosing to real doctors i am in no way taking away what nurses do the ones on my cancer ward were very good at been nurses despite been over worked like i said before the doctors are fine but in my friends case the nurses should not have been diagnosing him as they clearly got it wrong it probbaly seems that i am calling nurses incompitant which is not the case i am merely stating my opinion that the doctors are the ones who are paid to diagnose , treat , write prescriptions and do referals to specialists so they should be the only people allowed to do the diagnosing i too have had cancer and seen the nurses who didnt spot it but the doctor did so please forgive me if i also stick to seeing the doctors i would highy recomend that if you are not happy with a nurses diagnosis to insist on seeing a doctor just to be safe because if i had relied on the nurses diagnosis i would be dead |
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It seems that your friend should have asked for a second opinion from the nurse, who is then obliged to try and get an appointment with the doctor. For the record, doctors also mis-diagnose with alarming frequency. Nurses do diagnose these days as we are unable to prescribe without diagnosing and many nurses are now trained to prescribe and do their own clinics. The nurses working on hospital wards are constrained by the system as there are always doctors on call, so they have no need to prescribe or diagnose to the same extent.
Nurses working in the community, often at surgeries or alone doing home visits do need to be able to both diagnose and prescribe these days. The government decided that they would encourage nurses and midwives to take on extended roles in order to ease tha pressure on junior doctors and cut their working hours. Due to pressure from the medical profession about long hours and the high suicide rate amongst doctors, the government decided that they could train up nurses to do certain medical procedures and pay them no extra for doing it. Gone are the days when nurses are seen as Hattie Jaques and Barbara Windsor type characters bowing to doctors needs. By taking on extended roles for no extra pay we have shot ourselves in the foot, because when pay scales are now decided the extended roles are no longer classed as such, they are classed as nursing duties and not remunerated. My position is slightly different than that of my nursing colleagues in that traditional midwifery required expert knowledge of every aspect of normal pregnancy and childbirth and midwives are the lead professionals in caring for pregnant women. We have direct access to consultants and hospitals if an abnormality in pregnancy should arise. Sadly even we are finding our roles expanding to fill the gaps in the medical profession and some of our interventions are becoming more and more geared to abnormal, again for no extra pay. We are also expected to be our own receptionists, fill the gaps in social services dealing with child protection issues and drug issues, be on call at night, fill gaps left by GP's because they are frightened of pregnant women, and still find time to be midwives. I feel sorry for the nurses bearing the brunt of it in GP surgeries and A&E who more often than not have greater clinical skills than the doctors, better bedside manner and half the pay and appreciation. |
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only problem i see with that lettie is what about the many people who trust the word of docters,nurses, legal people etc,i know or knew many people like that(some no longer with us)it wouldn't enter some peoples heads to ask for a 2nd opinion,some may call them stupid i would say trusting and brought up to have respect for a professional opinion,i'm not attacking anyone i have included lawers, also financial advisors,i'm just saying some folk will always trust a professional opinion.maybe thats not true?but i doubt it.
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It certainly is true Cashman. That's what professionals are there for but everyone makes mistakes occaisionally whether it be in medicine, accountancy or legal, human beings are not perfect. If I hadn't have asked for a second opinion from my doctor 10 years ago I'd probably be dead by now. He thought I was an idiot and I proved him wrong, I immediately changed my GP.
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Part of the "entertainment" in Peel House is listening to everything that is being said:o in the nurses treatment room while waiting outside the door for your turn, maybe thats why the piped music is sometimes turned onto full volume? |
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them doors sure are thin on the doctors rooms as well
even if you fail to hear the conversation while it is happening the doctor speaks nice and loud into his dictophone when hes making his notes |
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I don't visit the doctor very often.......and I am at Peel House. I was quite ill at the end of last year with a severe Kidney infection.....I have to say that I couldn't hear what was going on in the consulting room.
The current situation with appointments was instigated politically......and Doctors are penalised if they do not meet the target set for them by THIS government. Targets are particularly unhelpful to folk like you and me.......we are not tins of beans or a marketable commodity. If you do not like the system then choose carefully where you put that X on Thursday. Lettie is right about the training that Nurses receive........and about the hard working Doctors at P.H. |
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The Doctors and practise Nurses in Myrtle House are Brilliant.
We can't find fault with any aspect of care given. |
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am i alone here i thought others would have confirmed that you can indeed hear what is been said in the doctors rooms when sat outside them at peel house i must have super hearing or be sat too close to the door lol |
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i have heard the doc speaking in to the dictaphone many times an my hearings not too great,have a deaf aid i don't wear much due to severe tinnitus,wish i could wear it sometimes.p.think it may depend on were your sat i sit just were you go in to the passage.
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Maybe I can't hear what is being said in the Doctors Room because my teeth are chattering so much.......I am always a nervous wreck when I go. In fact I have to be almost dying before I make an appointment.
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If you're down the bottom end in that little square bit you can't often hear, but on the corridor or up near the door I have often heard but it's a little more confidential than in the open area of the nurses room.
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25 minutes before I got through this morning. I am now sat in a queue whilst that annoying woman tells me that all lines are busy. Did I die and go to hell this morning?:mad:
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