During the summer of 2014 I was diagnosed with having stage 3 cancer. Nasopharyngeal Carsinoma it is called. As a result of necessary treatments I have been left with some complex health issues which from time to time, require me to consult with a doctor. Recently I had to ring my GP surgery to arrange an appointment. 72 phone calls later …..72 phone calls listening to the same electronic message….”press option 1 to make an appointment using our automated service, press option 2 to speak to a receptionist”….followed by “sorry, this line is busy, please call back later”. Eventually I managed to speak to a receptionist and explained my need to speak to my doctor. The receptionist asked me ‘why’ i needed to speak to a doctor, and would a telephone appointment be ok? Why does she need to know this? I do not want to disclose my medical issues to a stranger. I didn’t want someone who is not medically trained knowing my details, nor do I want my issues potentially being casually discussed over tea and biscuits during a break. Nor do I wish to speak to a random doctor over a very short, impersonal phone call.
Whilst this option may offer a modicum of convenience for some people, it wouldn’t be the best option for me. When i see my GP face to face, i feel like I am valued as a person and I’m actually being listened to with care and attention, that I am not just another person on the conveyor belt of medical misery.
I’ve built up trust with my doctor over a good number of years, she knows me literally inside and out and this is the person i want to speak with. However experienced, I do not wish to speak to a doctor who doesn’t know me. Sure, this doctor can see a screen with my medical history, but ask yourself, is this really enough when dealing with complex medical issues? In my humble opinion, I don’t think so.
During a face to face consultation I can also ask as many questions as i require in order to fully understand the the specific issue I’m seeking medical help for. This also has the added benefit of keeping me calm and reducing my stress levels, which are very much likely to be at a very high rate already. If, during a telephone assessment, I forget to ask a specific question during the maximum 10 minutes you get allotted for a telephone appointment , I would then have to ring up yet again, potentially going through the same above mentioned rigmarole, thus wasting my time, the time of the receptionist and another doctor who could be spending time with another patient.
I asked the receptionist why she needed to know my medical details and the response given was “so that the doctor who calls you, knows how to help you best”. I was more than a little confused by this. Surely a doctor who is willing to speak over the phone, has an extensive knowledge of listening to patients describe symptoms and would be able to diagnose some effective treatments or refer the issue onward to someone more experienced.
The receptionist should not be asking these questions. I’m sure that on paper, when this system was developed, asking that question may seem okay and perhaps a time saving convenience to the doctor, but it really isn’t, it just makes me feel uncomfortable and put on the spot. To me it almost feels like the underlying question that is really being asked is….“Do you really need to speak to a doctor or do you just need to go the pharmacy and buy some paracetamol”
From reading this article I can see a lot of the same issues are held by the author that happens in my local medical system. Not to take away from the article in itself but it makes me feel a bit better that it isn’t just me having these issues someone felt it important enough to write about it, so I’m not alone. It feels like the doctors are trying to limit the time with patients to maximize the number of appointments a day to make more money, but doing so by losing patients respect and feeling their medical team cares about them as individuals and not just a number.
Hi Aaron,
Thanks for this piece. It’s really good to hear it from you about your experiences and it really does sound like face to face appointments are the right way of offering you a GP service. The last thing we would want to do is worsen your anxiety and mental health.
Years of underfunding have left GPs feeling a tidal influx of work which have led to droves of GPs leaving the profession, moving abroad, burning out and suffering from severe mental health issues which have led in the worst cases to suicide.
Dr Kieran Sharrock, BMA England GP committee deputy chair, said: “Compared with this time a year ago, England has the equivalent of 369 fewer full-time, fully qualified GPs – having lost 30 in the most recent month alone. This means each day there is one less doctor for patients to see.
“On top of that, we have lost almost 1,600, fully-qualified, full-time equivalent GPs since 2015. This trend, of demand rocketing while we haemorrhage doctors, is pushing the remaining staff to breaking point as they take on more and more each day, to a point which is not safe for them and certainly not safe for patients.
Bottom line is, it’s not that we don’t want to see patients. I value seeing people and connect with them just as you describe, but with the current demand it’s just not possible. There are also people who really prefer the phone consultations – people with agoraphobia who could never leave the house, people who can’t afford to travel down for every appointment.
At our practice, our receptionists have been trained to be care navigators, so they do understand about getting people to the right place. If we gave our first 25 appointments to the first few people that called up it could mean that you don’t get through at all as the people fastest on their phones could get in, for things that don’t need GPs – like dental pain, contraceptive repeats, knee injuries (there are better placed professionals in primary care that can deal with those)
I just felt it was important to give the other side to the story. Things are bad when it comes to access and it’s been building up like this for years and years. GPs aren’t the baddies though, I swear. I hope we can coordinate our frustrations to change things because it will only happen if we do so together.
Wan-Ley, GP in Salford, Greater Manchester