The ‘utter chaos’ of getting a doctor’s appointment has been outlined to the body which oversees the Isle of Wight’s GPs, with 1 patient saying they made 155 calls before getting through.
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic started and GP surgeries merged, patients on the Isle of Wight were struggling to get to see their doctor, they say.
To get an appointment for the same day, many people ring as soon as the practices open at 08:00 and still face the risk of being stuck in long queues.
One person said they have to ‘ring and ring and ring’, having tried to get through to his practice in Ventnor — before it merged into the Ventnor Medical Practice — on one occasion making 155 calls. They said:
“That isn’t an exaggeration. I took a screenshot of my phone that day because, to me, the system is beyond belief.
“Eventually you either give up or get through and attempt to wedge in the available slot between work, picking the kids up from school or daily life.
“Getting an appointment in Ventnor is more painful than whatever it is I’m suffering from.
“What an utterly stupid way of doing things — something needs to be done. Why can’t more be done online? It is utter chaos.”
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This person isn’t the only one, with reports on Facebook of patients at GP surgeries across the Island struggling to get through on their first attempt and either trying again, with calls going into the tens, if not hundreds, or put on hold for more than 40 minutes.
Recently, calls to practices at certain times of the day have been increasing say the Isle of Wight Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) —with an average of 4,000 phone calls a week — which is leading to longer wait times.
Now the CCG is urging people to spread out their calls, phoning in the afternoon or go online to use e-Consult.
Dr Michele Legg, GP and chair of the CCG, said:
“We know some people are experiencing difficulties in getting through. We know this can be hugely frustrating and is not ideal for patients, or for our staff, who are doing their best to get to as many people as possible.
“On average, each week across the Island, we speak to around 4,000 people over the phone.
“But this is not the only way we are talking to patients – on average we respond to around 800 e-Consult enquiries, carry out 6,000 face-to-face appointments and hold around 100 video consultations each week.
“We would encourage people to use e-Consult to contact their practice in the first instance, as you can share details of the reason you are getting in touch and then the most appropriate person can respond to you to help.
“Of course we know online isn’t the best option for everyone, and if you do need to call us, then we recommend you try calling your practice after 2pm.
“We are working with our practices to explore how we can further build in support to respond to calls.”
I wonder how many calls are from people, who need to revalidate their pretend sick note from work or to revalidate their pretend ailments for their benefit claims. Then of course there are those that take up the GP’s time daily over trivial matters that they should deal with themselves.
if the above weren’t clogging up the system, then genuine cases would be seen and there would still be spare capacity.
Imagine the queues and problems when P enn y F eat hers and all the other masse building occurs here.
Thousands more sick, elderly, as you rightly say fake illness, and genuine cases filling up every surgery, dentist and our struggling hospital.
Our greedy top councillors who are on huge pay (and increasingly so) , will have private treatment for their loved ones, as will their cosy developer friends, so they will care NOTHING for the wails from what they just see as plebs, wanting treatment.
We need to stop this masse building as the ‘cookie’ temptation of having a doctors surgery will never happen, as they couldn’t even find replacements for Brading. And it would have to be massive just to take the newcomers in these thousands of homes so will NOT relieve pressure on our existing surgeries.
Vote the council out next time, or our children will have a life very much worse that what we have know.
You are obviously in denial as to the state of the GP and NHS on the Island
And your proof of this is?????? It is this kind of Troll behaviour that is the root cause of most of todays issues with Covid, Brexit and anything else you want to make up! Genuine posters would provide any proof you may have for your ridiculous assumptions! I am long term disabled, and (as strange as this may be to you) I TOO cannot get through to my GP! If you knew anything of how benefits work you would know that DWP and DLA deals with sickness benefits and apart from short term illnesses, a majority are called in for regular rigorous examinations and checking of claims at the DWP offices, but run by a private company and paid for from our taxes so ‘fake’ claims are caught out very quickly. Short term illnesses are dealt with by Sick notes of up to a month, usually issued by any Hospital Doctors involved or the GP who will refer the patient to the Hospital and base further sick notes upon their findings and they can usually extend a note for up to 6 months before the DWP take over. How all this clogs up our GP surgeries is beyond me, but you know best eh? IF you want to know why we suddenly find GPs in short supply you might ask why most surgeries shut the doors and refused to see anyone when Covid started, I had to walk through a flower bed and shout through a window for my prescription and my GP has only made phone calls to patients or they have been told to ring 111 or go to A&E. The Health Authority has TOLD GPs to start face to face consultations again, which is why people think we can now be seen, but to my knowledge they still wont do it. When things calm down, the amount of patients who will have established and terminal issues because they couldn’t get an appointment will be huge, but that will be benefit claimants fault of course.
Yet, we are expected to support NHS workers pushing the Government for a 2k rise.
Yet one doctor told me it has, or at least had, never been so quite.
So why should all workers get so very much more, with many doing less work than they did?
Wake up, enough saucepans have been dented for a few deserving, but many who have never had it so good. FACT
The NHS needs all the cash it can muster to supply aid to victims, not to pay more wages out for 90% of staff whose work is less than what it was.
Take off the rose tints, and SEE more clearly.
Terrible situation.
Reported a few days ago doctors object to face to face appointments?
Surely as doctors the should see patients at surgeries.
What is the difference between doctors & nurses in hospital or surgerys
Why can’t Covid testing be done in local surgeries rather than travel miles for tests
An e – consult! Well that’s fine if you have a computer /Internet……..
try to do e consult last week kept refering me back to111
Just bloody open as normal, even a normal person that a doctors has to examine to give the right diagnosis.
The only people who seem to be working in G.P surgeries are the nurses everyone else is hiding behind them, that’s if you can get past the receptionists who would be good working in a prison. It seems to be up to them if you get to even speak to a doctor even though they have no medical training or very limited. How many illnesses are going to be missed leading to more deaths than covid.
Getting a face to face appointment at our GP is impossible now wandering what is going to happen about flu vaccination, are we going to be doing our own?
Christopher, I was unable to get a jab at my GP surgery so booked on line at Boots. There seemed to be a good few slots available this morning. They are limiting bookings to the over 65’s (and it is free)
Lloyds are also taking bookings, but isn’t the latest, they want over 50’s to have the jab?
Boots and Specsavers also doing things like ear syringing at a cost of course that G.Ps have stopped doing. Why is it ok for them to do it but not G.P s it’s not to protect vulnerable patients as they’re all now at Boots instead !
Tbh if anyone can use online book your flue jab in a pharmacy DO IT .sod going to germy surgery! I had last years at gibbs n gurnell .just as walk in then.now go next month at boots.sooo much easier.
Im not going too stand in old folks que for hours .
Not sure if theres a phone booking line though
As a retired GP I sympathise both with GPs on the Isle of Wight who I’m sure are working extremely hard in difficult circumstances and also patients who are having problems contacting practices. But don’t we see in a nutshell here the risks of providing online consultations? Younger patients who are tech savvy take priority over older patients who just want to speak to their GP on the phone (or maybe see them face to face) and find using mobiles and tablets too fiddly.
Hopefully normal service will resume when this pandemic is over.
No offence too old folk btw!!! Im 50
With all these new houses being built on the island, the problem will only get worse, plus the holidaymakers who use up valuable resident slots. One of my relatives had the misfortune of going to A&E couple weeks back, one small boy was being treated for a cut knee. Getting medical staff to work on the island is almost impossible, which means a lot of genuine sufferers are not unable to get an appointment. Finally, if people like dentists, barbers, nail bars etc are being allowed to see clients; why are some doctors still not seeing patients?