Making a doctors appointment...

[Biscuit]

Some of you may know i recently moved down south to start my first job since uni, in doing so i obviously had to change my doctors. Having quite a good immune system, i havent had to go until recently and my word what a polava.

I registered a few weeks back which was a mission in itself. Form made from 10+ sheets of paper pretty much all of them having the same or similar information on and all being badly photocopied. They then decided to send me a whole load of quite intrusive surveys by post. I didnt even reply to these just went straight into the recycling.

Recently i needed to go so i called up the number i had for them. Put through to some stupid automated service which i went through selecting the option of 'next available appointment'. Apparently there is no next available appointments... they are booked up forever? I hit the button to speak to a receptionisnt and it sent me round in a circle asking me to go through the procedure again!

By this time i was getting quite annoyed, i cant remember what i did but i somehow got through to a person who booked me in later that day after explaining, 'oh no that automated thing wont work'.

Once i got there they was some digital arrival thing which told me where to go and who my doctor was. It kinda worked but the whole process just seems to have become so impersonal. Back at home or even at uni the whole thing was so much friendlier.

Is it just some kind of southern outskirts-of-London thing or has the whole country changed to be like this?

[Lee H]

Is it just some kind of southern outskirts-of-London thing or has the whole country changed to be like this?

It's the same up north mate so it's not just a southern thing.

I tried to get an appointment for the doctors a few weeks ago and was told the next appointment was a week away from the day I was calling at 8 am.

What I usually end up doing to make an appointment is bypassing their phone system which is very similar and just pop along to the surgery in person on the way home from work and make an appointment over the desk

[DavidM]

Local Doctors has gone from having an internal telephone system - to some convoluted call-centre thing.... I'd sooner go in person to make an appointment then use that.

[Biscuit]

Yeah, whilst i DID get booked in the same day i called, i felt quite sorry for the doc i saw, seemed like the receptionists had crammed loads of people into the late afternoon slots and she was swamped. Wanted to get a general check up aswell as the main reason i went but didnt seem very fair on her.

[Flibb]

All the quacks around here have online booking. with telephone as a backup. Works really well nd leave the receptionists to get on with keeping records upto date

[Biscuit]

online i could deal with, just putting in details then having instructions read to you is such a pain in the arse.

[Domestic_Ginger]

Cost cutting exercises and statistic management exercises. The only surgerie near where I used ot live did this. Try another surgery; one that has not bought into this foolishness.

[Terbinator]

All the softy southerners turning up for treatment with a cut finger.

[Domestic_Ginger]

Better than turning up with a case of ebola I suppose.

[jim]

At home it's the social event of the week for the pensioners.

[peterb]

At home it's the social event of the week for the pensioners.

Bit ageist?

[Terbinator]

Pensioners doesn't necessarily mean a certain age group though.

/sarcasm.

[Lucio]

My doctor's dead easy, call up, speak to receptionist, have a joke with them, book an appointment. The difference is the practice is just a single GP, with a locum covering Tuesdays, and a practice nurse.

It's like everything these days, there's large corporate monsters and then small "family" businesses.

[jim]

Bit ageist?

Probably

[Kumagoro]

Can't you just turn up in the morning and take a number and wait in a queue?

I have always been with the same doctor (He actually delivered me) so I dont actually
know what other GP surgeries are like. At the one I am at its like above and appointments
can be made for afternoons, that way if you are ill you can see someone straight away.

If I moved and the new place was appointment only I would change to another one.

[Barrichello]

You were lucky to get a appointment same day, i used to hate the hassle with it all. Weeks not days for appointments, inflexible hours. Thank god for having a private doctor now, would find it hard to go back to my old GP.