Reply With QuoteThat's what happens when you introduce a target based payment system. It encourages GPs to churn through as many 'consultations' as possible to milk as much money as possible.
Well, I never thought this day would come, but my NHS doctor's service is such a shambles, today I booked a private GP appointment at a BUPA hospital. £103 for 30 minutes, but the appointment is for this time tomorrow.
Compare that to my GP surgery, which has 12 doctors and the following system:
No 'advance' appointments allowed. You can't phone up and ask to see someone next week.
If you want an appointment, you have to call at 8:30am when the surgery opens to get one of the day's appointments. The line is engaged until around 10am.
If you are lucky enough to get a 'today' appointment, you have to drop everything to get there, or be lucky enough to have an understanding boss who will let you have time off at no notice.
More likely, though, you have no chance of getting a 'today' appointment, in which case you are invited to attend of two daily 'emergency' clinics, which run from 10am to noon, and 3pm to 5pm. Basically you turn up, register for the clinic, and wait, usually for a minimum of 90 minutes although I've sat there for more than two hours. They stress on the phone that the clinic appointments are for emergencies only, but of course everyone uses them for routine stuff. The trouble is, the GPs on clinic duty that day have to get through all of the patients, so you get about two minutes with the doctor and they rush you off asap.
I hate it.
It could be worse, I suppose, my sister's GP surgery doesn't give appointments unless they can help it. Instead, you have to tell the receptionist what's wrong with you (!), and she puts you into a triage system of callbacks. If it's important, the doctor will call you back quickly and either diagnose and prescribe over the phone (yes, really), or invite you in for an appointment. If it's less urgent, you can wait all day for a callback or even into the next day. If you happen to be at work when the doc calls, you have to describe your symptoms over the phone. Not fun if you don't work somewhere where there's a completely private area. You can make an appointment for later in the week, unlike my clinic, but only over the phone and only in the morning. If you drop in in person in the afternoon while you're passing, they will not allow you to make an appointment. My sister has witnessed the receptionist telling a woman to go home and phone in for an appointment.
It's mental, mental, mental.
So, I've bailed, because I have a very nasty ear problem and I'm not playing the stupid GP games any longer.
I used Bupa for an operation two years ago because I was covered by hubby's work insurance, but I never thought I'd see the day when I'd willingly pay just to get some time with a doctor :(
RIP NHS?
That's what happens when you introduce a target based payment system. It encourages GPs to churn through as many 'consultations' as possible to milk as much money as possible.
Defendants might as well have said: Beneficent creatures from the 17th dimension use this bracelet as a beacon to locate people who need pain relief and whisk them off to their home world every night to provide help in ways unknown to our science.
Judge Frank Easterbrook commenting on the Q-Ray bracelet
"For Gods sake you're an American! Stop thinking of the consequences and blow something up" - Stan Smith, American Dad!
It is also a consequence of the target for waiting times to see a GP: they will not give advance appointments because this shows as waiting time and the target is failed. Another example of the stupidity of this system
This isn't a problem with the NHS in general, it depends very much on where you are. When I was at university in Birmingham, I used the local GP because it was closer than the university one. This was pretty much how you describe it, and I really wasn't impressed at all. Apparently the university one was actually very nice. The GP I am with now is pretty much perfect. I can book months in advance or as late as the same day, depending on how busy it is. The staff are all great and they have a good out of hours service as well.
The problem isn't the NHS itself, it's all this primary care trust nonsense that means the service in different places is completely different. Get in a good area and the service is better than it has ever been. Get in a bad place and it might as well not exist at all.
Better sorry than safe.
I'm private...
GP services are ok here (as are dental surprisingly). However it is the usual difficulty and waiting if you need further treatment, and that's the main reason I stay private.
I used to get private insurance free with my work, and when I urgently needed an MRI I was able to call on it, otherwise I would have had to wait 6 weeks. When you are being tested for something unknown wrong with your brain, and when you have been tested for things like MS, meningitis or brain damage, waiting weeks is awful.
A couple of years later I needed another MRI, I phoned the hospital and got an appointment the same day.
Two tier health system? Sure, but it's past the point where principles matter I feel. I don't particularly like going to see a private consultant who maybe works part time in the NHS, and it's hard not feel a bit uneasy when you see the size of the bills being sent to the insurance companies.
Mousse from a bowl is very nice, but to put it on a person is demented!
My local Doctors surgery is great - I can get an appointment within a day, or turn up anytime and be seen by a nurse.
My local dentist also has a short waiting list for appointments.
Not bad for London.
The speed of light, expressed in FFF Units, is 1.8 mega-furlongs per micro-fortnight, or approximately 1.8 terafurlongs per fortnight.
Gravity makes the heart grow heavier.
Any use of this product, in any manner whatsoever, will increase the amount of disorder in the universe. Although no liability is implied herein, the consumer is warned that this process will lead to the heat death of the universe.
My doctor's surgery is fine as well - for urgent appointments phone at 8:30 for a morning appointment or 1:30 for an afternoon appointment - never had any trouble getting one. "Non-urgent" appointments can take a week or so, but then I suppose they're non-urgent...
NHS dentistry in London is a bit more of a problem.
"You got to use your brain." - McKinley Morganfield
I keep getting this terrible feeling of deja woo.
My local dentist has just opened it's NHS list for new patients. (I say just, it's been advertising for new patients for a month now and the list is still not full yet).Originally Posted by Mojo
The speed of light, expressed in FFF Units, is 1.8 mega-furlongs per micro-fortnight, or approximately 1.8 terafurlongs per fortnight.
Gravity makes the heart grow heavier.
Any use of this product, in any manner whatsoever, will increase the amount of disorder in the universe. Although no liability is implied herein, the consumer is warned that this process will lead to the heat death of the universe.
I'd second the point, it really does depend where you are in the country.
I've never had a problem getting nhs treatment at a dentist. Obviously where there are problems, it is terrible, but if you believed the media, there isn't a spare place with a nhs dentist in the whole country...
Mousse from a bowl is very nice, but to put it on a person is demented!
I might just move house, it'll be cheaper
Mine used to do NHS, but he's stopped because it didn't pay enough.
"You got to use your brain." - McKinley Morganfield
I keep getting this terrible feeling of deja woo.
Well, I went.
Not entirely convinced it was worth it, because she didn't really listen to what I told her. I started by telling her about the ear pain, and at the end I said "so what should I take for the pain, just Nurofen?" and she said "you have pain?".
Hmm.
However, she did tell me why I feel so tired and fluey (post-viral fatigue), and she has referred me for blood tests and some horrid ear-tube thing.
The dilemma now is, if my hubby's insurance doesn't cover the tests, do I pay for them, or get her to write to my NHS GP to ask if they wouldn't mind, pretty please, referring me. She said they aren't obliged to, in which case I'd have to pay my NHS GP a visit in the first place, and we're back to square one.
I'm glad I went, but I wouldn't do it again, not for a routine GP appt.
I am one of the lucky ones who doesn't have problems (I live in London).
I do hope the NHS is not allowed to wither away, as it (at any rate the concept) has long been one of the decreasing number of things which make me proud of this country.
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