Doctor's Appointments in Dover

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• Guest 711

  • Registered: 1 Mar 2011
  • Posts: 194
  24 January 2012     21:09149214
  #1       report
  How long do you normally wait for a doctor's appointment?
  
  I phoned our surgery this morning and was told that the first appointment with any doctor was next Monday. The first appointment with the doctor who we have been seeing for the last 10 years was in 2 weeks' time or the one after that in 3 weeks' time.
  
  Up until the beginning of this year we were able to go to the surgery or phone up at 0800 and get an appointment with our normal doctor on the same day.
  Our practice has now changed to operating a free for all of all appointments being able to be made in advance. Hence nothing at all available without a very long wait.
  
  It looks now as if it will be difficult in the future to have continuity of care with one doctor who knows us well.
  
  What sort of experience do others have with making appointments with their preferred doctor?
• howard mcsweeney1

  • Location: Dover
  • Registered: 12 Mar 2008
  • Posts: 62,352
  24 January 2012     21:22149217
  #2       report
  same all round all doctors locally are under pressure with too many patients.
  
  i don't have a problem with who i see, they change all the time at my surgery and i have found them all to be good listeners and they can see my record on the computer screen.
• Guest 736

  • Registered: 5 Jan 2012
  • Posts: 118
  24 January 2012     22:10149221
  #3       report
  Mine are not to bad with me but the other half has had some bad experiences. Like the Dr. putting her head in her hands and telling her that she had had a really bad day and was it really important what she had to tell her??!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! One time I had one Dr. tell me that I was just being paranoid about my back and just to take paracetamol. I could just about walk.Then to calapse at home then to be rushed into hospital with 4 discs totally knacked from multiple tares to bulging and pressing on the sciatic nerves. Then being in William Harvey for 3 weeks!
  I have had the same experience before when there is a certain Dr. who is firmiliar with you and the earliest date has been 4 weeks.
  What I would say is that last Friday I had the delights of spraining my ankle at work and then having to wait 2 and a half hours to see someone at Buckland. Not saying that once I got there that I wasn't looked after but the old chap in front of me had fallen over and couldn't stop his hand from bleeding still waited as long as me.
  I know there is lot going on with the NHS and in my eyes they are best in the world, as I have been in more serious situations than sprains before, so a little more care and maybe a bit quicker.
  Sort of gone on a bit of a tandgent....
• Bern

  • Location: Dover
  24 January 2012     22:12149222
  #4       report
  tangents can be very productive!!
• Guest 736

  • Registered: 5 Jan 2012
  • Posts: 118
  24 January 2012     22:14149224
  #5       report
  DON'T GET ME STARTED ON TANGENTS
• Jan Higgins

  • Location: Dover
  • Registered: 5 Jul 2010
  • Posts: 13,895
  24 January 2012     22:18149227
  #6       report
  I know that the GPs are busy but practices now seem to be run for the staffs benefit not the patients. Luckily I seldom have to see a doctor as I always wait a few days to see if my body will heal its self which it does nine times out of ten.
  
  I used to be able to phone up for my repeat prescription now someone has to go to the surgery to drop off the slip and return in the next day or two when it is ready, this must be so difficult for some
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  I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
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• Guest 672

  • Registered: 3 Jun 2008
  • Posts: 2,119
  24 January 2012     23:26149236
  #7       report
  I visit up to 8 different surgeries every day to pick up prescriptions and quite often hear people trying to book appointments, the waiting times vary from a week to a month or longer, I don't really take much notice now.
  
  One particular surgery is always full of none English speaking people, and I mean full.
  
  People that really need to see a doctor don't often try because they can't be bothered with the hassle.
  I'm one of them, Take more tablets and I'll see you in a couple of months, that's life I suppose.
  grass grows by the inches but dies by the feet.
• Guest 713

  • Registered: 19 Mar 2011
  • Posts: 342
  25 January 2012     07:59149246
  #8       report
  I went in to my doctors yesterday to book an apointment to see the diabetic nurse,the next avalible one was the 27 febuary,which seems a long time.
• Keith Sansum1

  • Location: london
  • Registered: 25 Aug 2010
  • Posts: 23,942
  25 January 2012     13:42149287
  #9       report
  sadly you have to book in advance(you could have died by the time the appointment comes round)
  
  i also refuse in my few visits to the doctors to speak on my health issues with san untrained receptionist as nice as they may be
  ALL POSTS ARE MY OWN PERSONAL VIEWS
• Guest 653

  • Registered: 13 Mar 2008
  • Posts: 10,540
  25 January 2012     18:42149325
  #10       report
  The last time I called my surgery (Pencester Road) to see the Doctor, it was 08.00 and saw him the same day.
  
  
  
  Roger
• Guest 736

  • Registered: 5 Jan 2012
  • Posts: 118
  25 January 2012     19:57149348
  #11       report
  What I like is waiting in anticipation for the big hand on the clock rapidly approaching 8.00am!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  
  Beads of sweat rolling from my forehead, hand tremberling as the clock strikes eight.......!!!!! As we all start dialing for our lives !!!!!! Every time we get that engaged tone, quick re-dial !!! re-dial!! re-dial!!! re-dial!!!! re-dial !!!!!!!.... I still can't get through !!!! Re-dial !!! re-dial !!! re-dial !!!! Surely they can hear me !!!!!!!!
  And then..... oh yes the ring tone...I'm through!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A smugness falls across my face imagining the rest of Dover who are now behind me waiting for that spot, that one and only spot that is there and I have it. So as if I was at the head of that queue I turn smugly and give the two finger salute to the millions behind me !!!!!!!
  "Hello High Street Surgery can I help you?" Its as if an angle has spoken from the heavens. All that waiting and re-dialling for 10 minutes has been worth it!!
  " Hello... hello....yes my name is Mark Mason is it possible to make an appointment today?" Voice still tremblerling from the pure excitement of someone actually speaking to me after nearly forgetting my name!!
  " I'm sorry sir but all the appointments have been taken for today."" AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! How can this be. All the appiontments have gone in ten minutes!!! A silence fulls upon me, a slight tear starts to roll from my eye. I imagine the whole of Dover now laughing at my moment of victory, now being taken away from underneth me. I ask nervously when the next available appointment will be knowing that it will be no closer than the next month. " Let me have a look for you sir". She says. A life time seems to go past ,the sweat seems to have reappeared again.... "Well sir we're looking at the middle of ..........................................NEXT MONTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  That deep sinking feeling enters my body as I hesitate on my answer." That's ok I'll leave it." I reply with a shakiness in my voice and a tears now rolling from my face. Ten minutes of my life taken from beneath me. A sorrow fulls over me as I remember the thousands upon thousands in that are still in the queue behind me.
  Well there's always tomorrow......8.00am there maybe a chance, a real chance that maybe just maybe that there might be an appointment on the day that we actually want it.
  So if you get that ring tone just think of us all behind you !!!!!!
  
  
• howard mcsweeney1

  • Location: Dover
  • Registered: 12 Mar 2008
  • Posts: 62,352
  25 January 2012     20:04149351
  #12       report
  know exactly what you mean mark, that is my surgery too.
  
  the staff are always pleasant but nothing they can do the way things are.
  
  too many patients and not enough doctors.
• Jan Higgins

  • Location: Dover
  • Registered: 5 Jul 2010
  • Posts: 13,895
  25 January 2012     20:35149357
  #13       report
  That is just an awful system that has nothing to do with "too many patients and not enough doctors".
  
  I would be willing to bet they would find a same day appointment if you said you had a swollen leg and had just flown home from abroad.
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  I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
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• Guest 736

  • Registered: 5 Jan 2012
  • Posts: 118
  25 January 2012     20:43149360
  #14       report
  What I quite like is the 5 minute slot that we get allocated now and god forbid that you may need to talk about a few things you can now only go in with one thing at a time. I know time is money but ....!
• howard mcsweeney1

  • Location: Dover
  • Registered: 12 Mar 2008
  • Posts: 62,352
  25 January 2012     20:58149364
  #15       report
  mark
  
  there is a sign near the reception desk that asks people who have more than one problem to say so and get a longer appointment.
• Guest 711

  • Registered: 1 Mar 2011
  • Posts: 194
  25 January 2012     23:38149377
  #16       report
  Re # 10 Roger Walkden
  
  It is Pencester Surgery who changed their system of making appointments at the beginning of the year.
  
  Little chance of seeing your doctor on the day you ring now unless you need an emergency appointment - 5 minutes with the duty doctor.
• Guest 653

  • Registered: 13 Mar 2008
  • Posts: 10,540
  26 January 2012     08:01149386
  #17       report
  Thanks Sue - I'd best not get ill then.
  
  Most of the time they make appointments for me - diabetic nurse, blood-tests; blood-pressure, etc. then there's the hospital appointments. I don't seem to get day-to-day illnesses thank goodness.
  
  
  
  Roger
• Guest 662

  • Registered: 18 Mar 2008
  • Posts: 325
  26 January 2012     15:24149459
  #18       report
  I have never had a problem getting an appt with my doctor at either the Whitfield or High Street Surgery.
  
  Michelle
• Melissa Pile

  • Location: Dover
  26 January 2012     15:49149462
  #19       report
  My doctors are the biggest joke i find, you have to ring at 8am for an emergency appointment usually get through at half eight, then you have to give details to the receptionist who then asks the triage nurse to ring you around 9am maybe later ( latest ive had the call back is 11am!) then this nurse then decides if you are eligiable for an appointment. To get a run of mill check up the booking is 3 to 4 weeks i believe its manly because there seems to be to many patients under this surgery.
• Bern

  • Location: Dover
  26 January 2012     17:06149488
  #20       report
  No such thing as too many patients. It's the surgeries fault for not planning effectively, or for over promising.

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