RB5 Paul

My wife has pulled something in her back (we think),she's been in agony all weekend and went back to work today still suffering,so she phoned up the doctors first thing this morning to arrange an appointment and was told to turn up at 10 and wait until she was seen which could be up to 2 hours (or even longer!).
Because of travelling from her work to the surgery and back again plus the time she would have waited it wasnt really an option so she asked about making an appointment and they replied with nothing until next tuesday (great stuff ),then she suggested finishing work early and just coming into the surgery at about 4.30 and waiting to which they replied.. if you want to see a doctor this afternoon you will have to come in at 3 and sit and wait (helpful and convenient ).
In the end she settled with staying at work and suffering which is not good.

I was just wondering how they expect decent hard working people that don't wanna skive but have a genuine problem to get to see a doctor without having to take sick time or use holidays up,waiting a week for an appointment is no good as hopefully it'll have cleared itself up by then,but in the meantime how do you get painkillers etc??

Silly rant i know but after the standards slipping thread i thought this might be a very good example of how things are going **** up rapidly

letdown

Dont worry about it. If its really bad.....go to casulty. If not make the apointment or sit and wait at the surgery. As you said it will probably clear up itself. I would guess that the Doc will just say rest up take some pain killers!!
I dont see how this is an example of anything.

Your right it is an example of the way things are going.


ME ME ME ME !!!

tongue firmly in cheek.

Little Miss WRX

I know what you mean, my old doctors you couldn't get an appointment for at least a week and that would usually be with a temporary one, the resident GP's you'd be waiting at least two weeks. So you had to plan in advance.

When my asthma was at it's worst, I literally booked an appointment for every two weeks and if I felt okay at the start of the week I would cancel with plenty of warning or take the appointment.

yet another login

At many surgeries in my area you can not book ahead. Instead you have to phone in as they open at 8:30-9am. This is probably usefull for some but not me who starts work at 8 away from a phone.

_Meridian_

iTrader: (1)

I have bad news for you: pretty much every surgery in the country is the same. If I want to see my own doctor, as opposed to one of the other ones at the practice, I have to book well over a week ahead. Everyone I know reports the same sort of thing. Only very new surgeries have reasonable waiting times.


M

DocJock

Paul, sorry to hear about your wifes discomfort. Hurting your back sucks so this is not intended as a criticism.
If I can explain some of the problems of an appointment system from the providers perspective....

Naturally, EVERYBODY wants to come either first thing in the morning or last thing in the afternoon.

There are a finite number of appointments possible in the day. To fit in extra appointments you either A) Steal some time from appoinments made by patients days before you called, or B) Fit an extra appointment onto the end of your already full session.

A) is hardly fair on the patients who have waited for their appointments
B) see above. Also, perfomance fatigue does not just affect you physically and most GPs already work more than the recommended hours for avoiding this.

It may seem harsh but as a rule, if it is routine you will wait for an appointment and if it is urgent you will fit in when the GP is free. If it is urgent surely that takes precedence over work ? If it doesn't, then is it really that urgent ?

letdown

Thats pretty much what I thought.

Leslie

Too many patients, too few doctors. What else can they do? The doctors I mean.

Les

Tiggs

we have a cool thing in Reading....lsat Friday at 9pm i had an infection start in some minor op i had had.

didnt want to wait till monday for the GP so i call RedDoc and get seen by a GP based in the local hospital 20 mins later...get my perscription and go!

imlach

...and to be fair, it sounds like the GP gave you several alternatives.

In fact, I'd even go to say that a 2 hour predicted wait "on-demand" to see someone that morning is pretty good these days.....try casulty, and if you "look" ok (ie, you're breathing and not screaming in pain), the wait could be 3 times that.

It's not an "on-demand" system these days - I think people remember it from their childhood when appointments were obtained the same day/next day - but I think this was because children are/were slightly prioritised - oh, and as a child, you were taken at ANY time of the day.

As someone else said, if it's urgent enough, you'd be prepared to ask for some time off work - or even, you'd actually BE off work. If it's not so urgent, it seems fair enough to wait a bit.

Finite resource and all that.....

imlach

PS I pulled something in my back several months ago (fairly sure cause was lifting a 21" monitor a few days before - BAD - I knew it was wrong at the time!).

I was doubled up in pain all weekend, but in relative terms, thought going to the GP was not an option - after all, what could they do in the short term....

I bought some of the ibuprufen gels and "deep heat" type stuff from the chemist, and that gave some mild relief, but other than that, I just rode it out. Moving about seemed to be the best 'cure' to be honest.

While back pain can be chronic, a GP will probably not see it as an "emergency".

richiewong

Ibuprofen 400mg , I think up to 4 times per day, and a couple of paracetamol/co-codamol at the same time may help a little.

Just make sure that your missus does not have a dodgy stomach to begin with and takes the Ibuprofen with food.

imlach

The chemist is the best place to go for some advice in the meantime. Pharmacists can help with chronic pain.....

tucker101uk

lol Lee Evans...

I'm gonna be ill next year, with the flu.... i'd like to book an appointment -

CAN YOU FIT ME IN?

Chris L

Why not go and see a chiropractor? Most are private - OK it might cost you £20, but they'll probably be able to see you straight away. The doctor probably can't do a great deal - except prescribe pain killers or refer you to a specialist - so why not go and see the specialist straight away? Don't know where you are Paul, but I can recommend a couple (one in Surrey and one in Herts).

Chris

ChrisB

Indeed. My Dad saw his GP a few times about back problems. In the end he paid to see a local private chiropractor. After a few sessions he was much improved - money well spent. He's been back a couple of times since when he's had twinges.

To be honest, I'd probably just book straight with the chiropractor than wait a week for the GP. Not that GPs don't do a good job though.

Chris L

Yep - don't suffer with the back pain - you are only going to make it worse. A good chiropractor will be able to diagnose the problem and sort you out a course of treatment very quickly.

Chris

OllyK

Please if you value your wife's back take her to an Osteopath and not a Chiropractor.

ChrisB

Doh, that's the right one - I was copying Chris

OllyK

Glad to hear it!! One needs authodox medical training to qualify, the other doesn't, I think you can probably guess which is which!!!

OllyK

Not wanting to appear completely unbalanced have a look here http://www.quackwatch.org/01Quackery...irochoose.html which provides pointers when looking for a chiropractor.

The list of things to be concerned about and watch out for would be enough to disuade me from using one or going to the effort of trying to find one of the "genuine" ones. Note that the ones that can help, are doing nothing significantly different to a physio or an osteopath, the "nutty" bunch are a serious danger to your health however and there are plenty about.

RB5 Paul

Cheers for all your advice peeps,some helpful...ibuprofen,osteopath's etc,and some people just completely missing the point of what i was trying to say,good options?? come and wait , thats a joke..just look at the Lee Evans comment for the perfect example of that,as i said she's hard working and has had 1 week off sick since being at her company for the last 8 years,we just wanted a quick examination and hopefully some painkillers just so we knew it wasn't going to get any worse,or that its anything too serious.
To be honest can't even remember the last time either of us used the doctors for anything so to be told that this was how you had to go about seeing a doctor nowadays i thought it was disgusting,must be too many people clogging up the system everytime they sneeze or poor little Johnny falls over and cut's his knee

So cheers again to all you helpful people

And to all you stupid if it was that bad you'd wait people.. go b*ll*cks and join the rest of society's spongers down the handouts office

P.S. Rant over

Jiggerypokery

Hmmm, would you accept that a Doctor's surgery is a busy place, with perhaps 10 minute appointments, and each doctor having a full surgery booked all day? Maybe the doctor is running late because poor little Johnny's mother needs her son's illness explained in more detail.

The people in the waiting room may have booked their appointment more than two weeks ago, and taken time off work to be there, so why should their appointments be bumped at short notice?

That wasn't how I read it, if anyone needs an appointment they'll take the earliest one available regardless of work commitments. Health comes first.

Buzzer

Glad someone posted that

A chiropractor nearly paralysed me from the neck down when i had a disintergrated disc in my neck. He was punching a thin slither of disc into my spinal cord with an "actuator" thingy.

He made it 10 times worse. I then went to a previously visited Osteopath, he spent two minutes feeling around my neck and then told me to get to hospital straight away

very long story but not nice

I would recommend Neurofen Plus, you can only get them from chemists (Asda dont sell them)

Over and above that on NO account apply heat as you dont know whether the pain is muscular or skeletal so its best to use a bag of frozen peas Wrap it in a tea towel and lie on it for as long as you can take the cold. This will certainly ease the pain

Please see an osteopath, it's no good in casualty as they will just prescribe Co-proximol and Ibuprofen in a slightly more powerful form of none prescriptive drugs. The Osteopath will get to the cause of the problem straight away whereas the quack will only treat you for the symptoms

IMHO of course


PS Heat sprays and gels are not recommended for backs until you know the cause

RB5 Paul

I'm not saying people should be bumped out of place,i'm just saying that it's a joke how the places are run,and the comment about poor little johnny and people with the sniffles was for all those sad muppets that bother going to the doctors when there's nothing wrong with them

And the earliest appointment available was next tuesday by which time the problem will hopefully have cleared up,and if it has my wife becomes the person wasting the doctors time

I have a lot of respect for all these doctors and nurses that work their bits off day to day,they do a bloody good job 99% of the time,it's just all the whingers and hypochondriacs (bet thats spelt wrong) that waste everyones time and ruin things for people that actually need to see a doctor.

And your right health does come before work,but if you feel you can struggle on at work and pop in to see a doctor afterwards then you should be able to. I remember doing that a few years ago and it was very handy,i had a really bad rash on my arm which didn't stop me working but was very painful,turned out to be severe ecsma but i digress lol,so why has this option of having a last minute appointment late in the day gone to?

My original point is still there and unanswered,how have standards slipped so low,all that money we pay in tax etc and the one time in years you need to use anything it costs you even more in lost wages etc

Petty i know and we shouldn't moan about the nhs but i think there is definate to many chiefs and not enough indians thing going on with that establishment

RB5 Paul

Cheers dude,most informative,unfortunatly we started with the deep heat spray last night,luckily it worked although her back is hurting again now,but it was fine first thing so she didn't put any on,we'll try it again when she gets home later and then see about booking an appointment for 3 weeks on friday in case it happens again

IWatkins

When I had a bad back all the doctor did was prescribe some painkillers and said rest. That was on a Monday. By Thursday the pain was so bad that all I could do was lie on the floor all day.

Friday, in desperation, went and visited an osteopath. Twenty minutes later I was fixed (but still sore), by Sunday I was fighting fit.

RB5 Paul

osteopath it is then

imlach

...as do 99% of people going to the GP. Can you not see that?
Everyone thinks their case is truly extra-special. If you really do think it is so serious that you need to see a GP before next week, you blooming well shout louder. As you said yourself, you're predicting it will have gone by next week, therefore why do you need to see the GP at all?

I don't see why your wife is such an emergency case. She still seems to be coping. Believe me, if she's still at work, she doesn't know what a serious back problem/pain is!

You do have the option of paying to get seen quicker. Most cities now have private GP practices which would probably be able to see you as & when you want.

imlach

Also, waiting times in Edinburgh for testicular cancer examination are about 4 weeks, and breast cancer about 6 weeks....

1 week for an appointment about back pain seems quite quick therefore, would you not agree???

2 of the above are life threatning, 1 is not. I'll let you decide.