Busy doctor's surgery vets patients' symptoms to combat high demand (From Southend Standard)
Get involved: send your pictures, video, news and views by texting ECHONEWS to 80360, or email us Click here for details »
Busy doctor's surgery vets patients' symptoms to combat high demand
9:40am Tuesday 12th March 2013 in Echo News
Langdon Hills Medical Centre
A SWAMPED doctor’s surgery is screening patient’s symptoms in order to cope with increasing demand for same day appointments.
Langdon Hills Medical Centre, in Nightingales, is trialling the new system as part of a bid to fit in all patients who call up.
Patients are asked to explain their symptoms to a receptionist and are put on the system for a telephone call.
The GP then decides if the patient needs an appointment.
Marguerite Cutting, practice manager, said: “It’s not the receptionist’s job to decide whether someone needs an appointment or not, it’s a way of us making sure everyone is dealt with.
“We don’t like turning people away, we like to deal with everything on the day if we can.
“Some things can be dealt with over the phone, some people may just need advice or reassurance but if a doctor feels they need to see a patient, they will be brought straight in and added to the clinic.”
The new system, which is not compulsory and patients do not have to reveal their symptoms, comes at a time when many surgeries in Basildon, Vange and Laindon are all operating with more patients than the national average of 1,800 per doctor.
Langdon Hills is one of those that is above the average, but Mrs Cutting explained her doctors were almost always staying after hours to ensure everyone gets seen.
She said: “Their days are completely full.
“Demand is getting very high, patients have high expectations and so they should have, but we do get a lot of people ringing on the day that want to be seen that day, so we’re trying different routes to meet that expectation.”
Comments(6)
crash helmet
says...
1:09pm Tue 12 Mar 13
Dealing with patients demanding urgent appointments and then not turning up.
Patients wanting urgent appointments because they have a cold or flu and will argue to get antibiotics that will make no difference at all.
Patients wanting urgent appointments to order a prescription because they didn't pay attention to how many tablets they had left AGAIN.
Plus many more non-common sense appointment requests, including refusing to see a nurse when the nurse is perfectly capable to assess their problems.
All the above means that the doctors are, in fact, unable to do their job. Which is seeing people who need to be seen. Not having their time wasted with non medical problems. Every person who doesn't treat their surgery in the ways I have mentioned, who end up waiting 3 or more days for an appointment, have only other patients to blame.
If the access to medical professionals for the general population can be increased by ensuring appointments are taken by those who actually have a pressing problem, the more the better.
Patient's are never turned away completely from surgeries. They may have to wait a few days for an appointment. If any patient comes into a surgery with chest pains, wounds, severe sickness, they will be seen, regardless of appointment availability or not.
The Stinker Returns
says...
2:32pm Tue 12 Mar 13
crash helmet
says...
3:18pm Tue 12 Mar 13
The Stinker Returns
says...
3:29pm Tue 12 Mar 13
crash helmet wrote:Done that. No response.
If you know which specialty you need a referral for, you should be able to get that organised without needing an appointment (depending on how helpful your receptionists are able to be). You may have more luck with that by giving a letter to reception making that request and asking them to give you a call to let you know if that would be possible.
crash helmet
says...
4:54pm Tue 12 Mar 13
The Stinker Returns wrote:^^Then you should contact PALS or the PCT and tell them you have been trying to get a referral and your Surgery isn't meeting your needs. Also write the surgery a letter stating that is what you will be doing. You shouldn't have to cause any sort of stink about it, but having been put in that position it might be the only option.
crash helmet wrote:Done that. No response.
If you know which specialty you need a referral for, you should be able to get that organised without needing an appointment (depending on how helpful your receptionists are able to be). You may have more luck with that by giving a letter to reception making that request and asking them to give you a call to let you know if that would be possible.
If you have seen a consultant @ hospital before for the same problem, you may be able to contact their secretary and ask how you can get an appointment if your GP surgery seems unwilling to refer you.
GentleGiant says...
9:44am Tue 12 Mar 13
Sounds like he ought to be doing his job and seeing patients instead!
What happens if the doctor says no and the patient disagrees - this could end up personal and might be against NHS rules.
Also the receptionist is likely to be overheard talking about symptoms and may well repeat the patients name. hardly confidential.
Bad all round IMHO.