No prebook appointments at DMC until end of March

[midivydale]

I just phoned to ask for a pre book appointment and was advised that all that they have is on the day appointments which as we all know you need to que or phone on the day for.

Can they do this? Is it possible for a surgery to not offer any pre book appointments at all?

[Jeremy]

This has been the norm there for quite some time now. There are other threads about it. Apparently... yes they can do it.

[Strawbs]

Mivy - change to the gardens honey you will be much happier there x

[DulwichFox]

Went there yesterday morning at 08.00.. 15 people in front of me..

Out my 08.20 with my 10.30 appointment.

No probs..

DulwichFox

[Pickle]

Dulwichfox, that's great if you have the ability to get there and queue.

For people with kids to get to school, it's ridiculous. I need an appointment, one that will involve me having to arrange childcare for my youngest, and at the moment it's an impossibility with DMC. I can't queue at 8am, can't spend 30 mins on the phone trying to get through to them at the same time as taking children to school, and can't arrange childcare at the drop of a hat if I'm then told they can see me in 30 minutes.

A complete and utter shambles.

[Jeremy]

Or people who have, you know, jobs. Say you queue up at 8am and get given a 10:30 appointment (if you're lucky), that's half a day out of the office.

[Pickle]

Exactly Jeremy.

Surely having bookable appointments for people who need to see a doctor but for a "non-urgent" reason is sensible.

[MGolden]

Have you formally complained to the surgery practice manager? How has s/he responded? You could also complain to the CCG who commission the service.

Will they be releasing more non-urgent appointments next week? Some practices release the non-urgent appointments in batches.

Of course, the alternative is to move surgeries. There does seem to be a disproportionate number of threads about this practice.

[JohnL]

not good because lots like me will tend to 'just leave it' to fix itself

[hat282]

My daughter had some tests on the 14th Feb. After repeated calls I was told first they were not back - they were on the 19th; second by the 26th when I went in I was told they still had not been looked at but they had been put in a Doctors box who was in fact absent; third on the 28th I was told half the results had been looked at but then the Dr had gone home and had left them half checked. I went in again yesterday and was told they had atill not been checked but that I could make an appt for today which would " the Dr you see will have to check them in front of you" and finally after I almost had to stage a sit in a GP finally looked at them and agreed my daughter needed to see a Consultant. While all this went on yesterday, another patient behind me said he had been waiting for six weeks for his test results having been told first they were not back; second they had not been checked and so on and so on. A really poor and almost disdainful service.

[srisky]

Whereas I received letter yesterday asking me to make a telephone appointment with the doctor to discuss my urine sample results....I never gave a sample and neither has anyone else in my household.

Anyone happen to be waiting for a urine sample result?

[uncleglen]

And all this right on top of the stats this week about the number of people who do not turn up and don't bother to cancel their appointments

[Alex K]

Stories like that told by hat282 sadden me.

I work at King's; I work in a laboratory, generating test results and sending them out. As soon as I know the result of a test I e-mail those results to the consultant who commissioned the test, and if the paper trail provides me with an e-mail address for a GP involved in the care of the patient in question, I put him or her in copy.

For that information to gather dust... well, it's not the laboratory's doing. But I apologise for us all, as truly I am sorry that this should be going on.

[hat282]

Alex K, when we went for the bloods we had to go to the childrens unit at Kings. I parked and paid for two hours on the meter but we were in and out in precisely 28 minutes from car to unit and back. The person dealing with my daughter could not have been more caring and gentle. I made all of these points to DMC when battling for the results - the NHS is such a precious resource so why waste time and money sending patients for tests that they won't look at?

[midivydale]

Hat282, this also happend with my blood tests, I wrote about on another thread. My results were sitting in an inbox too of a GP no longer at the practice. I did attempt to raise this with the practice manager who never called me back.

However, I did also raise ut with PALS and would urge anyone to do the same.

I realise moving surgery seems the obvious answer but there are some truly great GP's at the practice and I am very happy with them. That argument is wearing more and more thin though as it is getting impossible to see them.

[Pugwash]

I would suggest that everyone writes to PALS - or even local press. I work in the health and Social Care sector and always advise my clients to do the above if they feel they have had a poor service. I know from mine and colleagues experiences in our field that one complaint may not generate much interest with the 'powers that be' but a steady trickle or a vast number does eventually produce results. Is there a Health Ombudsman - I think there is

[PeckhamNicola]

Pre-bookable appointments at the end of March is a step forward from when I last tried to get an appointment and was told that none at all were pre-bookable, it was all by triage on the day. I used to think this surgery was fantastic but I work and I can't wait around on the off chance of an appointment. So I left and went elsewhere. And they wonder why so many people go to A&E with minor problems... Perhaps DMC just have more patients than they can cope with. As a consolation to those who remain, this might not be the case for too much longer, and then you'll be ok again! The Gardens and the Nunhead surgery both get good feedback on here.

[midivydale]

Sorry, that is what I meant. You are unable to phone for pre book appointments until end of March, not that there are appointments available at the end of March. Sorry if i was unclear.

[Jeremy]

Oh in that case, that's new... and totally unacceptable.

[Penguin68]

I am not at DMC (thank goodness) - but it strikes me that there are good and competent (salaried I think) GPs working there, entirely hampered by a wholly dysfunctional administration system (and at the very least a poor or missing practice manager). Failures to give effective and timely feedback on test results (and to match results with patients) is an issue of results distribution and performance targeting. The appalling appointments non-system is clearly an office management issue. People do not cancel appointments I would guess because they have little incentive to phone for hours, and none to actually visit the surgery just to cancel an appointment.

Numbers of surgeries are moving now to computer mediated systems, allowing appointments to be booked (and cancelled) on line ? as well as repeat prescriptions to be ordered and so on. This allows staff to concentrate on those who do not have access to computers (or who are unable to use them through infirmity or lack of instruction). But of course such systems require (a) investment and (b) proper training ? something the DMC owner(s) are clearly very unwilling to put into the practice. It is now possible to set up automated calls (or texts) to remind patients of appointments, again to avoid no-shows.

Finally a system of triage to get any appointment, and then only on-the-day, places anyone with a chronic condition which needs monitoring (or with work or care commitments) at a severe disadvantage. This should be seen as entirely unacceptable (except perhaps for a very short period reflecting either a local epidemic or practitioner illness) ? indeed offering booked appointments for non-critical illness issues should be a formal requirement placed on any practice which wishes to contract with the NHS to offer primary care.

[Jeremy]

Apparently young/newborn babies are usually seen at short notice (understandably). Given the number of couples with babies round here, than could explain why nobody else can get a look in!

[sbain]

I've left DMC for 106 Medical Centre for exactly this reason. The GPs when you see them are great but getting an appt is impossible. For someone with a job and two young kids it was just ridiculous. So far my experience of 106 has been great - easy to get appointments and a lovely doctor (you even get to see the same doctor more than once which was impossible at DMC).

One thing to note when I was still with DMC and was told that I couldn't pre-book my son's routine vacinations until the were overdue by nearly two months (setting his whole vacination schedule back) I complained to the medical ombudsman - suddenly an appointment became available.

I still left as the service was just too bad.

[kristymac1]

The appt system is chabging again at dmc, notice in window appears to suggest that you wont be given an appt until a doc calls you back to establish whether its necessary or not - seems like a pretty dire system to me. i cannot understand how a surgery can get its admin so wrong. i have been with dmc for 13yrs and its saving grace is one or two exceptional doctors but everytime i encounter the appt system i am tempted to leave...

[midivydale]

Yes I think leaving is probably the answer which is so sad as I truly like some of GP's there. I was also hoping to be pregnant again soon and am holding out as I would like the service of the lanes again.

But we cant go on like this, it is madness

[sbain]

I wonder if The Lanes have almost had an adverse effect on the surgery. In that lots of women who are planning to have children register with them. This leads to them having a lot of young families on their books, patients who by and large use a docor a LOT more than your average patient. Which in turn leads to problems getting appointments etc.