Difficulty with appointments
Lockdown affected my mental health considerably. I phoned my GP surgery on at least 8 or 9 occasions, trying to get help. I told them I was getting flashes of wanting to injure myself. I knew this was a dangerous red flag. All I got on every occasion was a trilling receptionist saying the exact same words, "All the phone triage appointments are gone for today, ring back tomorrow." I phone the Samaritans one morning at 3am and talked to them for 2 hours. In the end I had to turn to a private psychotherapist for some advice, but not ongoing treatment because it was unaffordable as I was prevented from working. I am self-employed. I now have some kind of PTSD which has left me completely unable to phone my surgery. I know they hardly answer the phone at all anyway now and waiting times are 30-50 minutes. But I know if I was told there were no appointments and to ring back tomorrow I would start screaming and not stop. I CANNOT phone this dreadful surgery, which is now part of a Group Practice. A neighbour, ex-Health Visitor, who used to work for one of the 6 surgeries now in this Group, refers to it as a "money-making conglomerate". Letters of complaint, no matter which surgery, are rumoured to all be sent to one GP who oversees everything and complaints just disappear. The Group offers the same dreadful website for each Practice and this is how I was able to make appointments. Not through the Make An Appointment part - because although 3 or 4 weeks appointments are listed, none are ever available. All gone. So I used to send a Message. I explained long ago about my PTSD and the way I was treated and they know I cannot phone the surgery, so I was told I could make an appointment through the Messages part of the website. But recently, needing an appointment for a bleeding mole on my back, I found the Messages part greyed out. I had to physical travel to the surgery to stand at the desk and ask to be seen. Only to be told that ALL first appointments are now phone consultations. I was THERE, physically there. They were suggesting I travel home, wait for a phone call and travel all the way back again! I said I would not and that I wanted a face to face appointment and I would wait. After much muttering and black looks in my direction, I was given a face to face appointment and saw the doctor 10 minutes later. She immediately fast-tracked me for possible malignant melanoma. While I was there I asked WHY the Messages part of the website was greyed out. Oh, there were 'too many' messages and the poor Receptionists had to read them all! So they now deny patients the possibility of sending a Message at all! Lazy and uncaring. More recently I developed what I felt might be a chest infection. I am 65 and asthmatic and felt concerned. But I could not phone the surgery. If I go to lift the phone I start shaking and crying, because of what they did to me during lockdown. I felt too ill to travel to the Practice, stand in long queue and have to argue for a face to face appointment to save me a second journey. Instead I made an appointment with a private GP, whose practice is very close to my home, where I knew I would be seen promptly. I had turned to them during lockdown, because they answered the phone immediately and face to face appointments were and still are, the norm there. Cost for consultation £75, cost for antibiotic prescription, £9.65. Cost for the thyroid tests and treatment I had to have from them during lockdown - and now - because my GP refuses to treat me properly for the thyroid problem - has run in to hundreds of pounds. £150 annually for thyroid blood tests, £9.60 for every prescription, which would be free if it were NHS because hypothyroidism is a lifelong condition. My NHS GP Practice was fine before lockdown and before it became a money-making conglomerate. Now it is appalling. On the two occasions I have stood in a queue in the surgery, everyone is complaining about the wait for the phone to be answered, the lack of face to face appointments, etc. I need help for the PTSD caused by my GPs appalling service during lockdown, but do not know how to go about getting it. I cannot afford private psychotherapy. It is entirely the NHS GPs fault, and they should provide help, but I cannot phone the surgery, cannot leave a Message on the awful website.