Petty Things That Get On Your Nerves...

[mathematics]

On 26/12/2023 at 12:31, mathematics said:

Smoke alarm battery warning beep. 1.30am. Problem is, it took me about 10 minutes to work out which one of the seven alarms it was.

 

On 26/12/2023 at 18:33, Boghead ranter said:

They never start going off during the day. 

Every fucking time.

[Boo Khaki]

Bloody GP reception staff, and Practice rules, sticking up barriers left and right to people actually being able to see a GP.

I moved surgery about 3.5 years back, right in the middle of Covid lockdown, and since then have never actually had to request a face-to-face with a GP. I had to go around to pick up a prescription, and there are a couple of things niggling me right now that I think probably do need to be looked at, or at least discussed with a GP in person. So I go into the surgery, get my prescription, and ask to make an appointment, only to be told it is impossible to arrange an appointment in person, while I'm actually stood in the bloody surgery.

Phone call only, seemingly, which is impossible for me since I had the landline removed about 6 months ago and do not own a mobile. Asked about what the contingency is for people who either can not, or will not use a telephone, the best they could come up with was "get someone else to phone on your behalf". When pointed out that this is also not a possibility for some people, I was told there was absolutely no other option. Email, written requests, requests in person, nope, simply not possible. 

So I ask if I can speak to the practice manager... nope, he's not on site, come back on Monday. I come back on Monday, nope, he's still not on site. This is all taking place during typical office hours, so I'm left wondering when he does actually bloody work. 

I'm fully of a mind to make this into a formal complaint if they don't resolve it or at least come up with some common sense alternative for people who can't use a phone, only to finally have them concede that if you turn up in person at 8:30 in the morning, then they will try to give you a face-to-face there and then because "we can't refuse to see you".

According to their own staff, I can stand at the reception desk, pull out a phone, and make a call and request an appointment, and they'll entertain that, but if I put the phone away and just talk to the lassie face-to-face, somehow this renders them incapable of arranging an appointment. 

You might think I'm just being petty, trying to cause a fight etc, but I'm not. I advocate for people with a range of physical disabilities, mental health conditions, addictions and so on, and some of them genuinely can not make telephone calls. I find it preposterous that a GP Practice can seemingly work on the basis of what suits themselves first and foremost, and away to f**k with the needs of the patients they are supposed to actually be caring for.

Edited January 17 by Boo Khaki

[jimbaxters]

1 hour ago, Boo Khaki said:

Bloody GP reception staff, and Practice rules, sticking up barriers left and right to people actually being able to see a GP.

I moved surgery about 3.5 years back, right in the middle of Covid lockdown, and since then have never actually had to request a face-to-face with a GP. I had to go around to pick up a prescription, and there are a couple of things niggling me right now that I think probably do need to be looked at, or at least discussed with a GP in person. So I go into the surgery, get my prescription, and ask to make an appointment, only to be told it is impossible to arrange an appointment in person, while I'm actually stood in the bloody surgery.

Phone call only, seemingly, which is impossible for me since I had the landline removed about 6 months ago and do not own a mobile. Asked about what the contingency is for people who either can not, or will not use a telephone, the best they could come up with was "get someone else to phone on your behalf". When pointed out that this is also not a possibility for some people, I was told there was absolutely no other option. Email, written requests, requests in person, nope, simply not possible. 

So I ask if I can speak to the practice manager... nope, he's not on site, come back on Monday. I come back on Monday, nope, he's still not on site. This is all taking place during typical office hours, so I'm left wondering when he does actually bloody work. 

I'm fully of a mind to make this into a formal complaint if they don't resolve it or at least come up with some common sense alternative for people who can't use a phone, only to finally have them concede that if you turn up in person at 8:30 in the morning, then they will try to give you a face-to-face there and then because "we can't refuse to see you".

According to their own staff, I can stand at the reception desk, pull out a phone, and make a call and request an appointment, and they'll entertain that, but if I put the phone away and just talk to the lassie face-to-face, somehow this renders them incapable of arranging an appointment. 

You might think I'm just being petty, trying to cause a fight etc, but I'm not. I advocate for people with a range of physical disabilities, mental health conditions, addictions and so on, and some of them genuinely can not make telephone calls. I find it preposterous that a GP Practice can seemingly work on the basis of what suits themselves first and foremost, and away to f**k with the needs of the patients they are supposed to actually be caring for.

Agree totally with the sentiment of this post and it seems outrageously different from the NHS I once knew. However, not surprised it was a bit of a head scratcher for them when you said you don't have a phone of any kind. Highly unusual in today's world.

[Boo Khaki]

11 minutes ago, jimbaxters said:

Agree totally with the sentiment of this post and it seems outrageously different from the NHS I once knew. However, not surprised it was a bit of a head scratcher for them when you said you don't have a phone of any kind. Highly unusual in today's world.

I agree that it's unusual, but I wouldn't accept that it should just be assumed that every single adult does own and use one. The last time I had a mobile I made an average of four calls a year, and since I book my haircut appointments online, and do all my work-related stuff via email, booking a Doctors appointment on average once every five years or so would literally be the only use of it, and I am not purchasing and operating a mobile for that purpose alone.

[jimbaxters]

7 minutes ago, Boo Khaki said:

I agree that it's unusual, but I wouldn't accept that it should just be assumed that every single adult does own and use one. The last time I had a mobile I made an average of four calls a year, and since I book my haircut appointments online, and do all my work-related stuff via email, booking a Doctors appointment on average once every five years or so would literally be the only use of it, and I am not purchasing and operating a mobile for that purpose alone.

Fair enough about the mobile but there can't be many people in the U.K who have no phone of any kind.

[Boo Khaki]

1 minute ago, jimbaxters said:

Fair enough about the mobile but there can't be many people in the U.K who have no phone of any kind.

You'd be surprised. It isn't at all unusual in people with serious, life-long mental health conditions. A lot of them crave isolation, view phones with suspicion, and in some cases they actually play a significant part in fostering and furthering delusions, so they either have very atypical relationships with phones or eschew them altogether. I spend a lot of time arranging GP appointments on their behalf, hence why I knew immediately I was being flannelled by my own lot.

[The Moonster]

2 hours ago, Boo Khaki said:

Bloody GP reception staff, and Practice rules, sticking up barriers left and right to people actually being able to see a GP.

I moved surgery about 3.5 years back, right in the middle of Covid lockdown, and since then have never actually had to request a face-to-face with a GP. I had to go around to pick up a prescription, and there are a couple of things niggling me right now that I think probably do need to be looked at, or at least discussed with a GP in person. So I go into the surgery, get my prescription, and ask to make an appointment, only to be told it is impossible to arrange an appointment in person, while I'm actually stood in the bloody surgery.

Phone call only, seemingly, which is impossible for me since I had the landline removed about 6 months ago and do not own a mobile. Asked about what the contingency is for people who either can not, or will not use a telephone, the best they could come up with was "get someone else to phone on your behalf". When pointed out that this is also not a possibility for some people, I was told there was absolutely no other option. Email, written requests, requests in person, nope, simply not possible. 

So I ask if I can speak to the practice manager... nope, he's not on site, come back on Monday. I come back on Monday, nope, he's still not on site. This is all taking place during typical office hours, so I'm left wondering when he does actually bloody work. 

I'm fully of a mind to make this into a formal complaint if they don't resolve it or at least come up with some common sense alternative for people who can't use a phone, only to finally have them concede that if you turn up in person at 8:30 in the morning, then they will try to give you a face-to-face there and then because "we can't refuse to see you".

According to their own staff, I can stand at the reception desk, pull out a phone, and make a call and request an appointment, and they'll entertain that, but if I put the phone away and just talk to the lassie face-to-face, somehow this renders them incapable of arranging an appointment. 

You might think I'm just being petty, trying to cause a fight etc, but I'm not. I advocate for people with a range of physical disabilities, mental health conditions, addictions and so on, and some of them genuinely can not make telephone calls. I find it preposterous that a GP Practice can seemingly work on the basis of what suits themselves first and foremost, and away to f**k with the needs of the patients they are supposed to actually be caring for.

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding this here but how did you manage to get prescriptions from a doctor you've never seen? 

[Boo Khaki]

Just now, The Moonster said:

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding this here but how did you manage to get prescriptions from a doctor you've never seen? 

It's a long-standing repeat prescription from pre-covid days when I was able to just walk into my old surgery and arrange an appointment. It's just carried over, and when I need a repeat, I drop the request form into their letterbox then go an pick up the script itself a few days later. 

I tried the auto-request and delivery system via the pharmacy, but unsurprisingly, like most things with the NHS these days they somehow managed to f**k that up completely and left me with no medication, so for the sake of expediency it's easier and more reliable to just do the donkeywork myself.

[The Moonster]

5 minutes ago, Boo Khaki said:

It's a long-standing repeat prescription from pre-covid days when I was able to just walk into my old surgery and arrange an appointment. It's just carried over, and when I need a repeat, I drop the request form into their letterbox then go an pick up the script itself a few days later. 

I tried the auto-request and delivery system via the pharmacy, but unsurprisingly, like most things with the NHS these days they somehow managed to f**k that up completely and left me with no medication, so for the sake of expediency it's easier and more reliable to just do the donkeywork myself.

Fair enough. Can I ask how you managed to change GP practice with no phone?

My experience of prescriptions being delievered to pharmacy is similar. I asked for it to be done once and after 2 straight days of going into the pharmacy to be told they had nothing I went into the practice and they had the prescription sitting with a pile of about 100 others. I absolutely despise the main woman who works there too, attitude stinks and seems to have a real issue with being civil to people. 

[Boo Khaki]

27 minutes ago, The Moonster said:

Fair enough. Can I ask how you managed to change GP practice with no phone?

My experience of prescriptions being delievered to pharmacy is similar. I asked for it to be done once and after 2 straight days of going into the pharmacy to be told they had nothing I went into the practice and they had the prescription sitting with a pile of about 100 others. I absolutely despise the main woman who works there too, attitude stinks and seems to have a real issue with being civil to people. 

In my last appointment at the old surgery I casually mentioned that I was in the process of trying to move home (it wasn't a typical one place one day, another place the next move due to Covid and I technically had two homes for a while), so of course the GP reminded me that as I was outside of their catchment I needed to look for a new surgery. I went around to the new place in person because it's 10 minutes walk from my current address, they gave me a paper application to complete, I filled it in and dropped it through their letterbox, they wrote to confirm they'd added me to their patient list. 

Re the prescription - I got one story from the pharmacist, a totally different story from the GP receptionist, both parties blaming the other for the f**k-up and claiming it was also down to the other to put right, neither would accept responsibility, so in the end I basically said f**k it, give me a paper prescription and I'll stick to doing it myself.

Just a final word on the staff - the ones at my place have always been perfectly civil and are usually friendly enough. I can't say the same for the Mrs's folk, as you get the impression they really want to herd you out of the building at the tip of a pitchfork rather than actually interact with you. Bunch of soor-faced cows who never hesitate to let you know you are putting their arses out of joint by having the temerity to ask them to do the basics of their job. Met plenty of these types through work as well. The one thing I did find odd is the first young lass on the reception was clearly split new, possibly a Temp, so she scooted off around the corner to put my questions to the assistant practice manager. I could hear the entirety of the conversation between them from where I was standing, and there was no reason at all why the more senior of them couldn't have got out of her chair and had the conversation with me directly rather than relaying it through the bamboozled youngster. She was sat no more than 10 feet away. But there you go, a very obvious example of "no my job" public sector behaviour played out right in front of me.

Edited January 17 by Boo Khaki

[hk blues]

We don't have any NHS where I am but we can get an appointment with a Doctor anytime we like, and in many cases walk-in appointments are the norm.  We have to pay between about a tenner per visit which is OK as long as you're not there every week.  The kicker is we have to pay 100% of medicine cost which can be pricey as can a hospital stay.  The system we had in Hong Kong was probably the best  where we has to pay about £4 to see the Doctor and medication was free - hospital stays were charged at the same £4 per day.  

[MEADOWXI]

10 hours ago, Nae Union said:

"Go on Ronnie." Shouted in a Guy Ritchie, wankney accent by absolute c***s that go to watch the snooker.

Add also,

Wankers that have to be the first to shout something unfunnily tedious after a golfer tees off,

Posh wankers having to be the last to shout before a shot is played at tennis,

Groups of wankers singing the 'yaya toure' or 'stand up' at the darts for what seems like century (both Toure brothers stop playing over 5 years ago, and they didn't play darts),

All these folk making watching snooker, darts, tennis & golf worse.

Bring back COVID and empty arenas or the P&B boot should be administered - especially to the ones at golf that shout 'mashed potato'.

 

[Central Belt Caley]

3 hours ago, Boo Khaki said:

Bloody GP reception staff, and Practice rules, sticking up barriers left and right to people actually being able to see a GP.

I moved surgery about 3.5 years back, right in the middle of Covid lockdown, and since then have never actually had to request a face-to-face with a GP. I had to go around to pick up a prescription, and there are a couple of things niggling me right now that I think probably do need to be looked at, or at least discussed with a GP in person. So I go into the surgery, get my prescription, and ask to make an appointment, only to be told it is impossible to arrange an appointment in person, while I'm actually stood in the bloody surgery.

Phone call only, seemingly, which is impossible for me since I had the landline removed about 6 months ago and do not own a mobile. Asked about what the contingency is for people who either can not, or will not use a telephone, the best they could come up with was "get someone else to phone on your behalf". When pointed out that this is also not a possibility for some people, I was told there was absolutely no other option. Email, written requests, requests in person, nope, simply not possible. 

So I ask if I can speak to the practice manager... nope, he's not on site, come back on Monday. I come back on Monday, nope, he's still not on site. This is all taking place during typical office hours, so I'm left wondering when he does actually bloody work. 

I'm fully of a mind to make this into a formal complaint if they don't resolve it or at least come up with some common sense alternative for people who can't use a phone, only to finally have them concede that if you turn up in person at 8:30 in the morning, then they will try to give you a face-to-face there and then because "we can't refuse to see you".

According to their own staff, I can stand at the reception desk, pull out a phone, and make a call and request an appointment, and they'll entertain that, but if I put the phone away and just talk to the lassie face-to-face, somehow this renders them incapable of arranging an appointment. 

You might think I'm just being petty, trying to cause a fight etc, but I'm not. I advocate for people with a range of physical disabilities, mental health conditions, addictions and so on, and some of them genuinely can not make telephone calls. I find it preposterous that a GP Practice can seemingly work on the basis of what suits themselves first and foremost, and away to f**k with the needs of the patients they are supposed to actually be caring for.

GP’s are very much a postcode lottery these days. I phoned up last year to ask to see the doctor in person and the lassie told me the booking for 3 weeks away (the next available appointments) opened the next again week. So I just sacked it off and paid for physio privately.

Whereas one of my colleagues lives in East Lothian and gets appointments the same day to go and tell the doctor all about his 7th cold of the winter. 

[Boo Khaki]

12 minutes ago, Central Belt Caley said:

GP’s are very much a postcode lottery these days. I phoned up last year to ask to see the doctor in person and the lassie told me the booking for 3 weeks away (the next available appointments) opened the next again week. So I just sacked it off and paid for physio privately.

Whereas one of my colleagues lives in East Lothian and gets appointments the same day to go and tell the doctor all about his 7th cold of the winter. 

Mrs is constantly tearing her hair out with exasperation at her own place. They have a policy of "phone at 08:30 to make an appointment", so she does that, only to perpetually encounter an engaged tone or be put on never-ending hold. The place is literally a 2 minute walk from her front door, so no reason why she can't go in directly, right? Well no, but...

She works core hours of 9 to 5 and has a 90 minute commute, so if she wants to go into the surgery she has no option but to request time off work to do it, and it's pointless anyway because even if you are in there at 8:30 on the dot, the place is already rammed with screeds of hypochondriac pensioners who have been queued up since 6am, and can wait all day long because they don't have any employment obligations either. 

So she's totally at the mercy of the one-in-a-million time that she does actually get through on the phone and manages to book an appointment for 3 to 4 weeks away from that point. "Go to A&E if it's an emergency" is trotted out, which is fine, but some things are pressing but not Accidents, or Emergencies, especially when you are a woman of an age where there are all sorts of bizarre and irregular hormonal things going on. What if the concoction of meds you are on suddenly starts having weird side effects? That's not an A&E matter, but it can't just be ignored for 3-4 weeks either, and then there's the fact that you can never see the same doctor twice, which means recounting your entire medical history every time you are in because they "don't have time to read your notes", and an endless litany of locums who "Won't do anything because you will see a permanent doctor next time and it's best left to them". 

Utterly hopeless.

Edited January 17 by Boo Khaki

[Leith Green]

9 minutes ago, Central Belt Caley said:

GP’s are very much a postcode lottery these days. I phoned up last year to ask to see the doctor in person and the lassie told me the booking for 3 weeks away (the next available appointments) opened the next again week. So I just sacked it off and paid for physio privately.

Whereas one of my colleagues lives in East Lothian and gets appointments the same day to go and tell the doctor all about his 7th cold of the winter. 

I live in central Edinburgh, had to follow up on a hip issue with the doctor and the only way to get an appointment is to call - on the dot of 8am and wait in the queue to make an appointment - getting one on the day is fine, but booking in advance seems almost impossible. I was fine, as I only really needed to confirm a detail to the doc so they called me back at 9.

It infuriates me that I have barely bothered my doctor for 20 years, and when I DO have to see the doc f2f I get the impression that the auld farts in the waiting room (a) didnt have to go through the 8am lottery like me, and (b) appear to see a visit to the GP as some kind of regular social event.

We have friends who moved to E Lothian last year, and their experience seems similar to your pal. Advantage of living in the sticks with fewer people, I guess?

[jimbaxters]

1 hour ago, Boo Khaki said:

Mrs is constantly tearing her hair out with exasperation at her own place. They have a policy of "phone at 08:30 to make an appointment", so she does that, only to perpetually encounter an engaged tone or be put on never-ending hold. The place is literally a 2 minute walk from her front door, so no reason why she can't go in directly, right? Well no, but...

She works core hours of 9 to 5 and has a 90 minute commute, so if she wants to go into the surgery she has no option but to request time off work to do it, and it's pointless anyway because even if you are in there at 8:30 on the dot, the place is already rammed with screeds of hypochondriac pensioners who have been queued up since 6am, and can wait all day long because they don't have any employment obligations either. 

So she's totally at the mercy of the one-in-a-million time that she does actually get through on the phone and manages to book an appointment for 3 to 4 weeks away from that point. "Go to A&E if it's an emergency" is trotted out, which is fine, but some things are pressing but not Accidents, or Emergencies, especially when you are a woman of an age where there are all sorts of bizarre and irregular hormonal things going on. What if the concoction of meds you are on suddenly starts having weird side effects? That's not an A&E matter, but it can't just be ignored for 3-4 weeks either, and then there's the fact that you can never see the same doctor twice, which means recounting your entire medical history every time you are in because they "don't have time to read your notes", and an endless litany of locums who "Won't do anything because you will see a permanent doctor next time and it's best left to them". 

Utterly hopeless.

Should maybe see the doctor about that.

[Boo Khaki]

54 minutes ago, jimbaxters said:

Should maybe see the doctor about that.

Well funnily enough, hair loss is one of the symptoms they've basically told her is just a consequence of being overweight and middle-aged. 

It's absolutely scandalous how frivolously the NHS treats menopause and perimenopause in UK women when you compare and contrast with how it's dealt with elsewhere. They get the exact same "lose weight and exercise more" shit that middle-aged men invariably get. It's risible.

[jimbaxters]

3 minutes ago, Boo Khaki said:

Well funnily enough, hair loss is one of the symptoms they've basically told her is just a consequence of being overweight and middle-aged. 

It's absolutely scandalous how frivolously the NHS treats menopause and perimenopause in UK women when you compare and contrast with how it's dealt with elsewhere. They get the exact same "lose weight and exercise more" shit that middle-aged men invariably get. It's risible.

Sorry pal, I was being facetious. Hope you both get sorted out.

[Boo Khaki]

27 minutes ago, jimbaxters said:

Sorry pal, I was being facetious. Hope you both get sorted out.

Yeah, I know, and don't worry, I took the joke as intended and appreciate the humour.

It's just such an all-consuming, constant topic right now, because she's really going through the wringer with other things going on in her life, and her health is all over the place and the NHS is doing literally f**k all to help her. So frustrating, especially because she has foreign colleagues at work who are flabbergasted at the NHS's intransigence and fill her in on what happens in their own countries. UK women don't even get the very basics of information and told about simple steps they can take themselves, such as taking certain supplements, and it's baffling as to why because it's pretty much an automatic thing elsewhere. It's as if the NHS thinks it can make a problem go away if it simply refuses to acknowledge it, and that wouldn't be a first either because it did exactly the same with MS for decades.

[Craig fae the Vale]

They're working on a water main outside my house and they have turned the water off for the afternoon. Coffee machine and kettle are both empty, so I'm gonna have to take a jaunt along to Greggs for a coffee.