r/Glasgow Tools

best tip i can give is insist it's an emergency every time you phone up.

​

i've just stopped going. it sounds horrible but it's true. i'm trying to get healthcare, not do the clyde 1 phone in.

how my GP currently works is you have to call up at opening time.... although because so many other people are also trying to phone up at opening time, really you're put on hold for 40 mins. at that point, they've usually filled out their capacity for the day and will tell you "if it's urgent, go to the emergency room" maybe out of the 50 times i've phoned up, i've managed to convince them i needed an appointment 3 times and given a next day appointment. the issue is 2 of those 3 times, i didn't get seen because they didn't open the practice because of staff shortages.

i basically got forced off my anti-depressants during the pandemic. they wanted to review how i was doing on them but i couldn't get an appointment (they wouldn't even give me a phone appointment) and they told me if i couldn't get an appointment by a certain date, they'd stop renewing my prescription. couldn't get one and they stopped renewing my prescription. i'll tell you this, there was a month where i was coming off the meds and i felt like shit. i ended up leveling out eventually but still.

the worst part has been trying to get my teeth fixed. i have multiple teeth that need pulled but i have sensory issues thanks to my autism and as a result, it's down on my file that i need to be put under general anesthetic, not local. the emergency team at the dental hospital have told me they can't do anything and i need to be referred onto a different team. they can't refer me on and it HAS to be my GP that does it. my GP has flat out refused or sent me on wild goose chases saying stuff like "oh, we can't refer you on, it has to be the dental emergency team" when i've told the dental emergency team this, they've told me "no, it has to be your GP" when i went back to my GP, they basically said "oh a dental practitioner should be able to do so" when i explained to them i've not been able to sign up for an NHS dentist, they basically told me "oh well the best thing to do is go private, fork out the £100 for the initial meeting then get them to refer you on" i do that and the private dentist says "i dunno why they said that. we can't refer people onto an anesthesiologist" so i wasted £100. i made a complaint to the NHS about how i've been treated, many emails have been sent to different departments over the course of a year of how i've been treated and i'm still no closer to getting seen. at one point the GP head basically said "if you get your dental records from the private dentist, then we'll refer you on" i did so (and made photo copies just in case) and they've said they were going to refer me and haven't. then turns out the reason i've not been referred on was because they never got my dental records despite me dropping them off at the GP in person. i've now given them my records 4 times and still not been seen.

my favorite moment was when i just showed up at GP without an appointment wanting to be seen, the receptionist wouldn't talk to me unless i had an appointment and if i wanted an appointment, i'd have to phone up. i phone up the GP in the line of sight of the receptionist staring at her as she answers the phone and when she realises it's me phoning her, she tells me it's rude to use my phone in a doctors reception and to call back some other time.

sorry for the rant, i do hope you have less of a hard time as i've been having but it might be worth going to the emergency room if it gets too bad. also don't be afraid to make complaints. they make it difficult to do so and they'll try at any moment to drop your complaint, but it's something.