Correct attitude when the days are this cold and the nights this dark!

I could have had this appointment last week.

I’m not complaining about the doctors, or the receptionists. I’m just SO pissed off that once more, an LLM has been brought in to solve problems and it ISN’T. It’s honestly disgusting.

So, there’s my old person complaint. (10/fin)

I now have a telephone appointment sometime after 9am.

I love telephone appointments for stuff like this; the GP doesn’t need to see me in person to look at my history of vitamin deficiencies and thyroid problems.

But to be clear, if I hadn’t been told to use a faulty AI tool… (9)

I want to be clear, this is not her fault! She was really helpful!

But this now meant I still didn’t have an appointment, three days after I tried to get one. Couldn’t get one over the weekend, so that’s 5 days.

I called this morning at 8am. Was on hold for 25 minutes (not bad!) (8)

I tried the symptom checker again, I tried the medication review again, and then I decided to call the GP surgery.

I got through quite quickly and the receptionist was LOVELY. I explained the situation and she suggested I call on Monday morning (today) at 8am to book an appointment. (7)

…it didn’t work. I received a text message, saying that to book an appointment I needed to log into the app at 10am the following day.

Ah well, I thought, at least that’s some progress, right?

Yeah, when I logged into the app the next morning, there was no record of my appointment request (6)

So next time, instead of saying these symptoms are new, I said I wanted a medication review (which is sort of true, my levothyroxine dose might need adjusting).

The system told me I would get a phone call from a GP within 5 working days.

Amazing, I thought. It worked! (5)

I tried this twice, and on both occasions AskFirst STILL wouldn’t give me an appointment, instead saying my symptoms suggest I need urgent attention and should call 111.

I don’t WANT to call 111, I want a GP to approve my blood tests. (4)

My surgery? It has an app. An AI-powered app, called AskFirst.

So, last week I logged into AskFirst to book an appointment. Except, obviously, you can’t just pick a day and a time, that would be too easy.

Instead you have to use the Symptom Checker, so the AI can assess your needs (3)

So, I just need a blood test to figure out what the exact problem is so I can fix it.

To GET a blood test, I need to speak to a GP first, especially because I recently moved and am new to this surgery.

Well, as most people know, you can’t just GET a GP appointment these days. (2)

I live in London, it all feels very familiar.

Absolutely hate when this happens. Just, endless woozy, dizziness and zero “payoff”.

I can think of a few…

I’ve got two hot water bottles on the go.

Oh my GOSH get both of these in my basket immediately 😍

As an author originally from York, thank you Rachael.