Telephone phobia

I emailed my GP to complain about them not phoning me back after NHS111 made an appointment with them to do that. I waited all morning getting more and more stressed and upset. I vomitted, I had stomach cramps, I had a headache all due to my anxiety. In the end my husband drove down to the surgery to ask what was going on and they claimed not to know anything about it. 
Anyway, as I said, I emailed them to complain about the lack of communication between them and NHS111, explained how it made me feel and asked if there could be a different system for neurodivergent patients. So what did they do? they TELEPHONED me. Really, what is the point???

Parents
  • To be fair, NHS111 made an appointment for a call, you complained about not having a call, so they called you. It is the simplest solution for them to close the complaint.

    I don't think people realise how hard a phone can be if they have never experienced it.

    My surgery allows for you to email a question to a doctor. They respond within a few days. It does not stop you waiting for the email but there is no pressure to wait by a phone to speak in real time and worry what to say. If they can't answer or they want to see you they may ask you to book an appointment.

Reply
  • To be fair, NHS111 made an appointment for a call, you complained about not having a call, so they called you. It is the simplest solution for them to close the complaint.

    I don't think people realise how hard a phone can be if they have never experienced it.

    My surgery allows for you to email a question to a doctor. They respond within a few days. It does not stop you waiting for the email but there is no pressure to wait by a phone to speak in real time and worry what to say. If they can't answer or they want to see you they may ask you to book an appointment.

Children
  • Obviously I didn’t explain properly. GP surgery claimed not to know anything about NHS111 booking a telephone appointment. I wanted to know who had screwed up and how they could stop it happening again. My best guess is that GP surgery didn’t bother to check messages but that’s for them to sort out. My point was that having explained in great detail in my email exactly why I find telephone calls so traumatic, they should have responded to my email BY email and not by telephoning me.