Paphos Life

Morning.

Just got back home from the hospital, I did get there at 5.45am and the registration queue was already bursting, somehow I got number 5 although no others asked for my GP in front of me, some in the waiting room had even lower numbers how is this possible?

Talking to my new GP they are short of GP's I was told down to four GP's, it looks like this maybe a real problem as it is bad enough now, be warned get there early avoid a long wait. On this why do they not have an Admin to dispense repeat prescriptions who do not need to see a GP, then just maybe the queues will decline some.

Flu jab had this done while I waited, if anyone has this it is open for business, closed for a break at 10am for an hour.

JimX,

Have you enquired whether there is a 'flying doctor' service that attends a village near you. In Anarita a doctor attends local municipality buildings every fortnight and you can get repeat prescriptions there, plus a cup of coffee whilst waiting.They even sell the stickers to go on the back of the prescription. You still pay the €3 as if you were attending the General but at least it saves the hassle of trying to see a GP at the General.

Yes, you still have to go to the General to get the prescription filled but you can do that on a normal shopping visit to Paphos as you can be in and out in 10 minutes and only have to navigate one queue. If you go at about midday you can usually even get a car parking spot in the car park at the front of the building.

My wife uses the 'Village Doctor' but can be in the waiting room for more than an hour very often.
At Polemi, Kallepia and Fiti, there is also pharmacist there that dispenses the medicines. Never need to go to the general for them..

These village doctors for repeat prescriptions sound handy , also location of a pharmacy that can fill them would be good .

Does anyone know if there is such a service in Tala ?

There are no acting GP doctors in our village maybe because we are only five minute drive from the General, it would indeed be very handy but the problem looks to be a severe lack of GPs at the main hospital.

When we lived in Cyprus I always read these early morning visit posts to the Paphos General Hospital with wonder because whenever I needed to go to the Limassol General Hospital we found if we went between 09:30 and 10:00 there only a handful of people before us.
Registered, GP seen, out with the meds and back home in under 90 minutes was the norm for us.
Why are the two places so very different, I wonder?
Has anyone tried going to Paphos General at a later time to see if the queues are shorter?
#ThursdayThought

I have been to the general later in the morning and the queues are not too bad for a GP. Also I never go early for blood tests, preferring to go around 8-45am

Cheers Trev!

Both of us at General today.
Arrived about 10.30am, got parked easily at front
car park.
Only about 6 - 8 in front of us at registration.

Spent about 10 -15 mins with doctor, who wrote
repeat prescripts.
Collected the prescripts from pharmacy, and left car park about 11.15am.

Same for us re. blood tests. About 8-00 - 8-30.
Always seems to be relatively clear.

It appears being late to the party is the order of the day then

It was the same in the U.K. I occasionally had to go to our local ( Orsett) for a blood test which opened its ticket system at 8am only to find people had been signing in their arrival time in the book the staff left out the night before - from about 6:45am! It’s used to drive me crazy, especially as most of those booked in were of retirement age and (big assumption on my part) probably had all day to go there unlike those who had to get into work. The staff got through the tests very quickly so that by about 8:15 they had caught up with all of those “in the book”,so I wised up, got their for about that time and was in and out in 10 or 15 mins compared to thise who Sat there for over an hour for the privilege of being out a few mins before me. Bonkers.

Paphos general blood test are not something to look forward to. Unless you push in, then there is really no way to beat the queue. No doubt people do arrive before 7am. You need to take a ticket from the machine on the wall and then go to the registration window with your forms.. You have to have 50c stamps on the back so you need to get those from another window. At registration you get entered into a book and get the phials for the blood to be put in. Then you join the queue or Melee outside the blood testing room. They let 6 to 10 people in at once,,,, according to your ticket number.
As mentioned if you go just before 9am when registration Closes, sometimes it is not too busy.

You can register when the desk opens which I think is 6:30am until it closes around 1:00pm butttttttt they may turn people away if the GP's are "full"! Although, the GP's don't usually start seeing people until 8:00ish, it is Cyprus after all! When my wife takes one of her clients to see a GP I usually go early to book in so that we get an early appointment but I have never managed to get better than no. 3 even if I turn up at 6:30am! But others have found the same & we all wonder how this can happen?


Shane

I have never heard that you HAVE to register before a certain time.. I know JIMX seems to like being there early in the queue.. Also if there are less GP's there now then it MAY be that if you go later in the day the GP's may not have any places left to see anyone else..
BUT, as Brian has said, he and his wife went today at 10-30 and quickly saw a GP.... got their tablets from the pharmacy and were soon on their way home.
I have never had problems seeing a GP later in the morning.
Do bear in mind that some people seem to want to see a particular GP, and if it is a popular one, then they will be busy...

Perhaps a lot of people go early because they can go straight to work after?

Have read elsewhere that GPs see up to 30 patients per day. Also that blood tests have to be completed by a certain time. Hence the need for some people to get there early.

You are right about the blood test being done before certain time.. You have to have got a registration ticket from the machine before 9am.. The actual blood tests are then taken, until all the patients are seen and tested..

PhotoLady wrote: ↑Thu Oct 11, 2018 4:38 pm It appears being late to the party is the order of the day then

Methinks you're being a bit of an upstart Jules!!!

I soooooo remember visiting the General when we lived in Paphos. Having little conversations in my head. . . . . . . . "Why are there ten people going into that one Consultation room?" . . . . "Why is that person coming in here whilst I am going through the bloody menopause trying to have a conversation with a DOCTOR who I am hoping is going to tell me that the Mount Vesuvius trying to burst through the top of my head (hot flush) will get better!

Ahhh memories.

Maggie B

PS I still have a smile on my face reminiscing.

trevnhil wrote: ↑Thu Oct 11, 2018 10:14 pm You are right about the blood test being done before certain time.. You have to have got a registration ticket from the machine before 9am.. The actual blood tests are then taken, until all the patients are seen and tested..

The ticket you get has nothing to do with registration, it just gives you a place in the queue to go into the room where they actually take the blood once registration is complete.

The Registration desk, adjacent to the ticket machine is where you hand over the blood test request sheets, with the due amount of stickers on the back, they then write up the required blood tests into a register and give you back the request sheets together with the required number of coordinated phials into which blood is eventually placed. (The registration desk closes at 9.00hrs.)

It is at this stage that the ticket number comes into play as you are called into the blood letting room in groups of 5 or 10 depending on the number of the ticket. So you have to find someone in the crowd waiting outside the room with a number just lower than yours to be able to gauge when you have to enter to have blood taken. Once inside you hand over the request sheets and the phials and it will all be over and you can go home with the piece of cotton over the needle puncture wound.

I've never been to Paphos General, should the need arise for tests, is it the same scenario at Polis? - we are more less half way between, or should i should stick to going private!