They wont know the doc calling you back as many now use a ‘hub’ of docs. That hub is made up of any number of docs form several surgeries nominated by each region’s CCG. Also, many docs withhold their number so your phone will have no idea how is ringing you.
EDITED to add 
to withhold your number, put 141 first and then the number you are calling.
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Thanks, LD & Mr F.
The penny is just in the process of dropping…
About 6 months ago I added my mobile number, to my details, at the surgery, at their request, as a second number. My Landline number was my chosen number 1.
I wasn’t worried about that because I thought that they would try the back up number if the first one didn’t work. (Thus a call to the land line would be recorded on the answer machine & I could ring back - I thought!)
Wrong. They seem never to have tried the other number, if they can’t get through on the mobile.
Looks like I’ll have to get used to getting medical calls, whilst shopping at Aldi, or on the golf course, or whatever.
Or stay in!
The answer is, do as I do and don’t play golf. I can’t even hit the ball.
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Going for an MRI On Monday on the head, appointment letter arrived today, this is one noisy machine, a two pairs of ear protectors noisy.
Any way I am having the Gadolinium contrast medium is used in about 1 in 3 of MRI scans to improve the clarity of the images or pictures of your body’s internal structures. This improves the diagnostic accuracy of the MRI scan. For example, it improves the visibility of inflammation, tumours, blood vessels and, for some organs, blood supply.
I find that I get tingling in my man bits from the contrast but to be honest I haven’t had this stuff before. 
Strange thing is I had not long spoken to my GP about when she thought I might get it and lo and behold the letter, snail mail, really in the 21st century, seemingly a NHS email service with password and code is not secure enough but sending by mail is?
Nowt to concern yourself about, though they are noisy.
Marge, some time ago, set up the first MRI scanner at our local neuro hospital in Manchester and I was asked by her to volunteer to act as a patient. No problem. In fact, I found it very interesting. It was a little loud, but I was given ear protection. Of course, they now use more powerful magnets and so are even louder, but the last one I had (as a patient) several weeks ago was perfectly tolerable (with ear protection).
Just ensure you remove anything metal. I almost forgot to take out my hearing aids - they would have gone flying toward the scanner and would likely have been ruined!
I am not concerned in the slightest as its not the first I have had which is how I know it is a noisy bugger.
I get the metal bit given that the machine uses a massive magnetic field to generate images, the radiographer got a bit miffed when I tried to have closer look at the scanner because of my glasses. 
Doctors surgeries getting worse, tell me about it. I used to have a blood pressure test once every 6 months at the surgery. Now they ask for me to have it done at home and send in the results.
I have a blood pressure machine that syncs with my smartphone but you can get fairly decent models for around 20 quid for just doing a twice daily reading.
we also have a machine to test blood pressure etc
That’s fancy! We have a common-or-garden one (you can use it in the garden) and with my health problems Marge reminds me to use it whenever I have a ‘funny turn’.
I can see the sense, of course, as 3 weeks ago I had a seizure and, apparently, my heart stopped for 10-12 seconds. Rather worrying. They implanted a pacemaker the next day.
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@Tedc ,ln lieu of blood thinners Ted, drink plenty of alcohol !
It also de-stresses the body !!
Donkeyman! 
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After reading all of this thread and watching the media at the moment
it seems to me that the medical profession has set out to
deliberately cause the NHS to become unworkable ??
Unbelievable this may be , but could this be true ??
Donkeyman! 
I do think that at least some of them are being greedy.
Perhaps they see the amounts that American doctors are being paid and feel they deserve the same.
@JBR , Well the NHS average consultancy rate of pay is listed as
£84,500 to £92000 pa.
This amount is only what they earn via the NHS , which is only a small portion
of their total income !!
So yes, you are correct to say greed is a factor imo !!
Donkeyman!
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Thought I would do a very small survey of the local surgeries in my area of which thee are three. One answered immediately, one told me I was 30th in the queue and the third told me I might need to wait and then switched to an engaged signal.
Not sure what I have learned but if I need to change surgeries the one that answered right away looks like the one for me.
I and many of my friends think that GP services in our area have actually got worse over the years.
When I was a child we had one doctor in the village and a district nurse. They cared for everybody. You went to the surgery without an appointment and sat there until you got seen. They visited people at home, delivered babies, did injections, blood tests, dressings and prescribed. The only time you had to leave the village was if they referred you to hospital for an operation.
Over the years they joined up with other practices and now they have at least 20 doctors on their books, a team of nurses and loads of receptionists with a main surgery and two smaller ones. Until recently you could go to the closest surgery (if you could get in) and they made up prescriptions from there. Now the smaller 2 surgeries no longer make up prescriptions - these are done only at the main surgery and repeat prescriptions now take SEVEN days!
They have cut back and cut back the opening hours of the 2 small surgeries and one of them is down to just 2 hours in the mornings which is hopeless.
Another thing they have stopped doing are blood tests unless you are disabled. They ask you to go to the health centre adjoined to a hospital 14 miles away, so a 28 mile round trip and we have a poor bus service. Their excuse is that it’s quicker to process. However, I refuse because I think if we all go along with this they will eventually stop blood tests altogether. They don’t like you refusing and make it as awkward as they can to get you an appointment with a nurse to draw blood.
When my Mum was alive her house was literally opposite the GP surgery and she was in her 90’s. She just had to cross her little quiet road. Probably 20 steps from her gate. Sometimes they would not see her there and I had to take her in the car to the bigger surgery a 12 mile round trip.
We seem to be going backwards here.
If only it was just GP’s that are getting worse. I received a letter informing me that a couple of surgical procedures had been postponed, fair enough what with COVID and the backlog, except the government here in Scotland did not make any statements on how they were going to address this issue.
I have since learnt purely by chance, I had a look though my hospital records while the consultant took a call and saw that the ops had not been postponed but cancelled and that I would need to through the whole referral process again which of course will take that much longer.
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In my opinion, if a medical facility (e.g. Surgery) is Managed, totally, by the group of Doctors, and does not answer to the NHS, it is a PRIVATE business.
If they are sitting in there (or at home) busily assigning their daily calls to Private facilities, whilst, responding to the NHS calls by telephone, That’s even more of a PRIVATE business.
Let’s face it, the NHS only exists in the shape of Hospitals.
Are they the next to go?
Am sure that someone on here who likes doing this sort of thing might see if I’m right in thinking that the increase in the population hasn’t been matched by a proportional increase in the number of GPs and other medical staff.