GP Appointments

When we lived in London getting an appointment in less than 3 weeks was impossible, the same or next day was unheard of, and the receptionists were offhand and obstructive. When I was unable to keep one appointment (I was actually in hospital!) I was sent a letter threatening to remove me from the patient register.

Fast forward to the present day and now our village surgery is less than 5 minutes walk away. We can make appts. in person, by phone or online, and it's very rare that we have to wait more than a week to see a doctor. If I need an urgent appt. they can usually squeeze me in somewhere, or perhaps with a doctor at a practice in the next village. If it's urgent I really don't mind who I see or where. As soon as an appointment is booked I get a text message reminder. The receptionists are polite, friendly and very helpful. Yes, they do ask questions to direct patients to the most appropriate doctor or nurse, but I think that is reasonable. Prescriptions are usually ready within 2 days and there is a dispensary at the surgery, or I can collect from the chemist around the corner. Numerous specialist clinics are available at the surgery and are well attended.

My surgery has the system that you call and key in your number and then you get a callback from a doctor to discuss whether your situation can be dealt with by phone or whether you need an actual appointment.

I really dislike this system as it really difficult if you have a job where you cannot take calls.

I have an appointment at 11.20 this morning made online at 8 am with my doctor of choice, he also had an 11.30 appointment available and several other doctors were also free at various times today. The only down side is the appointment is at another surgery further away than my own surgery but if I want to see him that's where he is today. I'm in London and it's two very busy surgeries that have joined forces but at least it seems to be working for us the patients.

Am getting ready for an appointment now, having booked this nearly 3 weeks ago. We are similar to others, either stand outside the surgery at 7.50, or join the phone bunfight at 8 am ..” you are number 21” . Arghhhhh!

Some horror stories here. Not sure how it will help but I usually contact my MP and cc to anyone else I can think of- Patient Care Council, Minister, anyone else. If we all complain maybe they will take heed.

Ours is same day appointments only, no booking in advance.

At my Doctors surgery you can’t make appointment ahead of time which is frustrating instead you have to phone them on the morning to book an appointment for that day and hope you get one before they’re all gone. If it’s an emergency they will see you at the end of clinic. I’m not impressed in how they handle how we book appointments now at all. ☹️?

At our GPs the only sure way to get an appointment is to stand outside at 6:50am and wait until they open the door at 7 am to get an appointment. They turn the phones on at 8 am. If one is lucky enough to get through before 8:30am you stand a small chance of getting an appointment otherwise all spaces are taken. Ridiculous set up. Appointments should be done away with and it should be walk in and take your turn. The doctor only has to bring your notes up on his computer, it’s not rocket science. Makes me mad. This government makes life awkward in so many ways, they could not run a bath let-alone a country.

My GP surgery closed last year the nearest one a mile away said that I was not in the catchment area to register, the next nearest was not taking new patents there was only one offer, three miles away, I have to get two buses, and a ten minute walk. Who wants to do that when they feel ill, and the only way to have an appointment is to go to the surgery at 8pm on the day that you want to be seen, join a long queue, where you may or may not be given an appointment for later that day, so not only do I have to do the journey once I sometimes have to it twice.

Oh dear. Just reading all these posts makes me long for the past - when you could just 'go to the doctor's', be given a number, and sit awaiting your turn. Why has it all changed?

Here, we ring the doctor's surgery for an appointment, then have to wait for a doctor to ring back. He will then decide if an appointment is necessary. (And it's rarely on that day.)

I suffer occasionally from sciatica (which is excruciating). On my first attack - a couple of years ago - I 'phoned the surgery and was offered an appointment. I said that I couldn't walk (I was at screaming pitch every time I moved!) and could I have a home visit. I was immediately prescribed morphine over the 'phone - the prescription would be waiting at the surgery if I could get someone to collect it. Luckily, I could - but what if I had nobody to collect it for me? (And, it seems to me a bit 'dodgy' to be prescribing such a strong drug, with such ease and without any proper consultation.)

A subsequent attack of sciatica happened on a Sunday. We have a Walk-In-Centre here, so I contacted them. Again explained that there was no way I could get there. They were absolutely wonderful! Sent a guy on a motorbike to deliver Diazapam! And was told to take one tablet and then attend the Walk-In-Centre an hour later, where they prescribed a course of drugs to take.

Would it be possible to get a home visit now? I doubt it! Do doctors even do home visits now???

At my practice it’s very unusual to get an appointment at all.
Very occasionally you can get an emergency one if you call before 8am, but you are usually told to try another day or to call an ambulance.
Someone must be getting the available appointments, but that someone has never been me.
I just go to our local pharmacist if I’m poorly.

I live in a city and our new practice (old one just across the road folded when the main partner retired) has online appointments that can be booked with your choice of GP, usually a couple of weeks, or you can ring and possibly get one earlier or a same day for urgent matters. Our practice actively promotes seeing the same doctor for the same issue for continuity of care - its rated good by patients and the inspectors. Our old GP would have a standard appointment available in a couple of days (small practice) or same day for urgent matters. New surgery is fine but miss our old GP who had been our doctor for 15 years.

I haven’t read all the responses to JustGrandma ‘s post, but I suspect there is a wide range. My own GP surgery is currently in a Brexit-like state of chaos, and my MP is investigating the situation. The surgery has no regular GP and is staffed by a dedicated and stressed-out team of nurses and office staff plus, on a good day, a locum doctor. The computer system has just been “upgraded” so this usual flock of headless chickens is now all but legless as well.
As far as getting an appointment goes, the process does nothing to improve patients’ health. Those who have been fortunate enough not to have needed a visit to the surgery within the past 5 years are confronted with bemusing systems that will probably have changed again by the time the appointment actually happens. Old hands stoically go along with the latest “improvement” to the service; or they complain. Visiting the local pharmacy or phoning 111 is often resorted to if advice is required in a supposed non-life threatening situation. If the situation can be interpreted as potentially life threatening the Emergency Department at our local hospital is obviously the place to go. No wonder the staff at ED are working under great pressure; and ending up at their GP surgery.

I can't see a doctor unless the receptionist says it's ok. I had a letter from the doctor asking me to make an appointment but I still didn't get one. The general response is go to a walk in clinic. I think the NHS has lost the plot

Don’t know where the end of the post went but the last line did say I’m just assuming if I was dying she would have contacted me!

Four of the surgerys in our town, including mine, joined together so now if you need an emergency appointment you can be seen on the day but it can be in any of the surgerys not necessarily your own. Obviously this isn’t great if you haven’t got a car that day! Otherwise you have to phone exactly 1 week before you want an appointment. Usually by the time you get through the appointments for the following week have gone so you have to try again the next day. I saw a doctor in the summer who wanted to see me again after some test results came in but I’ve given up trying now. I’m just assuming that if i

A few weeks ago I read that they’re going to be bringing in joint gp appointments with other patients who may h@ve the same condition. Thereby you attend a gp appointment and there may be 2 other patients in the sane consultation as you. I understand that peer support can help, etc but there’s no way I would discuss personal things in front of people I don’t know and never met before.

I will not do it.

I do object to having to discuss my symptoms with the receptionist before I can be considered for an appointment!

Starbird can you not make two appointments to discuss 2 issues?

I’ve no idea what makes our GP surgery tick.Last app I got was for 5 weeks away.When I git there my doctor was on holiday ( pre-booked) and my app was no longer valid . I had to make another app with a different doctor and that was 3 weeks! I’ve given up being ill.

On telephoning the surgery if it is not life threatening one is triaged. If it is not urgent and you want to see a particular doctor you have to wait at least amonth before getting an appointment. Problem is this village is growing with a lot of newcomers and the practice covers several surrounding villages in a fifteen mile radius. It is difficult to recruit new GPS apart from newly qualified foreign ones. It is impossible to get a home visit these days.

I phone the surgery and I'm asked if it's urgent. If it's not they make an appointment in about 7 - 10 days time. My son was recently asked to leave the surgery as he's married and has moved to a new area. I was shocked to be asked to move too, although I'm only a 10 minute drive away. The doctor said she wasn't asking me to leave, only suggesting it.

Just Grandma. On line repeat prescriptions are ideal, and which I get delivered, if you get what you had been prescribed.This says to me pressure on surgeries unable to cope.. One such instance was a highly toxic drug sent to me which was not on my list of repeats or that I had ever been prescribed and could have been disastrous had it fallen into the wrong hands. My repeats then began to come in the wrong form and I had been advised by the local pharmacy, when queried, that these were the instructions from the surgery. Considering I had been taking this medication in its easy to administer form for a number of years and no it was no more expensive in what ever form it came for my on going health issue and I would always need this drug I got to the stage where it was necessary to complain. My formal complaint reached the target and it did get results but what concerns me now and I fear could mean an escalation of problems for my particular surgery is land next to the practise is earmarked for a hundred plus new builds.? As there is no other practise in that area what can I expect.?

When I lived in a small village in rural Staffordshire I could see a GP with minimal fuss. Now in urban Hampshire, it is an absolute nightmare. In two years I have seen a GP twice and on each occasion had to wait four weeks for the appointment. Fingers crossed I never need to see a doctor urgently.