Lead Time GP's - Grumble
Discussion
I recently booked an appointment with my GP surgery. Went in on a Thursday (since phoning them is the same as just shouting at the moon, they NEVER answer the phones - despite the 4 secretaries on the front desk plus however many admin staff!) and the only appointment they could give me was the following Wednesday. Or course it was the middle of the day, meaning time off work. My complaint seemed to have subsided so 24hrs before I cancelled the appointment, figuring someone else could have it. But it's now returned so I'm going to have to rebook it.
I'm expecting a similar lead time. So was wondering
1) What is YOUR lead time to see a GP
2) How can it be acceptable in 2013 that it could take a week to see a GP? And given in 90%+ cases it's a quick 5 min assesment then 'here's a prescription' Where is the delay? Who are the people (hypochondriacs) that are booking up all the slots weeks in advance and why are they being allowed to?
And lets not wonder publically why the medical staff only operate for 6 hours a day in their brand spanking new £11 million pound facility. 
I hate the whole procedure. It's a faff from start to finish!
I'm expecting a similar lead time. So was wondering
1) What is YOUR lead time to see a GP
2) How can it be acceptable in 2013 that it could take a week to see a GP? And given in 90%+ cases it's a quick 5 min assesment then 'here's a prescription' Where is the delay? Who are the people (hypochondriacs) that are booking up all the slots weeks in advance and why are they being allowed to?
And lets not wonder publically why the medical staff only operate for 6 hours a day in their brand spanking new £11 million pound facility. I hate the whole procedure. It's a faff from start to finish!
With ours you can book online for some appointments up to 6 weeks in advance, the rest are released at 8AM each morning and are booked first come first served either online/phone, you can also go in and wait if it's important and there are no appointments.
Having said that it's a miracle if you can an appointment at all. There appears to be some kind of policy to ship all the old people from London to the south west so they can consume all of our health services leaving them pretty much at breaking point.
Having said that it's a miracle if you can an appointment at all. There appears to be some kind of policy to ship all the old people from London to the south west so they can consume all of our health services leaving them pretty much at breaking point.
If you don't ring bang on 8am at mine then you won't get an appointment until the next day. The problem is when you ring at 8 and its engaged as usual then you have to keep redialling by which point if you are unlucky all the appointments are booked.
I don't actually think they are all booked as I've always managed to get one after pushing the person on the phone.
Not that makes much difference as so far all I have found is they don't want to commit themselves to anything and send me away with some tablets that don't help. Now I'm seeing a community nurse and she has a 6 week waiting time!
I don't actually think they are all booked as I've always managed to get one after pushing the person on the phone.
Not that makes much difference as so far all I have found is they don't want to commit themselves to anything and send me away with some tablets that don't help. Now I'm seeing a community nurse and she has a 6 week waiting time!
Long lead times is why too many call 999 instead of waiting....
Is there a walk in centre near you?
http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/AboutNHSservices/Emer...
Is there a walk in centre near you?
http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/AboutNHSservices/Emer...
Rich_W said:
I recently booked an appointment with my GP surgery. Went in on a Thursday (since phoning them is the same as just shouting at the moon, they NEVER answer the phones - despite the 4 secretaries on the front desk plus however many admin staff!) and the only appointment they could give me was the following Wednesday. Or course it was the middle of the day, meaning time off work. My complaint seemed to have subsided so 24hrs before I cancelled the appointment, figuring someone else could have it. But it's now returned so I'm going to have to rebook it.
I'm expecting a similar lead time. So was wondering
1) What is YOUR lead time to see a GP
2) How can it be acceptable in 2013 that it could take a week to see a GP? And given in 90%+ cases it's a quick 5 min assesment then 'here's a prescription' Where is the delay? Who are the people (hypochondriacs) that are booking up all the slots weeks in advance and why are they being allowed to? And lets not wonder publically why the medical staff only operate for 6 hours a day in their brand spanking new £11 million pound facility.
I hate the whole procedure. It's a faff from start to finish!
Why don't you write a nice, polite complaint to the GP manager.I'm expecting a similar lead time. So was wondering
1) What is YOUR lead time to see a GP
2) How can it be acceptable in 2013 that it could take a week to see a GP? And given in 90%+ cases it's a quick 5 min assesment then 'here's a prescription' Where is the delay? Who are the people (hypochondriacs) that are booking up all the slots weeks in advance and why are they being allowed to?
And lets not wonder publically why the medical staff only operate for 6 hours a day in their brand spanking new £11 million pound facility. I hate the whole procedure. It's a faff from start to finish!
Glad you got your appointment!
If I'm very unwell (history of complex health stuff) then it's generally phone in the morning and home visit at lunchtime. If just 'normal' illness then can usually get an appointment within 48 hours. Got a routine one coming up on Thursday that's been booked for a week - I needed to see my regular GP to sort some longer-term stuff.
Deciding how to share out same-day (urgent) appointments vs longer-term ones is a bit of a challenge for a lot of practices, I think - obviously it depends a lot on the patient population, how it needs to be set up.
If I'm very unwell (history of complex health stuff) then it's generally phone in the morning and home visit at lunchtime. If just 'normal' illness then can usually get an appointment within 48 hours. Got a routine one coming up on Thursday that's been booked for a week - I needed to see my regular GP to sort some longer-term stuff.
Deciding how to share out same-day (urgent) appointments vs longer-term ones is a bit of a challenge for a lot of practices, I think - obviously it depends a lot on the patient population, how it needs to be set up.
I always have issues with my doctors. It doesn’t help I don’t work in my local area so I inevitably have to take days off. They just make it really complicated to book an appointment. My choices are:
1) Go along to open surgery/walk in which I think is every day of the week but you have to get there at least 30-40 mins before the hospital opens, queue outside until it opens and once in, take a ticket and you could be waiting for 1-2 hours if not longer. Plus they seem quite rushed when I’ve done it before, assumingly because so many people are waiting.
2) Book 1 week in advance, phone surgery at 8am… constantly engaged for about 30-40 mins.
3) Phone 8am the previous day… see above.
4) Phone after 10pm the previous day… see above.
I managed to see a doctor (I don’t care who I see) and she said that our surgery has the lowest score in the area for patient ‘satisfaction’ because they are understaffed.
I now have online login details so hoping that will be easier next time around.
Also, I understand they are always busy, but surgery secretaries are some of the rudest I’ve come across. I know they get a lot of impatient people no doubt, but I am pretty pleasant on the phone and it’s like talking with someone who really doesn’t care and wants to get you off the phone asap.
1) Go along to open surgery/walk in which I think is every day of the week but you have to get there at least 30-40 mins before the hospital opens, queue outside until it opens and once in, take a ticket and you could be waiting for 1-2 hours if not longer. Plus they seem quite rushed when I’ve done it before, assumingly because so many people are waiting.
2) Book 1 week in advance, phone surgery at 8am… constantly engaged for about 30-40 mins.
3) Phone 8am the previous day… see above.
4) Phone after 10pm the previous day… see above.
I managed to see a doctor (I don’t care who I see) and she said that our surgery has the lowest score in the area for patient ‘satisfaction’ because they are understaffed.
I now have online login details so hoping that will be easier next time around.
Also, I understand they are always busy, but surgery secretaries are some of the rudest I’ve come across. I know they get a lot of impatient people no doubt, but I am pretty pleasant on the phone and it’s like talking with someone who really doesn’t care and wants to get you off the phone asap.
Presumably it's a simple matter of the GP who owns the surgery deciding how many GPs they want to employ? If they want to reduce waiting times to get an appointment they could easily employ more GPs but then they would obviously make less money. Are there any limitations or rules about how many GPs a surgery has to have relating to the amount of patients they can register?
My GP was grumbling about private health and how it takes good people from the NHS and something about waiting times the other day. I told him he could employ more GPs, reducing waiting time for patients and giving more GPs a career in the NHS. He then lectured me about how hard he worked to become a GP. The fact that I worked hard to get my private health cover doesn't seem to be relevant.
My GP was grumbling about private health and how it takes good people from the NHS and something about waiting times the other day. I told him he could employ more GPs, reducing waiting time for patients and giving more GPs a career in the NHS. He then lectured me about how hard he worked to become a GP. The fact that I worked hard to get my private health cover doesn't seem to be relevant.
el stovey said:
Presumably it's a simple matter of the GP who owns the surgery deciding how many GPs they want to employ? If they want to reduce waiting times to get an appointment they could easily employ more GPs but then they would obviously make less money. Are there any limitations or rules about how many GPs a surgery has to have relating to the amount of patients they can register?
AFAIK there is a x number of patients per doctor ratio to follow.Our local surgery has 2700 patients on file, but needs 3000 to hire another doctor.
(IANAD)
The_Doc said:
Why don't you write a nice, polite complaint to the GP manager.
This, and I'm glad you got your appointment in the end.I got an appointment within an hour at my GP last week, because I had urgent need of one. For something routine it would have taken a few days.
You can also change your GP practice if you wish to: it's a free market.
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