How difficult is it to get a GP appointment?
Discussion
My GP surgery is proving increasingly difficult to get an appointment.
The process that they operate is that you have to call at 8am sharp to try to get an appointment for that day, or later in the day when they have a limited number of appointments for 2 weeks time.
That is fine in theory, but when I call at 8am, I get a message saying that 'all lines are busy' with no opportunity to hold. By the time I get through 5 minutes later, all of the appointments have gone, presumably to people who called after me!
I could tell them it is an emergency and get in straight away, but it really isn't an emergency. I am only really looking for a referral through to my private health provider, which I can't get without seeing an NHS GP first.
Is this the same everywhere now?
The process that they operate is that you have to call at 8am sharp to try to get an appointment for that day, or later in the day when they have a limited number of appointments for 2 weeks time.
That is fine in theory, but when I call at 8am, I get a message saying that 'all lines are busy' with no opportunity to hold. By the time I get through 5 minutes later, all of the appointments have gone, presumably to people who called after me!
I could tell them it is an emergency and get in straight away, but it really isn't an emergency. I am only really looking for a referral through to my private health provider, which I can't get without seeing an NHS GP first.
Is this the same everywhere now?
Same at most bigger GP practises. Trick is to start at 8, ring then cut off and re-ring. My last gp visit was booked on the 23rd phone call at about 8.06am lol. Unfortunately they don't seem willing or able to upgrade to a modern phone system or more staff on reception. You can book online at mine if you are ok with a 3 week wait as that's all they give like that.
kingston12 said:
My GP surgery is proving increasingly difficult to get an appointment.
The process that they operate is that you have to call at 8am sharp to try to get an appointment for that day, or later in the day when they have a limited number of appointments for 2 weeks time.
That is fine in theory, but when I call at 8am, I get a message saying that 'all lines are busy' with no opportunity to hold. By the time I get through 5 minutes later, all of the appointments have gone, presumably to people who called after me!
I could tell them it is an emergency and get in straight away, but it really isn't an emergency. I am only really looking for a referral through to my private health provider, which I can't get without seeing an NHS GP first.
Is this the same everywhere now?
Yes a lot of places seem to be. Not enough GPS to cover demands. The process that they operate is that you have to call at 8am sharp to try to get an appointment for that day, or later in the day when they have a limited number of appointments for 2 weeks time.
That is fine in theory, but when I call at 8am, I get a message saying that 'all lines are busy' with no opportunity to hold. By the time I get through 5 minutes later, all of the appointments have gone, presumably to people who called after me!
I could tell them it is an emergency and get in straight away, but it really isn't an emergency. I am only really looking for a referral through to my private health provider, which I can't get without seeing an NHS GP first.
Is this the same everywhere now?
NDA said:
My little village GP struggles - with 2,000 homes approved for development, it's only going to get worse.
This is probably what is causing the problem here. I live in London suburb, so a bit of a different situation, but I think they eventually opened one new practice after they had built a few thousand new homes. Since then, they have built many more with thousands still at planning stage, but no sign of any more new practices or expansion to existing ones.
NDA said:
My little village GP struggles - with 2,000 homes approved for development, it's only going to get worse.
Similar for us, one GP surgery should be two but the other one has managed to alienate all his patients by being a right a
hole.As a consequence the decent GP is overloaded and it will only get worse as the new developments arrive over the next couple of years.
The one thing our GP does has sorted is an automated phone system for making appointments. It is easy to just ring up any time of the day or night and make the appointment. Only bad thing is that the appointment is normally 3 weeks later so good luck if it is something urgent.
There are private GP services that are springing up to deal with just this. They will write the referral letter for you for a fee.
There was one in London that was a bit like Uber for healthcare - a doctor to your door in 20 mins. It was something like £60 plus a fee for the letter. I think that has gone subscription now though.
There was one in London that was a bit like Uber for healthcare - a doctor to your door in 20 mins. It was something like £60 plus a fee for the letter. I think that has gone subscription now though.
I’ve managed to get an appointment at 3:30 on a Friday for one of the kids who came home from school pretty poorly it was a case of if you can get here in 30 minutes they will see you. So all the no appointments left is just managing the workload if your on deaths door they will fit you in especially the kids.
All GPs are diabolical in this respect.
I've just booked an appointment using the online system which seems OK, you can sometimes also use BT Ringback.
I did find that if you argued the toss with the receptionist who said "all the appointments have gone", one would magically become available, generally took an hour of behaving like an arse.
When my wife was dying there were different rules in place for her and we could book at any time. But we had to fight to get that exception.
It all seems to discriminate against those who are too sick to oppose or play the system.
I've just booked an appointment using the online system which seems OK, you can sometimes also use BT Ringback.
I did find that if you argued the toss with the receptionist who said "all the appointments have gone", one would magically become available, generally took an hour of behaving like an arse.
When my wife was dying there were different rules in place for her and we could book at any time. But we had to fight to get that exception.
It all seems to discriminate against those who are too sick to oppose or play the system.
Hoofy said:
I've decided to call every morning to book just in case I feel ill later in the day. 
At my practice that's exactly what some people do, book an appointment a week in case they need it. Then they don't turn up and that appointment is wasted. Overall, between the three surgeries, there are over a hundred DNAs a month (Did Not Attend). Gassing Station | Health Matters | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff