Can you beat this?

I can same setup as your doctor 5 partners but tried to book on line appointment for my husband couple weeks ago and earliest 7 weeks ahead, unfortunately I think this is now the norm

Not quite, called for a Drs appointment this morning, the receptionest said earliest was 22nd of May.

I could have had an emergency app or a telephone Drs call, but the last one was over week away.

As hopefully not urgent fingers crossed,
I will have to wait until 3 weeks on Wednesday to see a Dr that I am not registered with.
Hey ho.

Our village doctors is now at breaking point as as a new housing estate has been built, but with no proviso for another Drs surgery or for that matter another school.

You beat me, Littleannie
I rang my surgery every day for 2 weeks in early April, no appts available except for emergencies.
So I made an online one for May 3rd, went away to visit DS + DGC and came back to letter cancelling that appt and requesting I ring the surgery.
My appt is now booked for May 16th.

Oh My! I had heard about long waits for appointments! Our local surgery (and we are by no means a rural area, more market town suburb) has no appointment system. Anyone wishing to see a doctor, if which there are 4, just sits in a queue, morning or afternoon. The longest I have ever waited is 45 minutes.

If you tell us where you live Esther1, we will all move there!

Wow, i have heard about these surgeries but thankfully mine is great. Same day appointments or next day. I must be lucky.

Yes, I can.

I rang for an appointment at my surgery where we have 8 doctors and goodness knows how many lovely nurses, and they told me, 'Come in at '9 am tomorrow'.

Of course I can, and have, walked in (just once) when it was a case of extreme pain and was seen immediately - and in hospital 30 mins later.

I reckon that beats waiting 5 weeks

Things are not too bad here. Usually get an appointment for the same day or the next, and the 'Walk In' centre is excellent. (When I was struck by an attack of sciatica and couldn't move without extreme pain, they sent a motor-cyclist with strong pain-killers, telling me to take them, then to come to them when the pain was easier. Brilliant service!)

But I do wonder what would happen now if you needed a doctor's visit. These seem to be things of the past! Do doctor's still do house-calls?

I have not had a problem with getting an appointment but, so far, none of my ailments have been urgent.
However, I took my nose in the other week! They checked it out, sun damage was diagnosed. I have already had a chunk cut out out by my nostril. I was told to come back if I was worried!
I'm am a tad worried so decided to go to our local Spire to see someone with a bit of knowledge.
My appointment with the dermatologist is the 23rd of May and I made it about 4 weeks ago.
Apparently many people are doing what I am.

I usually get an appointment the same day I live in the London area.

We wait weeks for an appointment, I have been in the situation where the day of the appointment arrived and I was too unwell to go to the surgery. I have then had to pay to see a private consultant to get problem sorted.

We can always get a same day appointment by booking online at 8am. There is also an emergency doctor who will phone you and assess over the phone if they need to see you that day. We are very lucky with our surgery. We also have an Urgent Care centre if all else fails but the doctor has told me that they would rather I saw them (they are open until 8) than go to Urgent Care as it costs them money.

If we are lucky enough to get through to surgery just after 8am we can usually get an appointment that day or telephone consultation with a Dr.The surgery keeps appointments after 6pm for people who work during the day,they will however fit in children at any time if you are worried about them,the problem is getting through on the phone it seems to be constantly engaged.

You would expect that surgeries with long wait times were due to particular factors, such as shortage of doctors or a deprived area.

At my surgery you can get a non urgent appointment within 2 weeks. If you want to see a doctor the same day, you report to reception and wait till the end of surgery. One of the Doctors is assigned each day walk-ins and emergencies. The Practice always comes up very high on customer satisfaction.

It shares premises with another practice and it is entirely different. As you wait for a your appointment, you hear complaints and arguments all the time. It also gets a very poor rating . It is hard to explain such a big difference in neighbouring surgeries.

The next available appointment offered to me, for a re-referral for suspected cancer, is 17th June.
My doctor could easily phone me, take the location of the rodent cancer and do a referral instantly? You'd think so in this day and age but no...

Pamela,, I had nose diagnosis with sun damage.. doc took biopsy... o.k. thus far, actually had several biopsies on arm etc..

yes, worrying.
appts. Swindon, lots of new house, no! new estates! built here.. quite a few docs at our local surgery, mostly locums or trainees I think... 2 weeks for appt. but my dh who has several nasty problems, copd and heart just for starters can get a telephone appt, or even the doc to call out here!!!

so I suppose I can`t really complain. I had to phone 111 a few weeks back,, several hours later, but not a huge emergency ie. not 999, lovely lady doc came out.. that was a Saturday as well.

999 calls, couple of hours or so.... but fantastic people..

over administrated,, too many managers,, taking too much money, and not to mention ALL politicians

Some of these waiting times beggar belief! Please do make your MPs aware. That's what they're there for. Otherwise the powers that be think everything in the NHS garden is lovely!

Each practice has to have a patient participation group, you all need to join this at your practice.
We have a sit and wait surgery every day,alongside appointments. and as a PPG we always make sure the practice gets lots of positive feedback !
I think we all need to take action and this may be the way to do it!

I've been referred for physio after waiting weeks to see a doctor for a referral.
The physio wait is now 18 weeks.

Just turning up and waiting your turn was the norm when I was a child so maybe some surgeries are going back to this system. We now seem to have more doctors, nurses and support staff in our practice than 20 years ago as well as them offering later appointments on weekdays and Saturday morning appointments but we can wait weeks for an appointment now whereas we were always able to have an appointment on the same day back then. I remember that I would always make sure that I was up and showered before ringing for an appointment as many times I was told, 'You can come straight away!' I'm not sure what has caused these long delays but suspect it's increased bureaucracy with devolved budgets which has caused increased paperwork and workload.

My GP practice is excellent, as is our local hospital system. From first seeing my doctor about my hip problems, being x-rayed, assessed, and referred to our local orthopaedic hospital took just 2 weeks. I was immediately offered a hip replacement, had my pre-op a week later, and expect to receive my date for surgery very shortly. In the meantime I have an appointment for a pre-surgery therapy session, to check that everything at home is suitable for me, post-surgery.
My late husband, who had multiple problems, was given the best medical care available, over many years. by all our local services. Our GP even faxed his medical records over to Australia, immediately and free of charge, when he had a stroke there.
Many people think of Wigan as being a run-down town, ‘oop North’ but I am really proud of our medical facilities here. Waiting times at A & E are quite long, but we have an excellent walk-in Centre which deals with lesser problems very quickly. I’m appalled at some of the dreadful stories told on here. It must be a nightmare to have to wait weeks for a basic appointment.

It does not surprise me really, we struggle too, even though we are now partnered with four other surgeries the system is dire. I live in Hampshire, but where my daughter lives in Cumbria she can phone and be given an appointment either the same day or within 48 hours. The area she lives in is very rural and not over populated and her surgery has at least six GPs so they do not appear to be as overworked as those in the overcrowded south I guess.

My surgery now do most of their work on the phone!! You call at 8am (if you can get through!) and the receptionist grills you and puts you on a waiting list for a gp to call you that day. When the gp calls (providing the receptionist has taken your number down correctly, that's happened to me twice now) they decide over the phone IF they need to see you that day..... or ever!
If you are honoured enough to actually get an appointment you have to book in on a screen when you arrive, despite the receptionist that grilled you earlier sitting there, and the waiting room is practically empty!!

Our surgery has gone from offering everyone an appointment within two days to long waits for appointments. They have a telephone appointment system which usually enables you to talk to a doctor on the same day, so as I am well known at the surgery through being ill quite a lot, I now use this unless the doctor really needs to see me in their surgery to check symptoms. It's not ideal, but it does mean that for, say, cystitis, I can get treatment on the same day.

I remember waiting in the doctor's waiting room with my mum, I was always puzzled how she knew it was our turn! But I guess it was self-limiting, as you'd have to be determined to see a doctor to sit among all the germs and wait for an hour to see someone!