Gp appointments or lack of!!

I have been sneaky and booked an appointment with the nurse for my 6mth bp check. She always asks how I am so I will tell her about the pain I have and skin issues in the hopes she can help. No luck with actual gp appointment. If nurse can't help then I will ring 111.

I was in my GPs surgery - not for an appointment. It was 10 am and there was as just one person waiting to be seen. What are the GPs doing with their time !?

Not yet it hasn't. I have not paid for anything, so far. And I hope and believe it won't happen.

The government plan to get rid of the NHS, and to have us all paying for private care, has clearly worked very well.

I've managed to book a phone call from the doctor to me, later this morning sometime. Not ideal, but better than nothing.
I think the only answer is to keep trying.

Gwyllt

Escaped from the jokes thread

Horribly true!

Went to pharmacist thinking I coukd get help there. Issue outwith their remit, not allowed to orescribe necessary treatment. Advised to see GP. 4 week wait. May have to wait a while, but if you are registered can't figure why you can't have appointment.

I find seeing either of the paramedics at the surgery rather dramatic. I don’t know if it is how they were originally trained but they seem to go for the worse case scenario first or they go off to speak to the GP anyway.
I reckon we should just go back to the turn up and wait system, so easy and would completely cut out no shows.

SporeRB

Signed up to NHS online using this link
www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/gps/online-health-and-prescription-services/

Log in just after midnight to book a GP appointment through services and it will show the dates available to book your GP appointment for that week.

So far, I managed to book two telephone appointments with my GP who worked part time to discuss my blood test results within a day or two using this method.

If I follow the normal route, it takes 3 weeks to see my GP.

My GP surgery has disabled this function in the NHS app. Also when you log onto Econsult at 8am, there is a note saying all appointments are booked and I should try again tomorrow. It took me two weeks to get through to get a doctor to call me back with blood test result.

Escaped from the jokes thread

Why is it that obviously some GP practices are well organised and accessible, whereas some are impossible. Mine is good, yesterday I took my brother (he’s rather vague) to his GP and it was fine.

What gets me is - why on earth has it all changed to nee on impossible to get an appointment???? Why ?

knspol we have a GP like that at our practice. He wears filthy trainers like he has just been digging his garden, trousers hanging off his backside because he can’t wear a belt as he is so fat.

Even worse at the hospital during a very long wait we saw 3 hugely obese Doctors. One was well over 6ft and about as wide. He came down the corridor hardly able to walk as his legs were so fat that he had to walk with his feet about 3 feet apart.

Same here, I just get fobbed off.
I ended up in A&E and had to waste their time on what they considered a minor problem

Did you get to see someone trwavelasfar? I hope so.

Our health centre is brilliant. I can’t praise them enough. Everyone is helpful and pleasant and there is no problem seeing a doctor.

I get fed up with having to listen to a woman telling me about Covid 19 for almost 2 minutes before the call even starts, and then if there are more than 20 calls waiting, the call is cut offand the rigmarole starts all over again.
How long is Covid going to be used to cover up the state of GP's (or lack of) and the NHS in general?

Call 111 I have found them helpful. Paramedics seem to see patients at my surgery now rather than a GP. I just dread being ill. A & E is heaving locally here with problems that a G P used to deal with. Shocking situation the system is broken.

Use your Practice Nurse /Nurse Practitioner who can prescribe,refer,diagnose

On one occasion I phoned 111 as it was a bank holiday. I eventually had a phone consultation with a doctor who said I need to to see a doctor face to face (or more precisely face to backside). I asked what I should do if I couldn't get an appointment. He said "Go to A&E".

I was offered a telephone consultation the next day but explained that I'd already had one with a doctor on 111 so needed a face to face appointment. They still said there were no appointments available so I said OK I'll go to A&E! At this point the receptionist said "Wait a minute" and I miraculously had an appointment within the hour where a young doctor conducted an internal examination!

This was a few years ago, so I'm sure the situation is worse now. Doctor's practices don't want you going to A&E as it reflects poorly on the services they offer . It is also not ideal as it means patients with serious problems wait longer in A&E while patients are examined who should be dealt with elsewhere. However the walk-in centre I used to use closed during the pandemic. After a consultation on 111 my DD was directed to a walk-in centre 15 miles away Fortunately I was able to drive her there as she needed to have stitches removed after an operation on her broken ankle so clearly couln't drive herself. I gues some people would have to pay for a taxi!

Sadly it is becoming privatisation by the back door! Whoever ends up in power after the general election will have a difficulttask changing anything as things have deteriorated so badly. I never used to have any problem getting appointments when we moved here, probably because I didn't request them unnecessarily, but not any more. I feel very sorry for those with real health problems! Although I have long term health conditions, I get the routine appointments I need and so far have not suffered much outside this, though I'm on a waiting list for treatmen of my carpal tunnel problem. I was seen last summer and expected treatment in about 3 months. It's now more than double that. I guess I may have been lost from the system but as the condition is manageable I continue to wait until my next routine check when I shall ask them to see!

In Northern Ireland we don’t have the 111 service and my practice doesn’t allow appointments to be booked ahead . The only thing to do is call at 8.30 am and get in the queue. Often by the time I reach the top of the queue all phone appointments are gone so it all has to be repeated the following day. Very frustrating but it seems to be similar in other practices so there’s no point moving to another gp.

M0nica

What is a GP?

It has always meant a general practioner, In other words a famiy doctor.

Very difficult to see a real GP. Usually if you can get an appointment here it's with a paramedic. One diagnosis for me was plain wrong.

I think it is disgusting the way GPs have operated since Covid. It’s said GPs are leaving, that’s why you can’t get appointments. So why is it that my surgery has taken on another doctor since Covid yet you can’t get an appointment for weeks. They had it cushy during lockdown, working from home or part time and they don’t want to go back to the old ways of 9-5, 5 days a week. Non of the staff at my practice work full time. I went to my surgery to pick up a blood test form from the receptionist. There was no one in the waiting room at all yet I passed the walk in centre ( in the same building) as I walked in and it was standing room only and a board saying minimum wait 6 hours. I’m 76 and dread being ill.

My mother is having this problem. She is 82 and fragile. I'm getting very worried about this. She waits in the telephone queue only to be told there's nothing and ring back in the morning.