GP Appointments

Our GP practice is generally excellent, but when you see a doctor and he/she wants you to have blood taken you have to make an appointment to see a nurse. Whatever happened to doctors taking blood? Only takes a minute and would save time and money for everyone. On another ppoint, there is a notice in the waiting room listing how many people failed to turn up for appointments. Does no one get contacted to ask why? The numbers never get any less. The surgery will text a reminder of your appointment time if you ask them.

Well put, Grannaby and thank you for the tips.

With the GP service under so much strain, it really is shocking that many appointments are missed and therefore wasted.

0h dear, time to confess that I am one of those "evil dragons" as we are presumed to be, who work as a receptionist in a doctor's practice.

My tip is firstly to really find out how your own practice works - don't go by hearsay. As you can see from above each practice organises their appointments differently and never presume that "can't get an appt for 3 weeks" really is the case.

In our practice a third of the appointments for each day are available to be booked in advance either by directly via the receptionist or on line, and these tend to get booked up about 2-3 weeks ahead of time. The rest are released on the day at 8.00 in the morning which admittedly is a dreadful time for many people to start ringing repeatedly before they are able to get through and if we are short of doctors on the day may get fully booked within 10 minutes - there are several of us answering the phone at that time and we can each book 2 appointments every minute. Each doctor can only see 6 people in an hour remember and can't see patients all through the day as there is so much paperwork for them to do too. BUT if it really is urgent an emergency appointment is ALWAYS available but it is up to the patient to let us know that it is vital they see a doctor that day (we are not mind readers, though that would be so handy in our job and we are often presumed to be so!)

Another tip: If your practice is similar and you are having to ring in the morning and have difficulty getting through - NEVER use the BT ring back service. We have several lines so we can all be answering the phones at the same time - "Ring back" gets confused with this system so does not work as you would expect and only leads to disappointment. Unfortunately the only way is to keep hitting the redial button.

Please don't think that the receptionists only want to turn people away - we hate it when we can't give everyone who asks an appointment that day. It also works the other way, you would be surprised by how many days we have appointments unused, but some people will still tell us how they couldn't get through and have been unable to get an appointment for x number of days! Others just don't try because they presume they won't be able to and leave it until it does become a medical emergency.

And if you do book an appointment please attend or cancel in good time to have it rebooked. I was shocked to see how many people don't show up for appointments. (another reason why many practices only release appointments on the day as there is less chance of people forgetting them.)

If you are unhappy at how your surgery works, it is always worth writing to the practice manager if you have any ideas as to how to improve it for everyone. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a perfect system that pleases all of the people all of the time.

Why is anyone surprised by full Doctors surgeries, full hospitals, full schools etc., the population of this Country has gone up by millions in a relitavely short time, and under current arrangements is set to go up by millions more. Nothing can keep pace with this change.

With a growing population we should be looking at expanding GP surgeries not coping with losing so many GPs to early retirement and medical students not choosing it as a career to fill the gaps.

Some radical thinking is needed one way or another re the whole NHS format but I am pessimistic that it will happen. It will be another case of papering over an increasingly creaking service I suspect.

The shortage of GPs is only going to get worse, with one third of them due to retire within the next five years. General Practice is not seen as an attractive option for medical students, the excessive paperwork and target work takes them further away from actually treating patients, these numbers are not going to be replaced any time soon.

GPs who run telephone triage systems successfully can make a huge difference, but it takes extra hard work, enthusiasm and dedication for some months to put in a successful triage system. You should be able to speak to a GP within and hour, and get your presciption, or if necessary an appointment, the same day.

Your local Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) has a duty to monitor the access GP surgeries provide, and if yours is not performing, you can ask them for help. But it is really difficult in inner city areas, which understandably are less popular places for GPs to want to work in and hence drastically understaffed.

Repeat dispensing is something that you should discuss with your GP when you eventually get to see them. You can ask for one year's worth of prescriptions to be given to your local, dedicated pharmacist, and then you only need to contact your GP once a year for a review appointment (which can be done over the phone) in plenty of time. If you need a BP check as part of your review, many surgeries and pharmacies have machines you can use yourself, just give the reading to a receptionist to enter into your record.

Until this Government accecpts that the NHS is standing on the edge of a precipice, and continued underfunding will push it over into disaster, we will get nowhere. There are enough British student applicants to medical schools, but not nearly enough of them are given places.

I personally would happily give 1p on income tax if it could be utterly ringfenced to provide for the NHS, we spend far less on our healthcare than most other countries. Much rather that than private companies taking over, purely focused on profit.

But no Government has the courage to suggest that. What do you think?

Being in a village the practice here has a pharmacy and repeat prescriptions can be ordered by phone or on line. Doctor appointments to see a specific doctor take three weeks but by phoning early morning can see an available doctor. Non urgent cases are dealt with by nurses. As I am elderly if I don't visit the surgery for three months they phone to see if I am OK.

We have a notorious practice; this estate has over 3000 houses and our practice has another similar-sized branch nearer to Manchester (the two biggest and most poverty-stricken estates for miles round). Between them, there are only 4 doctors (I understand one on duty at each practice at a time). Give them their due, they normally see patients within 2-3 days, but they are not very good and now we have a new practice locally with a much better reputation, the old one is losing patients very rapidly. Sadly, they are seriously lacking in technological know-how, so you have to get past the receptionists, who want to know why you want to see the doctor before booking you an appointment, we can't speak to a doctor by phone, we can't order a repeat prescription by phone (they only started handling electronic prescriptions three weeks ago, so if there was a problem with medication, you often had serious problems). The new surgery has e-mail prescription ordering, on-line appointment booking, including Saturday morning appointments, etc, so is infinitely better.

It really doesn't surprise me that it is more difficult to get an appointment with a GP. Everywhere we travel around here in the south-east new houses are being built on every available piece of ground, not "affordable" housing of course. So the infrastructure is being stretched to the limit.

2 or 3 weeks for a telephone conversation here, you have to wait in the whole day! To actually SEE a doctor, well, you're likely to be dead by then - and I nearly was. Only my friend knowing the difference between coma and sleep saved my life

I've had the same problem, so I went to the surgery yesterday and as I have booked appointments for my annual review I was able to order my prescription without any problems even though it had been blocked on line. The problem for me, and everyone I guess, was the fact that the surgery has been shut on and off for the holidays, so getting a review before the monthly pill supply ran out was virtually impossible!!!

How about a phone appointment? Unless a blood test is required (which your GP won't do anyway!!!) I can't see many reasons why you need to be seen face to face! If it's just an efficacy review a bit of a delay won't matter, just request a repeat script for now! Simples

I have the same problem getting appointments. Sure I can do it on line but it's still a two or three week wait.....which really helps when you suffer from health problems and anxiety /depression. I feel that no one cares anymore....gp's think of it no longer as a vocation but as a business. Home visits.....you are joking! This has all changed in the last ten years, and is getting worse and worse. At one point I was seeing a different doctor on every appointment....now I tend to make an appointment every week and cancel if I don't need it, and therefore I don't get that panicky feeling about not getting an appointment if I am concerned about anything....,,

Our surgery offers online appointment booking but those appointments are likely to be 2 weeks away. But it does mean that if its important you see a specific doctor and its non urgent you can do it without hanging on the phone for forever.

You can order repeat prescriptions that way too.

Generally if its urgent you can see a doctor the same day but you wont see the doctor of your choice , it will be whoever has space.

Our surgery also has a nurse for routine blood tests which we will soon be losing thanks to redirection of local funding to a 3rd party outsourcer |!! I hate going to the local hospital for blood because the parking is awful and hugely expensive, and the queues are so long you can kiss your morning or afternoon goodbye. Being able to give blood at the surgery was such a bonus .... I always think when some anonymous bureaucrat makes decisions like these they have never experienced the real service...what saves them pennies( and often not even that) costs the users of the service a lot ! Grumble over :-)

When this happened to me got app in 24hrs .

Fortunately I can order our prescriptions on line from my doctor and ring the the local chemist to collect the prescriptions and make them up (and they deliver if I wanted). I also always make sure I have two week's worth of tablets in just in case of emergencies ie bad weather, holidays etc. Our doctor's surgery has a daily 'walk-in' centre each morning where we can just go down and wait to see a nurse for appointments that don't always require a doctor. Also because I am over a certain age, I have been allocated my own doctor and if I should need to see him (not often may I add), I would not have to wait more than one day, so I really can't complain.

At my surgery a 4 week wait is normal and that's with ANY GP. There are emergency slots but those are generally given to serious conditions or children and even getting someone to answer the phone in the morning is a challenge. They are also going to limit the timeframe you can call to make an appt from this month as well to 2 hours in the morning. Outwith this time, they will not book an appt!!

And no, it's not a large inner city practice either - they've just built lots of new houses and not recruited enough staff to cover the increase.

Had a blood test taken before Christmas but NO appts available to discuss the results. Been told they will phone "if there's something serious though" well, that's comforting..,

It is impossible to get an appointment at our practice. You are not allowed to book an appointment more than 7 days in advance, which means getting up early to book an appointment on line when they go live at 6.30 a.m.

Our GP practise have just started a pilot Suffolk GPs+ which is offering appointments during the evening,weekends and bank holidays it has a bank of 75 GPs and additional practise nurses. Not really clear how it works as it has only recently been announced but the reality is we could always get an appointment in a couple of days anyway. I assume it will be open to patients who are registered within the town / county and is being done to relieve pressure on the local A&E.

Isn't it bad that GP services can vary so much? We were talking to our family about this over Christmas and it's made us realise how lucky we are.

Our receptionists are excellent - friendly and helpful. The nurses and some of the doctors do telephone triage and if it's deemed necessary to see a doctor, they will sort out an appointment though not necessarily with your usual doctor. Home visits will also be arranged. Nurse practitioners also see patients and can prescribe routine antibiotics for infections like earache and tonsilitis.

Two or three weeks to see my GP is usual, when I thought I had something serious I bypassed the GP and self referred to a consultant. We have a sign in the waiting room asking us to be patient as they have problems recruiting doctors, not a lot of help when you are really ill. This time last year the GP thought I had pneumonia but I was told to go and queue outside at 7.30 in the morning in the hope of being seen before they closed for Christmas.

This is a very sore point here. Getting an appointment to see a doctor at our large practise is very very very difficult..... ggggrrrrrrrrrrr

I can see my lovely lady Doctor within 24/48 hours or can have a phone consultation. Repeat prescriptions are ordered online.

Our doctors are brilliant. They have a drop in every morning, Monday to Friday. You can book an appointment online, if you want to see a particular doctor and you can order your prescriptions online.

I usually see the same doctor and she's been so good with me. I suffer a lot of health problems and it's important to me to see the same doctor.