Confused of Southend here.

It's so frustrating, petra. Our village used to have a drop in surgery but you had to start queueing 45mins before it opened and only the first twelve were admitted.

You had to work your way down the queue asking, 'Doctor or Nurse?' so you could work out whether you were likely to be seen.....Great fun in the rain.

They've now stopped all that and it's appointments only. That means a two week wait.

I have an appointment next Thursday for a recurring muscle spasm problem in my neck. It usually lasts four days and last week I was feeling so dreadful I could hardly move but of course I'll be on top form next Thursday.

Till the next time when I won't be able to get an appointment.

Your health check will probably be with the practice nurse Petra.

Yes, they are with a practice nurse here.

Our village re-started it's drop in surgery about a year ago, along with a drop in blood clinic. This has eased the pressure on the doctors considerably. We seem lucky, if it is urgent, you are seen by a Dr. there and then. Non urgent with a Dr of your choice can take a couple of weeks, depending on the Dr. If you are not fussy, usually within a week. Many of the clinics can also be booked online.

A two week wait for an appointment is good compared to our surgery. I have had to queue from 7am on a winter morning too.

My health check was with a Health Care Assistant. I then had to see the Practise Nurse for further tests that a HCA couldn't do!

The NHS and Gp's are honestly useless now...I guess some areas are better than others so I should not generalise.....but my GP practice has six doctors all of which cannot deal with the simplest of things and i find myself having to diagnose myself and almost self prescribe. I have to wait about six weeks to see you doctor of choice.....oh and it's an 18 month wait to see a physchologist !!!!!! Albsolutely crazy!

I have had a similar experience to Petra's. I have an annual check for a minor kidney problem. The only difference between that and the free check up is the lifestyle questionnaire. Two weeks after my annual kidney check I was asked to come in and have the tests done all over again for the free check-up. I wrote to my GP to say I thought this was a waste of her time and NHS funds and I would bring the form in next time I had my kidney check.

But like everyone else an urgent appointment means an early rise, a 5 mile car journey and a long wait in the cold.

Almost impossible to get an appointment with my dr I have given up, not surprising that this country has a poor record of curing cancer, by the time we get to see anyone it is an emergency.
Also p***ed off with dentist too, she wouldn't do anything about an abscess I had on my gum, no penicillin or anything, because I had no pain. Eventually it burst which was not nice. I ended up paying £40 to get amoxycillin privately.
But we are very lucky to have a walk in medical centre, and when I went in there with a rapid pulse, chest pain and a fluttering heart (not because I was looking at pictures of Tom Hiddleston) ? I went straight to the top of the queue and received plenty of attention. Luckily it was a false alarm, down to too much table tennis and caffeine, although I did discover from the ecg that I have a minor heart problem. I was told to follow it up with my doctor but all that happened was me handing a ticket to the receptionist showing my weight and blood pressure reading, obtained from a machine in reception!

You're right petra, they really don't need to be spending time, money and effort on all these unnecessary health care checks. It would be far better to train more doctors with the money.
My cousin is a GP and he dislikes random heath checks which show up very few problems. He would prefer patients consult him more often when they feel they have a problem, but as mentioned here the system makes that nigh on impossible.