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Getting a GP appointment
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Does anyone else have problems getting through to the GP surgery for appointments?
My GP does next day appointments only but it's impossible to get through to them on the phone, when you do get through they're fully booked and you have to call again the next day for the day after. It's not unusual to have a few days of this.
It hardly seems fair, especially those like me who need medication that can't be put on a repeat prescription.
My GP does next day appointments only but it's impossible to get through to them on the phone, when you do get through they're fully booked and you have to call again the next day for the day after. It's not unusual to have a few days of this.
It hardly seems fair, especially those like me who need medication that can't be put on a repeat prescription.
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You can change your GP, surely.
Yes, there are lots of threads on here already saying the same thing.
Our surgery operates a system where you phone up between 8.00 & 8.30 am then the doctor phones you back during the day to assess whether you need an appointment.
Last week my OH had had tests and got a letter saying he needed to phone the doctors urgently to make an appoinment. The receptionist wouldn't give him an appointment and said the doctor had to phone him back. But he already had a letter saying he needed an appoinment! It was completely ridiculous. >:(
The system also means you are hanging around all day waiting for the call (which comes though as an unknown number so you have to answer the phone to people trying to sell you things all day) It's also not practical when you work in a place where you're not supposed to have your phone on. Heaven knows what a teacher would do, or someone who works on a production line etc.
Just to answer your point (although it wasn't directed at me), I have looked into changing GP (which would be inconvenient as the surgery we're with is in our village) and asked various friends and colleagues but the same system appears to apply in all the surgeries in our area.
If it was that simple, yes I would.
Yes, fair enough. It was a general question and point noted.
I'm going to stop in again today to cancel the GP appointment. So frustrating.
If you call for an appointment, they take your details and contact number, then a doctor phones you back that morning/afternoon. If the doctor decides you need an appointment, he/she gives you one for later that day. If it's just advice or a discussion you need, they administer it over the phone.
Now, when I do actually go for an appointment, the place is virtually empty and you're seen promptly, whereas before it was packed to the rafters with people waiting and the appointments never running to time. By using this system I've saved myself a couple of trips down to the surgery. Can't praise it highly enough.
Goes to show that a significant percentage of people who think they need to see a doctor actually don't.
Obviously you can call on the day to make future appointments.
Very rarely you can't get an appointment.
Pretty much like the system our doctors use except they call back by 10am.It works well because it stops people who have nothing more than a common cold taking up appointmemnts
I would prefer this system.
2 weeks later and 2 calls later I'm still waiting, she said she's waiting to get an appointment, me thinking, 'what a rubbish surgery that cannot prescribed an inhaler for a child promptly.'
Eventually I get fed up waiting (and panicking cos this child takes her inhaler regularly), I called mum and was quite firm with her that she must get this inhaler, like today!
Meanwhile, I needed to go and see my drs that afternoon, I called at 2pm and got one just after 4pm, chuffed cos of work times. Lo and behold, who sits beside me at the surgery but this mum who I had been chasing for over 2 weeks with her child to get an inhaler!!
Gahhhhhh!
The phoning back system does sound like a good idea. When you do get through you have a next day appointment, I don't understand it when people have to wait two weeks plus for appointments.
It's great, I can't praise it highly enough. I believe they call it "Doctor First". Annoyingly, I have to change surgeries soon as I'll be leaving the area. Doubt my new surgery wll have this system.
It is up to society to decide if in an increasingly financially strapped NHS, this is a price worth paying.
I've a child with chronic asthma who ended up in hospital two years ago for seven days because the receptionist would not give him an appt for more medication (the soonest was 3 weeks away). She would not accept an order for a script either as she said the GP had written a note stating my son was using too much and required an appt before any more scripts would be written. Well, his inhaler ran out the next day, he panicked, went into a bad attack and I called the ambulance. We nearly lost him. I was furious that a GP saw fit to make a 10 year old with asthma wait 3 bloody weeks for a prescription. Salbutamol is a life saving medication, its not aspirin or paracetamol, its vital! We lodged a complaint, changed practices and now I make sure we have inhalers on hand by getting regular repeat scripts. This mother can also take an empty inhaler to a pharmacist and demand an inhaler be delivered over the counter, I did this once. No child should have to wait for asthma medication to be prescribed.
Same here.There does seem to be some hassle involved in this.A bit like changing Broadband providers etc.
I totally understand that, and their reasoning behind the system but there are 3 problems with it:
1) if you're in a job where you can't take a call during the day. I work in a school office and we're not usually allowed our mobiles on during the day. Obviously if you are expecting a call from your GP you would be allowed, but what are the teachers supposed to do? Walk out of the class? Even doing that you wouldn't get privicay, in a school with 1700 pupils there's always someone walking along the corridor!
2) When you have a letter from the GP saying you need an appointment (as in the scenario I posted above) why do you then need to speak to another doctor for them to assess whether you need an appointment? That should be an exception.
3) The phones are permanently engaged between 8.00 and 8.30. If you phone after that then you're told to phone back the next day. So you're caught in a loop of never being able to get an appoinment. Trying to beat the system my OH arrived at the surgery at 8.00 am one morning as they were unlocking the doors. He asked for an appoinment and was told they'd all gone for the day! How could that be the case? They'd only just opened.
Perhaps if you were also able to 'register' for a call the previous evening with an email or voicemail it would help the call waiting scenario?
I had reccuring migraines for a week and there were no afternoon appointments available (which you can pre book), and was told to call first thing for a morning appointment. I called repeatedly from opening time - within 6 minutes everything was gone, and the system had no way of showing them that I'd been calling for a few days trying to get an appointment, and no way of ensuring that I'd get one of the appointments the next day. I had to go to a walk in surgery, who very bluntly told me there was nothing they could do for me.
They could even centralise the system so it was area-wide - you could have a triage chat with a nurse or doctor, and they would be able to flag your priority with your local surgery or hospital.
My husband rang our surgery last week at 11.15 am. He was given an appointment for 6.30 pm that day. Saw the Doctor, was prescribed antibiotics which he was able to get at the in-house pharmacy. Doctor also arranged an appt at the Surgical Assessment unit at the local hospital for 8.00 the next morning. He was seen and home by 9.00.
If ours can be that efficient, why can't they all?
Ours is the same. No hassle, just phone before a certain time and get an appointment that day. And it's even better now they have switched to a local number at last.