Caller number 31 in the queue?!

My record so far is 1hr 45 min trying to get through. Unsurprisingly all appointments gone when finally got through

Ours cuts off the E-consults around 9am now and you can't contact them until the next day. Even when you're halfway through a complicated one for a child. I couldn't believe it when I got cut off.

flyhigher - please look up the stats for funding per person from tax for the regions. England always has less than the others per head. Blaming other people sounds like labour's approach to me. Mind you, my relatives did enjoy the sandwiches provided for outpatients and their relatives whilst attending appointments, so not all bad in Wales.

They will cut all labour run areas more than Tory ones. Of course they will. It's a Class War. They want to win. Rishi is even recorded saying as much.

@dreamingofsun the overall budget is set in Westminster. They give less. And expect them to do more in return for autonomy. That way they can blame all the councils for not running things properly.
Same in every region. London is always the most funded every other area is cut year on year.
They decide the budgets for everything. Everywhere. Then blame everyone else.

I have relatives in Wales (where its Labour run) who use the NHS a lot, and it sounds even worse than in England. The stats normally support this too.

Tory Britain. Broken Britain.

@Sholkedabemus Tories have slashed budgets. And wages. Brexit has meant loss of staff. Not bonkers at all. The root cause of all these issues.

I didn’t vote for Brexit but I still find your post completely bonkers.

Disgraceful

The situation is awful, people will die. I was admitted to hospital last week and we went through A & E. It was complete carnage in there, it was Wednesday lunch time. What is going on?

its worth asking if your surgery is on the patient access app. Not all surgeries shout about it and they tend to release a number of app only bookable appointments. It puts you at a slight advantage over people who aren’t tech savvy, and whilst you still can’t get in for a day or two there is usually a Face to Face GP appointment within a week on there in my experience.

I’ve found checking just after midnight seems to release more appointments as well.

it’s all a bit shit though. I’m lucky in the fact DH has a healthcare package through work so a recent lump scare was diagnosed long before an NHS appointment could have been made, but it’s all going to the wall unless you can afford private.

@Fizbosshoes routine - not urgent, my knee is hurting, could I have an xray? I need a medication review. I'm 50 and male, should I have my prostate checked? I've got an itchy scalp.

💩🤪😏

I know . I’m done with it all to be honest.

@BananaSplitsss The tories trashed the economy and also cut all budgets. Labour in Wales don't decide the full budget. Just how it's spent.
Anyone that voted Tory has responsibility for this mess.

It’s all a crock of shite… NHS in wales is Labour run… NHS in England: all absolutely shite.

Well we can hardly staff a 5 day a week service with current staffing levels, how do you think we’re going to staff a 7 day week service?

We already do extended access 2 evenings a week and some Saturdays, and we also carry out the flu and Covid vaccine programmes usually on Saturdays.

Out of hours provision is contracted to provide exactly that. The days of GPs working 24/7 is long gone, thank goodness.

How do you mean it's not for routine things?
My son needed anti biotics for an ear infection , we ended up going to a walk in centre after 3 days of not bring able to get an apt either my gp but we've been on a Saturday to an OOH gp for a similar thing.

The issue I have (and I'm sure it's the same for a massive majority of people) is not only not getting an appointment in the first place but the time spent trying to get one. If I need to wait an hour on the phone I can't start my journey to work in case (by some miracle) they say the only apt left is at 11.30 for example.....then I would get to work and turn around and leave for the apt....but if I wait an hour and they haven't got any left (more likely) I am late for work. Then have to repeat the next day. In the end I took a morning off to go to the walk in centre

This is what it says

Staff at the locality clinics will provide a range of appointments from Practice Nurses who will be available to provide chronic disease reviews, cervical screening and childhood immunisations along with pre-bookable GP and other Health Care Professional appointments.

Open 6.30pm - 8.30pm m - f
9-5 - Saturday
9-12 Sunday

My surgery has cover weekend mornings and 6.30pm - 8.30pm
About 8 local surgeries are in it and it rotates between which one is open, so it might not be your actual surgery but it's not hard to get an appointment
I went last night and there was 2 on reception, 2 doctors and me and one other person there

Haven't you heard of GPs Out Of Hours? It's where GPs cover weekends, Bank Holidays and evenings for urgent care that isn't suitable for A&E (Accident and Emergency). It's not for routine things but you are being totally ridiculous thinking a GP should work in their surgery 7 days a week, evenings, weekends and Bank Holidays. The Reception staff and Nurses would also have to work alongside them. Not on your Nelly.

I popped into my surgery one morning to make an appointment for a non-urgent problem.
They told me I had to use the App.
So I sat in the empty waiting room using the app to do my appointment just in case it went wrong...
There were no patients to be seen - none coming out or in.
It was really strange, as though the apocalypse had come & all patients had been killed.

if you can go down, then go down face to face, also phone in the afternoon not when they open?

That's pretty normal across the country now. Our local - which is the only one in town, since Lakeside bought up all the surgeries - will only book appointments for the same day, but if you call more than one second after 8am (when the lines open) you end up 60+ in the queue and, when it's answered an hour and a half later, all the appointments have gone and they tell you to go through their online service...which involves explaining everything from scratch by text, and you only ever communicate with a nurse.

We moved to a surgery in a village outside town, where an actual person answers the phone within 10 seconds and you can book appointments whenever is convenient. I put in a non-urgent request on AskMyGP, and within 10 minutes I had an actual doctor call me back, having read all the relevant parts of my notes, and even offered me a low-cost private solution when it turned out the NHS won't allow the medication I need.

Y'know...basically, the way GP surgeries used to work. It's worth looking for other surgeries in the area (there are listings on the NHS site) and calling around to see if any are taking registrations.