How do you get a doctors appointment if you are not available between 8.30 and 8.35am

You can apply that prevention is cheaper than cure to majority of council issues.

This is just inexcusable.
At my surgery you enter your details on a touch screen that is just inside the door. Once you have done that correctly a message pops up to say you have been "arrived for your appointment" and to go and take a seat. You don't need to go near the receptionist.
I hope you wrote a strongly worded letter to the practice manager and your MP.

@Alphabet1spaghetti2

That is really awful. I am so sorry.
I didn't need to do any of that to sign up for the NHS app.
I had to take my passport and a bank statement to the surgery to get the patient access.
I wonder if it is just your practice that has invented all these extra checks, or if it is a national thing that has happened more recently?
Either way, it is excessive and seems to be designed to stop people getting access to their GP.
Have you written to your MP?

I got turned away from my appointment which I had waited for over a month yesterday because I was classed as being late which I wasn't as when I got there a confused old man was monopolising the one receptionist. I was late by the time I got to the front of the queue and they sent me away to wait another month.

@porridgecake it the nhs app which won’t work! According to the screen we need to upload a video of our faces - ok, video done, but the app won’t accept the video! Our practice wants us to use two apps - the nhs one and patient access. The system requires four pass codes to use the two apps, only issued by the surgery - which won’t give us those codes. So… we have two separate issues now. We’ve filled in all the paperwork and provided drivers licenses and council tax proof of who we are, with photos of ourselves and yet we are no further forward. Even if we get the apps to work, it’s e consult followed by telephone call and then eventually a face to face appointment with a hcp not a dr.
In all, we feel like they just want us to go away and die quietly and not access the nhs in anyway. I have asthma - and can’t even get a nhs prescription anymore because I can’t get an appointment. So I self prescribe based on previous meds and buy it privately and fingers crossed I can still breathe!
111 won’t help this issue locally, as they just send you to a and e. But neither of us are willing to wait in and e for 18+ hours and frankly it’s not an emergency in the way heart attacks/rta/ broken bones/stabbings/gun shots are.
Add to this the local nhs trust has just closed an entire dr surgery in town and are refusing to open another one or provide extra funds to other surgeries (failed cqc and we were promised new premises for a new surgery to replace the failed one)- so now we have 12,000 patients all trying to get access at the remaining surgeries and all at the same time.
It really is die or go private or become your own expert and source what you need online.

edit to add. Our out of hours is appointment based with a few walk ins - but people queue up hours before it opens and are often turned away at the door.

Exaggerate your symptoms. If I need an appointment for one of my children, I make it sound as if it might be an emergency by stressing certain aspects of their symptoms that prompt an urgent response of "we'd rather see them than not" from the receptionist because they're afraid of not seeing them.

I don't do this for myself so just tend to go without care unless it's absolutely urgent and then see the out-of-hours GPs at our local hospital (who are much better than our shit surgery anyway).

You don’t. It’s going to cost the nhs more in the long run. I know people who have had mild symptoms but not been bothered to go through the hassle of seeing the GP and then it turned out to be diabetes and even cancer a couple of years later. Prevention is cheaper than cure but that’s what you get with a Tory government

Ive been very polite but incredibly forceful saying I could not be available at that time, couldn't be the only one and they needed to assist me. Once they essentially told me to fuck off and the other time said they understand and got me a call back.

I think the official answer is 111?

ive been very lucky then , recently filled in e form at 8.30am. text from reception 8.50am i will be put on doctor list for a phone call today, doctor phoned me at 9.45 am i have an ongoing problem very impressed antiobiotics sent to my chemist,

Weve given up on the GP surgery, DH went private but needed NHS referral, that was sent to GP, symptoms got worse, couldnt book appt, couldnt get prescription repeated without seeing GP, this went on and on, until yesterday when we called 999 and now hes in hospital.

The people who need the GP the most are probably the least able to pay because people with many co-morbid health concerns and long-term debilitating conditions that need ongoing management are often out of work or in low-paid work or pensioners.
If people with complex need can't see a primary care provider in a timely fashion their needs will spiral until they are taking much more resources as in patients in hospital.

We use the local walk in centre generally it’s quicker and better than A&E

I’ve discovered that if I turn up at my GP’s, just before 8.30 when they open the door, you can normally get an appointment. As it’s only 10 minutes walk away, it beats hanging on the phone in some dreadful queue when it tells you noxone’s available and cuts you off.

The only way I've found to get an appointment (at my surgery anyway) is to ring at a different time, not usual booking time. The receptionist then puts you on the duty doctors list for a call that day. The duty doctor can then book you an appointment if it's needed.

I did it this way yesterday and have an in person appointment for this afternoon. I never would have got that, trying to just go through reception. It'll actually be the first time I've seen a GP in person for years!

The same way you organise your life to go to doctors appointments I guess

I got a call within 15 minutes of submitting a form last month. Offered a face to face appointment the same morning. I was so impressed.

GP booked me for blood tests and an ultrasound, 'hopefully it's not cancer but to be on the safe side'.

Blood test at surgery was within 3 weeks. Ultrasound at hospital will be within 5 weeks. A week after blood test surgery calls to say GP wants to discuss results, phone appointment made for 4 weeks' time, so 8 weeks after I saw GP.

Not sure how worried I should be tbh.

I’d have a look locally and see if a different surgery is doing a better system . E consult at our GP is open from 8-4:30 and they generally get back to you the same day or next day depending on what your complaint is . It is a great system .

Can you get the NHS app and input your NHS number and set a password?
I find it incomprehensible that a National Health Service is so fragmented and disorganised.
I jumped through many hoops to get access to my GP record a few years ago. (Via EMIS patient access) Now I never look at it because I subsequently got the NHS app to book covid vaccinations during the pandemic. I can see all my records, order rpt prescriptions and do online consults through the app.
I can also do an online consult/book an appointment through the practice website.
These systems should be available to everyone and if they are not, there needs to be a mass writing to MPs to find out why.

I am so sorry to hear your DH is so unwell. I think with those symptoms, 111 would be able to get you an appointment.

I know it's not that simple, especially in the NHS. But it would make sense to think 'What services are not urgent, and not going to be used by very old people who might not be web savvy?' and make those online.

I wouldn't mind waiting a few months for HRT discussion if I have to, my issues are relatively mild, but making people having to hang on the phone doesn't seem to make sense for anyone.

Our GP surgery is still an independent practice. If you call at 8am you can usually get a same day appointment. No e-consult option.

No issues with my GP

I can ring at 8am or 9am, or I can ring at 6pm for an evening appointment with a random GP who could be from another surgery

Blood clinics on the other hand are beyond a joke, you get there at 8am and people are queuing since 6.30 so it's full before it opened

Mine's not too bad, if I call at 8 ( obviously not helpful if you can't) I can usually get a same day appointment even if it is of the we'll call you sometime this afternoon variety. Ok for me as I work from home but not great if you have to do the school run etc.
They also do advance appointments, though these are usually 3 weeks away.

My GP surgery has no online services and you have to call at 8.30 bang on. They also don’t have a phone system so you call and it’s engaged and you have to keep calling until you get through.
I once followed it through to its conclusion to see how long it would take.
I called 177 times. On the last time, I finally got through and was on hold for 20 minutes and was then laughed at and told there were no appointments for that day. The whole thing took about 45 minutes.

I then rang 111 who managed to get me an appointment with my GP at that surgery on that day?!

My GP surgery doesn't even accept online requests for repeat prescriptions outside of their opening times 🙃 Or any other messages/e-consults etc.

Yesterday we had 1200 requests. We had about 180 available appointments.

This is insane. Out of curiosity, how many of those requests are people who really don't need a gp? I work in a public service and we often have older / otherwise vulnerable people who book an appointment for something but what they really want is to sit down and talk to a sympathetic person for half hour. I often wonder if they are also booking a lot of medical appointments for the same reason.