To think the government needs to stop selling online GP booking systems as an improvement as they’re not particularly when they’re switched off for most of the day

Just google private GP service and you should be able to book an appointment although may need to go through signing up faff

You just need a doctor who can prescribe propranolol for you

I hardly ever go to the Drs but I want them to prescribe me some propranolol for my public speaking anxiety. Tried that online thing this morning and nothing available. System connect I think.

I need it soon too! Anyone recommend a private online Dr as a back up?

The truth is there aren’t enough GPs nor appointments. It doesn’t matter what booking system there is - people, who can’t get an appointment within a few days, are not going to be happy!

We remember as children, we had a family doctor and if necessary, they came out to visit us at home - in the days of childhood illnesses like measles. When we moved here 30 years ago, we could see the GP of our choice within the next few days. All of that has gone - it’s online booking with triage, and an appointment within a week or two, unless it’s an emergency.

This is how my surgery ran things until recently when they changed to a nationwide system (can't remember name) and you have to call for urgent appointments. I suppose it'd better than most but I preferred the e consult.

The problem here is the GP surgery, not the online system. It’s the extent to which they are now being run as individual businesses of sort.

We have an online eConsult system at ours and it’s great. It’s open 8-10am. You get a response back within 30 minutes. Quite often it’s as little as 5 minutes. If it’s urgent, after 10am you can call 111 for out of hours or go to minor injuries. Or if not urgent, you wait til the next day. You can also just ring them, but I never do that.

I’d say at least half the time, I’m seen the same day. I’ve even had then be like, can you be here in 20 minutes? I literally couldn’t even drive there fast enough, so they had to give me a later appointment. If the appointment isn’t convenient, you just ask for a different time.

It works really well because our GP surgery is well run. A little bit of tech isn’t going to fix the problem of being understaffed and poorly managed.

My GP is like this and most of the time is efficient and I prefer it tbh.

The booking system doesn't change the number of appointments, which seems to be the fundamental issue.

I don't blame the GPs trying to triage the appointments, I have family members who used to book an appointment for a few weeks ahead because they thought they would probably have something to see the doctor about by then, they would have appointments more or less monthly, regardless of need.

I think the whole primary care system is just too fragmented now. Lose 111, lose private GP services and just put GPs back in bloody doctors surgeries. If they were all there instead of doing their side hustles there would be a lot more appointments. I have friends who are GPs who work part time as a partner in a surgery but do 111 calls because it earns them more. Fair enough but how have we ended up like this?

UTI is taken seriously at our surgery, you phone and get a prescription within two hours.

You can make appointments via the NHS app, but not all GPs use it - they should have to. I was able to use it to make an appointment for a blood test (although it told me in LARGE LETTERs that I could only do so if the GP had requested it - they had) and that's about it. You certainly can't make appointments to see the GP online and I can't even book an appointment for a cervical screening - I have to phone!

Yes the age/disability discrimination is what my mum has pointed out to receptionists at her doctors, at which point they magically find they can deal with her on the phone after all. They initially told her to get a neighbour to do it for her. Quite apart from the privacy issues - it's not for a disabled patient to make the reasonably adjustments, it's for the surgery to!

It's awful at my surgery 😫

I tried to fill in the form weeks ago at 8am - it was closed because it was overwhelmed! Same all day, every day. You go on and it says they have paused it due to demand.

If you are able to, you can ring at 8am to see if you can get an appointment. Usually though, you end up 20th or more in the queue, so by the time you get through - no appointments.

I teach and collect my form at 8.15am, so can't ring as I don't have 45 minutes+ to wait on the line. Can't use the form because it's never open.

I generally just use 111 now - far better service!

I knew on Wed I had a UTI but because I felt sick/had low back ache, pharmacist wouldn't prescribe (fair enough).

I rang 111 , had initial consultation and was told I would get a call within 2 hours. 15 minutes later I got the call and was seen in person within half an hour. Prescription done and I collected it on my way home.
I finished antibiotic yesterday and was concerned I still had symptoms, so filled in the 111 online form. Again, got a call back in less than 2 hours, in person appointment booked for 30 minutes after, seen by a lovely lady and antibiotic topped up and collected on my way home.

No time off work needed either (would have loved to take a day or so because I felt grim but had loads on that couldn't be moved).

Didn't even bother trying to go through my GP surgery because it's pointless.

Not read the whole thread but agree completely with your title! At my GP's surgery the system is switched on at 8am and has been turned off again by 8.20.

At my mum's it is a little better, and I've been able to get onto it for her in the afternoon. Though her surgery tries to pretend that you can't use the phone as an alternative, whereas you can still phone my surgery as an alternative (but not go in in person).

Also the systems vary so much. At my surgery it is easy to use. My mum's asks a million questions and it is much more complex to use.

Absolutely agree- loads of people can’t use these online systems

Such systems are effectively age discrimination (as the elderly are far less likely than younger people to be able to get online) and disability discrimination (many people with learning disabilities lack literacy and digital skills). It’s completely unacceptable.

It's terrible and also discrimination against those who can't use forms/the internet. A relative is almost blind and can't yet the surgery moan when she phones. What the hell is she supposed to do?

Clearly many on here have had a completely different experience to me with my surgery here in SE London

And I do think it’s very “strange” that a triage system is turned off for most of the day because it gets switched off

Ideally the system should be open for several hours each day and so that the doctor who is triaging can filter the patients who need on the day/urgent, within a couple of days/within the week/or beyond one week

Personally, this move to online total triage has been really good- DC got a same day appointment when I submitted a form, they were 5 at the time, had fever/generally unwell- got seen within a few hours

Appreciate that my experience is different to others on this thread, but it’s just that- my own personal experience

I’m shocked to read how bad some of these systems are, it’s absolutely shocking. The system at the surgery we use is really quite good- it’s open from 8am to about 5 and you generally hear back quite quickly. The surgery calls you to make a same-day appointment if it’s urgent, or allows you to log in and select from various time slots in the next few weeks if it’s non-urgent. All my appointments have been with a GP. But we live in a small, rural town, I don’t think our surgery has anywhere near as many patients as surgeries of a comparable size in more urban/surburban areas.

I found the same thing in the extremely rural area we used to live in. You’d call in the morning, no phone queue at all, have seen a GP by midday and this was only a couple of years ago. Once, there was a problem with sending my prescription to the pharmacy and the lovely GP receptionist popped over from the surgery to give the paper prescription to the pharmacist herself. I was gobsmacked, because the suburban practice we used beforehand before we moved to the countryside was an absolute shitshow.

I’m interested to know if this is typical of rural GPs or we’re just lucky. That said, it’s swings and roundabouts because we only have one A&E and it’s an absolute nightmare. So I’d rather have tonsillitis here than where we used to live, but I’d rather deal with a broken arm where we were before.