AIBU to think getting a GP appointment has basically become impossible?

AI isn't that clever. It is very good at making up answers that sound plausible but it fails to actually be intelligent. They trained an AI to spot skin cancers in photos and it got very very good at it, but it turned out that what it was learning to recognise was whether or not there was a ruler in the picture (placed near the cancer to show the size). You do not want an AI doing this job. AI can look at data amd spot patterns but it doesn't know what "feeling worried" or "in pain" actually mean, it has no frame of reference, it hasn't got a clue, it just knows which words often follow previous words in the data sets it has had fed in, so generates a set of words that seem to fit, without having a clue what those words mean or whether they are true you would get random results with such poor accuracy that it would take longer to check and followup the AIs mistakes than for humans to do the job. Believe me, employing enough staff to run a decent triage service is a lot cheaper than developing and then supplying the computing power for a sufficiently capable AI to do the same job. The AIs we have now are nowhere near capable.

Why can't they get AI to go through the online enquiries? I bet loads can be told to just go to a pharmacy or something.
I had a mark on my nail a while ago that someone said looked like cancer. Did online form with photo. Doctor called later that day to say they were fast track referring me to hospital. Had hospital appointment, doctor there had a really close look at it, took a picture, expanded it for a better look and said it was nothing to worry about and would grow out eventually. I'm sure AI could have just looked at the photo in the online form and have told me that. No doctor would have need to have been troubled so loads of time freed up plus, I would have had a pretty much instant answer. I know not every query can just be answered in this way but I bet a good portion could.

I changed GP surgeries. I was with mine for 16 years. Also couldn’t get appointments. Had to phone up and be told that all appointments had gone after being on hold.
I’m now at the new surgery and can get appointments. I did today. I filled in the online form, got a text shortly after with a link and could choose times and GPs. Nearly passed out at that little victory.
The old surgery had phone appointments. I had to walk in there today as the pharmacy is attached. There were zero patients waiting. The new one had lots of patients waiting to see a GP.

I had to speak to my dads GPs today for him, in a totally different part of the UK and they were absolutely brilliant!

Got him a same day appointment, did him an ECG while he was there & then to see the GP again after the test, no complaints whatsoever.

The issue overall seems to be lack of consistency in what people are experiencing because I’m personally not seeing any issues.

My blood tests tomorrow were cancelled and replaced with a Christmas Eve appointment. No complaints here.

I can’t complain about our practice. No 8am rush. I rang this week at 8, was told there were no available appointments but did I want to go on the triage list. Gp rang at 8.17, decided he wanted to see us (DD) and we were seen at 9.10.

I suggest a formal complaint listing the dates and times you have tired and failed with screenshots if possible. It sounds a ludicrous system at your surgery.

Our GP used to be like that. I ended up working out that I needed to call at 7.58, so the recorded message ended just as the line opened. Too early and you were told they had not opened. Too late and you were further back in the queue.

Ours now operates a system where you call, get asked a few details and they add your name to a list, and they either call when you are at the top of the list to book you in, or just send an appointment.
Seems to work. It may be nearer 3 weeks than 2 before you have the appointment, but at least you get one. They allocate to a specific gp if there is a reason that they are more appropriate.

If urgent they will offer same day where possible.

I think it must be dependent on the surgery. Ours are great. DD has various long term conditions and I can always get a same day appointment for her if I need to. I just phone and the receptionist messages.the doctor and comes back to me.

All the staff are lovely, including the receptionists which seems to be a big bugbear with a lot of people.

The GP even did a home visit when my late DP was diagnosed with cancer.

They cover a huge rural area and also have the local paramedic base there.

The previous surgery we were with were awful.

I really feel for people who are finding so difficult to access GP services, but some practices seem to be working fine. Thankfully, mine is one of them.

Last time I needed a F2F appointment, I submitted an online request around lunchtime and got an appointment for early afternoon the following day.

On Monday, I submitted an online request about a recurring problem around 8.15, the correct medication was prescribed and prescription emailed to my nominated pharmacy by 8.30.

We used to have 3 different GP practices, but they merged a few years ago and one practice now covers a town and a village with a combined population of approx 25k. Everyone thought it would be chaos, but it seems to be perfectly fine.

At least you can phone your GP surgery. I live on the East Sussex coast and calls to my GP surgery (which is in the same town as I am of course) all go to a call centre in Manchester! It seems that GPs and their patients have to be kept apart at all costs! No wonder people go to A&E in desperation as there is no other way of getting medical attention.

Ours is online only. They won't even entertain discussing an appointment on the phone with you. I've just looked and there's one GP appointment on 31st, the next is 12th Jan, where there are two available.

Ours is fine. Not amazing but acceptable.

They insist on telephone triage first even when you know you absolutely have to have a face to face. When they ring the doctor patronisingly says “you’ll need a face to face appointment for that” and you have to resist saying “do you think I don’t fucking know that” and appear grateful for their wisdom instead.

But that aside, you get seen. 3 week wait for routine appointments, same or next day for urgent.

I needed an appointment to check a large mole, I got one in 3/days at a surgery near me, not my regular one.

When I hear of the horror stories that some people have with their surgeries I'm always thankful for ours. I have had a problem with my ear recently where over the counter treatments didn't work. Phoned the surgery and had a call with the GP a couple of hours later who prescribed a spray, prescription was sent to the village pharmacy which I picked up the same day. Unfortunately that too didn't work so I walked down to our surgery at lunchtime yesterday. The receptionist said they only had urgent telephone appointments available and would add me to the list. By 4pm I'd had a call from the GP who asked me to go in about an hour later where he checked my ear, syringed it, all sorted very quickly.

DH has also had a number of appointments recently. Blood test results come through very quickly - on one occasion within a few hours. Our surgery also does minor surgery - DH recently had his ingrown toenails sorted having had an appointment with the GP 3 weeks before.

All the staff, from the receptionists through to the doctors are unfailing kind and reassuring. We are really lucky to have them.

Never have any problems getting an appointment. There’s no 8am scramble. You do an initial message online, then they phone you back with an appointment, often that same day. If not urgent, within a week. It’s really good. I used it just this week.

Thanks. Ironically I understand that GP is the one speciality where Australian training is more readily accepted in the UK. As I understand it, and I am just a layperson trying to figure out why the UK is so perversely pushing DD and her bright, enthusiastic and dedicated peers to emigrate whilst at the same time bringing in armies of health professionals from abroad. (Similar unemployment problems exist for newly graduated nurses and other HCPs.)

Apparently 25 year ago or so there was a similar lost generation and the GP shortage became so acute that UK educated GPs were given incentives to return home. Someone told me recently that his two brothers, both Emergency Medicine consultants in Australia (an area where we have a massive shortage) were having to retrain as GPs in order to return home.

The Times recently ran a series of articles on the various workforce issues in medicine. One focussed on those stuck in Australia. Apparently Australia has 10,000 consultants who graduated from UK Universities, a proportion of whom want to return. However until they gain equivalence they can only take on insecure locum roles and equivalence often takes 5-7 years to sort out.

From what I can see the BMA is a mass of special interests and lobbies. Consultants who benefit from shortages at a senior level, militants who push for more pay, the woke brigade quick to reject the findings of the Cass report, those with an interest in overseas recruitment. The BMA has only recently been willing to raise the problems UK resident doctors have in accessing training, something that also affects overseas doctors recruited into entry level jobs here who then find they have no career path. Wes Streeting has rightly confirmed that this is an issue he has always been willing to talk about. I assume equally like to retain UK trained doctors reducing the need to bring people in from overseas, but this does not seem to be something that worries the BMA. Indeed, based on various MN and Reddit threads, even talking about it seems to be considered racist.

Inevitably, as this thread appears to evidence, shortages impact some areas more quickly than others. Parts of the UK which are seen as less attractive places to live or work suffer first. However the problem is systemic and unless action is taken, everyone will eventually be impacted by the slow erosion in quality of our health service.

This is such important and useful insight.

There should be (perhaps there is?) a medical equivalent of the haldane principle or something where health care funding decisions are made my independent experts not politicians 😞

My surgery moved to the online form and triage last year and I tried it earlier this week. Two hours later I got a text saying that due to winter pressures they can't make me an appointment, if my problem gets worse call 111. If 111 advise I need a GP then I must go to PC24 at the hospital. Wonderful.

Mine has switched to online only and it seems to work. Fill in a form online (opens 8am) then you get an appointment depending on the need

The online form filling is so it can be triaged as to which medical professional is best to do the appointment, whether it’s a phone call or f2f and how urgent it is.

Ours has the 8am scramble for urgent same day appts. But you can ring later in the day for non emergency appts which are 1-2 weeks away.

Same here, I find it most crazy how different it seems to be across the country! I never have any issues getting an appointment.

i do it online
then triaged and a call back
although it was very messed up last time, they didnt know i was booked!