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

That’s great for you but some of us have got surgeries that say they’re overwhelmed by lunch and some patients are unable to morning scramble to fill forms. It is thus a lot harder to make appointments with the online system than the way it was before.

They can close early and are, many are being advised to locally and nationally. We complained and were told just that.

Doesn’t really help the op as lots of us are blighted with GP surgeries that have switched to online booking but close it early thus making seeing a GP even harder.

Our GP has some appointments for emergency to be booked on day and some that can be booked in advance for things that can wait. You submit your request online and a doctor triages it and decides what type of appointment you need. Works very well. They used to do the scramble and even then you usually could get an appointment.

Could you email them setting out the problem and see if common sense is triggered? Could you attend in person and see what might happen? Could you formally complain?

My surgery used to be dire, the 8am scramble for appointments which would all be gone within five minutes. But they’ve now implemented the online booking system in line with the new rules.

I filled in a form at 4.30 yesterday afternoon and had a text message within 15 minutes giving me a phone consultation on Friday. No time given but fortunately I work from home so can have my phone available all day. A massive improvement from before.

Based on family experiences (I'm abroad), almost entirely impossible, especially for anything acute.

I was googling when to see a doctor for a chest infection yesterday. I usually need steroids and antibiotics. It was interesting that NHS advice was to suffer for 3 weeks, while countries with more expensive health systems say to go sooner and even immediately if certain criteria apply.

I would normally agree with you OP and here in Wales you normally have to phone early for ANY kind of GP appointment urgent or not. Our surgery has just started offering booking appointments on line which I was able to do, with choice of dates for early January. Can it be Wales NHS pulling their socks up?

I thought it had changed and there had to be availability to book throughout the day, I'm sure I remember Wes announcing it earlier in the year and the GPs complaining about it, maybe it hasn't come in yet

My surgery works really well. They triage you to see how quickly you need to be seen. A long wait (2-3 weeks ) would only be if ir was BOTH non-urgent and you insisted on seeing one particular doc.

The reason that online forms become unavailable/full before the end of the day is to ensure that the staff managing the triage process have a list that they can realistically get through by the end of the day. If any surgery started keeping the online form open until 18:30, there would immediately start being a backlog. Within a fortnight, the triage team would be looking at issues that were submitted 4 days ago that needed an immediate same-day appointment - and people withe severe health issues would deteriorate or even die. That's not a price we should be willing to pay for the convenience of an easier process for our non-urgent issues. If government guidelines require the forms to be open till 18:30 they'd better provide the funding to double the size of the triage team. They aren't going to do that, therefore I would rather they closed the online list so that if it's closed I know my issue won't be triaged today so if it's urgent I'll call 111.

I agree, it sounds ridiculous. I'm not in the UK but here you can ring the surgery anytime and they will book you an appointment, or you can go online and book one yourself. You will probably have to wait two or three weeks - unless it's urgent of course - but it's still easy to organise an appointment.

The system doesn’t work anymore OP. There are more likely more patients registered than staff available so it’s completely a numbers game.

Its a nightmare. Effectively three months of pushing for an appointment only to be told "IBS" over the phone with no help on what I might do/take in order to reduce pain. No follow-up up offered. Our surgery no longer has a physical premises so actual face to face appointments are near impossible. The GP is charming but overseas trained and does not instill confidence. She seems to have made quite an alarming mistake when prescribing to a neighbour.

It is not a health service. Thank heavens we now have Dr Google.

We have no problems at ours. Online form open 8am - 6.30pm. Always get a response the same day if I submit by mid afternoon, last week I scraped in just before it closed and got a text at 8.30pm. If it’s urgent and I submit the form in the morning we get a same day appointment. If it’s not urgent the wait is normally about 3 weeks.

I know this doesn’t help you OP! But I think it’s important to know that actually there are plenty of GP surgeries operating well, so people at the awful ones don’t just think it’s the same everywhere. It is possible to run a decent practice on the current contracts, so why do some surgeries struggle so much.

I can usually get one. But it’s a postcode lottery. They will have to pride my registration at my GP out of my cold dead hands. I realise I’m very lucky. It’s a nightmare elsewhere.

Can never get one on the phone here, online keeps crashing, so l just walk in and make an appointment, there is always a queue of people doing the same

No complaints. Almost always manage to get a same day for vulnerable family members. (Perth, Scotland, and Fylde, Lancashire)

Not in my little village.
I phoned up to make a routine appointment today and they answered immediately and gave me an appointment for tomorrow.

The e consult system at my GP works well and I've had no problem getting an appropriate appointment.

Same here . The other day filled out the online form , then late morning received a call but missed it . Called the Drs surgery to be told they always try again , so waited , and waited , no call back . Phoned reception the following day , a few hours later received a text saying they'd been in touch with the Dr who told them they'd left a message on my home phone answerphone ( I haven't got on !) So I had to get in touch with reception for the third time to be told they would get someone to call me , finally had a call from a nurse practitioner .

Again, this is specific to your practice, not a general GP issue. Don't let them get away with it.

It's your surgery, not GPs in general. Speak to your MP or the practice manager or the ICB. GP practices should not be allowed to get away with such appalling service. My GP is brilliant, I can always get an appointment and plenty of others say the same. It's time we placed some focus on why some can and others can't. Some of it will be about location/local population characteristics but that's not an excuse. GPs shouldn't accept providing shite service, they should be finding a way to resolve it.

I have not seen an actual GP since 2019!

My blood pressure recently went up a lot. I filled in the e-consult. Had an automated response saying they were very busy and may take a few days to respond. Three weeks later I hadn't heard anything so called in the surgery. I was told that I had been called twice the previous day and had not answered so would now have to start again. They had called me on my mobile twice within one minute. I had specifically requested a call on my land line as mobile signal at home is very patchy.

I don't know why you are expected to hang around for weeks with no idea when anyone is likely to ring.

That's wild OP. Could you suck up the private fee?

No 8am scramble at our surgery .. you can ring at anytime. If you need to see someone that day, the triage Dr calls you back and decides if you need to be seen, or if they can deal with it over the phone. If you need to be seen you go down that day.

It’s about how the surgeries are choosing to organise themselves.