To think there should be a way of reporting GP surgeries that don’t have online booking available from 8.00-6.30

The complaints procedure doesn't have to involve PAL - PAL is only there if you want help to do so. You first complain to the practice, then up to the chain til the Care Quality Commission.

I've done this before, starting with the practice manager. There is usually a way to make contact or leave feedback on the website.

My GP's practice is also the local place for blood test. I was there was a blood draw recently and lost count of the times I heard the reception say "I can't book an appointment for you, but I can request one...".

The online system where I am at is that you put in a request with the details during the opening hours, they'll called back with either signposting elsewhere or an appointment at one of four practices usually within a day or so, and if you don't like the practice that is currently available, you get put on a waiting list for the site you want. I travel for urgent things, but for routine things I go on the waiting list, knowing I'll get a call where they'll first ask if I can go same day, maybe up to a week which can be a bit awkward with work, but it's better than the morning rush.

You don’t just say as regards overstretched schools that aren’t providing what they should when others do- what do you expect them to do! You expect the education department to be aware of those struggling and support put in place.

No, I don't. I've seen the 'support', it a shoestring and a prayer with the expectation of being all singing and dancing with a smile not only to students and their families, but to trust boards who expect to turn around to their next greatest planning on pinhead. I can't think of a school I've seen that isn't in some way not doing what the DoE lists they should be doing. I don't know what people are expecting when things keep getting added onto them with nothing taken off. I think schools very much benefit from the curriculum and other expectations slimmed down and simplified, alongside the need many have spoken of on bringing back the funding more TAs and support staff.

I'm not sure how we manage that with the NHS, I don't have the experience to even guess - I mean, I can see in other countries more put on preventative medicine with a lot of personal responsibility to manage that, but I really cannot see from where we are now how we'd get there.

Try living in Northern Ireland where this doesn't exist..occasionally some online appointments appear on our practices EMIS page but nothing like the system you describe exists

Contact the ICB for your area. They will have more information on why certain GP practices are not complying with their contracts at the present time.

In my opinion whilst not perfect the current system is much better. Ours also cuts off early in the day but I can log on first thing complete a form and not have to make 100 calls to get through to a receptionist who tells me all the slots are full and to call back tomorrow. On the days when lm commuting I leave five minutes early, pull over at the appropriate time and complete a form. People are entitled to time off work to go to the doctor so if you need to see a doctor in working hours then take the time off, which employers are refusing workers time off to visit the doctor as this is really shocking and is an employer issue not a GP issue.

What has happened is doctors for years have the view like CrackersMalackers
that patients are just not that ill.

The first appointment you get with a GP is usually a waste of time. They will tell you to go away and monitor your symptoms then make another appointment if things don’t clear themselves up. Regardless of the fact that you have already waited to see if the symptoms clear themselves

Then there is the next appointments where you can only mention one symptom at a time. Despite the fact that a lot of issues are a list of varying symptoms that put together =1 diagnosis .

A lot of time and money and appointments are wasted because a lot of doctors will only test and treat one symptom at a time

What you have now is the build up of these wasted appointments and “money saving” measures” by being slow to get people the right treatment in the first place.

GP’s surgeries have patted themselves on the back for “saving” the NHS money because their surgery has come in under budget but has passed the higher costs of treating someone because their issue has progressed on to the hospitals.

As an example if the GP had listened to all
the symptoms that exh was suffering from at the first appointment it would have meant an immediate referral to a specialist, a short operation and an overnight stay in hospital followed by some chemo etc.

Instead exh went to the GP and probably 50+ wasted appointments later he went into A&E
where he was diagnosed with cancer which had spread.

He then spent months in hospital and had 3 big operations instead of the overnight stay and short operation if the initial GP had listened to him and referred him to a specialist.

The A&E doctor asked exh why he had left it until now to come in. Why hadn’t he seen a doctor earlier.

GPs seem to want to save money so won’t immediately send people for all the tests that could be needed. They won’t listen to the patient. (I actually think they hope a few will die so they don’t have to deal with them)

The problem is like a lot of government policies or departments, there doesn’t seem to be anyone looking at the bigger picture and the overall impact these “money savings”measures have.

Whilst the GPs actions cost the NHS more money than is necessary they also cost other government departments money because instead of being able to return to work in a short period of time and carrying on, people are left having to claim sickness benefit and other benefits because of the effects of being ill for so long.

Our surgery used to shut access to the online forms down when they were full - you had to access and fill it in at 8am on the dot! Now with the national directive, it’s brilliant, you can fill it in at any time of day and they send you an appointment via email/text. Granted it’s not generally for the same day unless you get in early (or it’s urgent), but I’m happy with the system so far. Sounds like we are lucky!

So the number of patients has increased dramatically from 2019??

I think it's Violet Elizabeth Bott

The only appointments you can book online at our surgery are for smears.

Everything has to go through an online request system. Can take three weeks for them to get back to you. If you miss their call back twice you have to start again. No possibility of moving surgeries because they are all run by the same company.

I haven't been able to speak, let alone see, an actual GP since 2019, yet when I go for my six monthly blood tests I never see anyone else in the waiting room. Yet they are 'so busy'. And yes, many, many complaints have been made against them but they are still allowed to keep taking over practices.

Ours is open all day, but triaged. Lots of appointments by phone I think, or bumped to see the nurse practitioner, but it works.

others local to me seem to close their system after a while to catch up with it, then re open, close, re open etc

sounds made to me

its also frustrating they won’t take calls now, so in my 92 year old mothers case my sisters or I have to use the system for her, rather than her just call

For the love of god every suggestion made you’ve bitched about. If you can’t be arsed to follow the existing complaint routes and just want to stamp your feet then fine, but the world doesn’t revolve around you and it is stupid to waste further resources developing a system you think is better when there are already systems in place that are not even difficult to access, just not in your preferred way.

We get it you are very busy and important, but as lods of poster a have explained you are getting angry at the wrong people. You should be angry at the politicians who promised something that was pie in the sky. If you really think you could do a bette job then please lobby and run for office, I look forward to the new system you will build where all of this will be fixed.

Oh yes. because Ofsted has been a total success in schools! Ofsted offers no solutions, just criticism, they wouldn't create more appointment slots. It sounds like a Time Traveller may be of more use to create extra time, every surgery would then have a Dr Who on the staff.

I agree OP. We can no longer phone the GP. And our online booking services shut after about 10am every day because appointments are full, I needed a hearing test for my son and could only book this in the morning rush.

I'm not suggesting incompetence or laziness. I am a clinician myself so can well understand the need for triage and urgent appointments as well as shortage of skills. What I don't understand, however, is why the triage is closed for the majority of the day and more importantly why, having been triaged and sent a link to book, I am still not able to see any available appointments.
I can even understand that some poorly designed IT system can't differentiate between urgent appointment slots and non-urgent slots. But then an urgent appointment could be booked by the surgery directly and non-urgent books could be opened for three months in advance. Just an example.
Why have a system where appointment slots are released day by day so no advanced appointments can be made at all? And if I then call the surgery, they book it for me manually... It's either a bizarre and ineffective system or I am missing something.

You are not unreasonable to point out that GPs do not work for working people. And seeing as the government also wants people to be fit and healthy and in work, this should be a priority. I just don't know how the government solve this problem.

In my experience the online service doesn't always work. So I'll wait until the afternoon so the urgent cases have been given slots on the day, and know I'll be offered a telephone consultation in about three weeks time. But they cant give a time slot, only that the doctor will call anytime between 8-1 or 1-6 that day. So I mark that time in my work calendar, let people know I might have to drop out of a meeting at short notice to take a call, carry my personal phone around with me into meetings. 6pm will come with no call and I'll think 'ok, I'll ring them back tomorrow'. Get on with early evening tasks with kids come back to my phone to see two missed calls at 6.20 and 6.23 and a message to say I missed my appointment and will need to book another.

I’m not sure what they can do if there are literally no appointments left.
my gp surgery has a much better system than Wes barks on about. You send details of the problem, a gp reviews it and decides if you need to be seen the same day or will give you some dates to choose from in the future. Much better to triage it like that.
If you are intent on complaining you write to the Practice Manager making a formal complaint then if you are still unhappy you can go to the Ombudsman (Google PHSO). Alternatively you can approach the relevant ICB (Integrated Care Board) who commission the service.

Not everyone has the ability to ‘book online’.
Why can’t OP look into the other ways available of booking appointments, or find a different GP practice?

When you work in the nhs you soon realise what the government expect and announce you should do is by no way practical or possible. They don’t have a clue, but report them if you must.