GP didn’t call me because their “workday has ended”

I had a telephone call booked in at 15:40.

It rolls around and no call. 17:30 comes and goes which is when the surgery closes.

I get a text to say it’s not been completed as they got to the end of their workday and couldn’t make the call, which means at least 8 people were in the same position as me, they didn’t have their calls made.

So I now have to compete again tomorrow for an on the day call, and even having one booked in doesn’t guarantee it!

AIBU to think this is exactly why so many people end up in A&E? We’re told to go to our GP, but our GP won’t see us!

"None of the GPs work full time. They're all on part time contracts.I don't blame them due to their pension changes/ limits, but it definitely adds to A&E always being so busy as people get fed up waiting to be seen."

This is the problem....barely any GP's now work full time. The feminisation of GP practice has led to a deterioration of the service given many women doctors now choose that route specifically because of the flexi working hours.

I called 111 when I couldn’t get an appointment at my GP, and was feeling really poorly.
THEY (111) got me an appointment with my GP! Apparently my surgery has slots set aside for 111 callers, and I got seen within an hour of calling them.

Good luck! xxx

Wouldn’t they call the people who didn’t get a call tomorrow rather than go through the process of being put on the list?
If people are that bad they would go straight to a&e not call their gp and not wait for a telephone call.

I think they should at least rebook you for the morning.

Im an NHS podiatrist and cant remember when I last finished work on time. I finish patients at 4.30 then work until about 6 or 7pm doing referrals, finishing notes, ensuring everything urgent is done. There is so much paperwork and I cant go home until its done unless I decide to work from home.
I dont get paid for that extra time, but if I dont do it nobody else will.
I doubt your GP just goes home at the end of the working day.
There are legal consequences for not doing this work.
I get 30 mins per patient. Far more than GPs. But I might have to do a procedure that takes an hour or 25 foot ulcers and both leg double bandaging that makes me late all day.
Thd NHS doesnt give us enough time for anything and yet here we are doing yet another time and motion study.

That sounds very strange. Is it your normal GP surgery as they work until 6.30 in England? I would have loved to have just switched my computer off and gone home at 5.30 as a GP but sadly I had to finish my list of patients.
If I had had an emergency one of my colleagues would have called my patients and assessed the urgency and either dealt with them or rebooked.

Yes I DO expect this of the GPs, because most of them work part time, 2 days or 3 days a week, and there are 3 nights of the week that some of the GPs work til 8pm. As I said, sometimes they do ring people at that time (or close to it) and the practice have appointments as late as 7.45pm.

So in this instance, yes I WOULD expect the GPs to stay until they have phoned everyone. Otherwise, why bother with this triage system where they promise to call you/deal with it on the same day, if they're not going to ring anyone after 6pm? Poor practice, and this needs sorting. The OP needs to complain about this.

Also, quite a lot of professions/jobs mean you have to stay until everything is done. Open your mind a bit.

"None of the GPs work full time. They're all on part time contracts.I don't blame them due to their pension changes/ limits, but it definitely adds to A&E always being so busy as people get fed up waiting to be seen."

This is the problem....barely any GP's now work full time. The feminisation of GP practice has led to a deterioration of the service given many women doctors now choose that route specifically because of the flexi working hours.

There you go @TheChickenOrTheMiniEgg - OP thinks the GP should have stayed and finished all the appointments, regardless of their working hours and out of work commitments.

It depends how you look at it. You are sort of right that people shouldn't work past their hours but that isn't real life. Most people on a GP equivalent salary would be expected to meet their deadlines and, if that meant staying late, you stay late. There's no way I could just pack up and go home on time if I still had work to do - most private sector people wouldn't. It's not a race to the bottom and you could argue that private should come in line with public rather than the other way around. But whilst ever we live in the world we currently do, I think its appalling that a GP is just allowed to dump their list to go home and, even worse, expect the patients to go to the back of the queue the following day.

again, this would be a fair comment to make if OP's app was the last or last to one of the day - the fact there was 2hrs between when her appt was due and the surgery closed suggests it's not the case of just one or two appts slightly overrunning.

Even if her specific GP was only supposed to work until 3.40 so it was only OP's appt being missed, if the surgery itself was open until 17.30 a different GP should have covered her appt, or at the very least a member of admin staff should have phoned her AT 3.40 and told her the appt had been cancelled so she wasn't waiting around in vain for someone who had finished work 2hrs ago.

I had to take my DD to A&E with severe hyperemisis gravidarum and it was wall to wall full of retired to very old people. I’m not surprised at all, to get a GP appointment I have to call between 8.30 - 9.15 then keep my fingers tapping the ring back button to get through which might take half an hour then press the correct button for the service I want and then hope I get through in time it’s an absolute nightmare

If its not an emergency and doesn't involve a child with a rash/hi fever etc then anyone who goes to AE because their GP didn't call them back is a fucking idiot.

Numerous on-line GP services attached to 'practices or the NHS app that are free and same day.

If you re that ill you wouldn't be waiting around all day for a phone call, you'd dial 999 or got to AE.

But then i ve seen this, sore throat/fever/can't sleep/small cut etc clogging up AE, then moaning they had to wait 38 hours before being told "Go and see your GP"

I'd say most jobs are like that. Where do you work where you have to stay till everything is done even well beyond your working hours? Do you stay for hours extra to finish off absolutely everything? GP have childcare and other things they need to be able to get back to. And are in a line of work where delays happen all the time. They are dealing with unwell people, who can't necessarily be rushed on.

I do agree on the communication and rescheduling though, as I already said.

"None of the GPs work full time. They're all on part time contracts.I don't blame them due to their pension changes/ limits, but it definitely adds to A&E always being so busy as people get fed up waiting to be seen."

This is the problem....barely any GP's now work full time. The feminisation of GP practice has led to a deterioration of the service given many women doctors now choose that route specifically because of the flexi working hours.

But that's what she's saying. Doctors are people like the rest of us. We all have children/caring responsibilities, hobbies etc but if you're not finished, you're not finished - you stay til you are whether you're a GP or an accountant. The rest of us frequently stay late to meet our deadlines. So why shouldn't Doctors?

That is bad @angelinlothian Do you have this online triage thing that many practices have now? I was skeptical about it, (it all changed over October 2025,) but ours is good. We get a response from the practice within 2-3 hours of putting the form in online. Sometimes a text, sometimes a phone call, sometimes offering you a doctor's appointment.

DH actually put a request in (online) for a med that he'd had before several times but doesn't have on repeat. He put it in at 11am. At 2.30pm he got a text saying a GP will call him after 4pm. He had had no call by 5.40pm (they close at 6pm) so he rang them, and the receptionist said 'the GPs do sometimes stay til 8pm, and he will call tonight for sure.'

7.30pm the GP called. Sent the prescription for his meds straight to Boots.

I would complain if I were you.