To be annoyed at the GP receptionist for being arsey about this?

It's not difficult, it's a pretty easy function that could be added to the appointment system. It would just keep track of scheduled appointments Vs actuals and send out texts with updated times. It's basically what the delivery companies do to tell you when your parcel's going to arrive.

@QuinqueremeofNiveneh I entirely disagree with your post. All professionals work outside their contracted hours. Almost all professionals have diaries like jenga and if they kept clients/stakeholders waiting woukd be regarded as unprofessional.

My GP practice has zero tolerance for patients who might be unavoidably late and the practice is peppered with notices about it. If there is zero tolerance for patient lateness, on what basis should the patient have tolerance for GP lateness. If there was a bill to be paid directly, it wouldn't happen.

Respect should always be mutual. It rarely is where doctors are concerned in my experience.

Apologies to the person I quoted. The response was for @QuinqueremeofNiveneh.

I had the same (minus the ‘double’ DNA - I only received the one) in Gastroenterology, even after the running-very-late Consultant’s nurses spoke to him twice about me being unconscious and taken down to A&E.

There’s got to be a better way.

You have obviously never had a day with more than one appointment in it. Or a job.

The NHS will be able to model how long to give each appointment based on historical data. Clearly they are very important and we should be grateful to have it for ‘free’.

Except we don’t have it for free - we pay shedloads for a broken on its knees service and are expected to be grateful.

This.
NHS appointments(telephone and f2f/hospital /GP) rarely run on time due to patient requirements /service needs.
I work in the NHS and I believe that the majority of people have no understanding of the enormity of the demands on the services, including the numbers of patients

This is not acceptable. Why do we put up with this crap. We aren’t waiting around for the GP to call us. I get that sometimes they do run late but if we all have this attitude to a role that we are doing the country would grind to a stand still. Why even both to make an appointment if it’s just a best guess.

Difficult, but its not practical to have someone contact all customers to advise they are running behind. You’d be better off booking an appointment for start or end of the day, face to face as telephone appointments rarely run to time.

Same at my GPs. You're expected to just wait by your phone all day (no time slot) and answer it instantly. Any hesitation and the call drops and you get a message that you have missed your appointment.

It's an outrageous way to behave, massively rude and unprofessional!

I am offering solutions. In the message you criticise. And in a previous one too.

Are you genuinely telling me that you missed that?

The fact is that the OP can choose to do something proactive and useful to prevent a repeat of today, or she can continue to go round in circles complaining endlessly. Entirely up to her!

While waiting in Outpatients for an appointment I had an epileptic seizure and was taken down to A&E. The hospital duly sent my GP a letter saying I had missed my appointment - except they accidentally sent the same letter twice so I was recorded as having missed TWO appointments. That was a fun conversation with the GP's receptionist.

I agree with you. I’m a teacher-I can’t answer my phone in the building, so I have to request a call between 12.30-1.20 and sit in my car! Not everyone can be on hand all the time.

Good that you got sorted eventually, sometimes receptionists really test you. I honestly don't think many people understand that not everyone has or is allowed a phone attached to them all day. Imagine if you worked on the tills in Tesco.... Hold on a minute Mrs I'll check your shopping through after I discuss my medical needs on the shop floor 😞

How can you keep your phone handy if you're working in a job where you can't have your phone on you?
I have had one job where I could keep my phone on me that's it. Working in retail and childcare means you can't just answer your phone (or even have it with you in childcare).
YABU to think everyone can answer the phone at work.
OP is not unreasonable to expect a call at the right time and is not unreasonable to expect the receptionist to be polite when it's not even OPs fault she couldn't attend the appointment.

Please, stop whining on here, have a think, take some adult responsibility for your own situation and work with them!

Please stop using that kind of language and being so patronising about patients. It’s really unnecessary, especially in terms of finding a solution here.

I work in the NHS and can’t just drop everything for a call, it’s ridiculous. I call people when I say I will as I know people need to schedule it in!

I would point out to the practice manager that the practice was at fault here and it is unrealistic to expect working people to hang on the phone forever waiting.
Saying " go private if you want that personalised attention" is disgraceful. The government allowed these phone appointments as part of the NHS contract because it was supposed to be more efficient and reduced the loss in national productivity when people previously had to take half a day off work for a doctor's appointment to allow for delays.
The whole system is shambolic. I was called in for my "aged 60 MOT". An appointment date and time was agreed, but then I got a phonecall 4 hours before from them to cancel it. No reason was given. I lost 1/2 days work. I was promised a phonecall with alternative dates but that was a month ago, so I'm not holding my breath.
Similarly I was given an appointment for a mammogram without any consultation on the time / date. I had to move mountains to get it rearranged. When I turned up at the clinic, there was only me there and 4 nurses. No other patients despite the fact that there were 8 slots per hour.The nurses were complaining that all these people had missed their appointments as they drank tea and dossed about. These missing patients were probably at work and pissed off at the inability to choose their appointment times!
It's time that NHS services were held more accountable for their bookings and follow ups.

The whole thing is absolutely pathetic but we're supposed to lap it all up gratefully because the NHS is amazing.

It's so annoying. At my surgery they refuse to give you a time (or even let you know whether it will be am or pm) for a phone consultation, as if you have nothing better to do than sit by the phone all day. I now insist on a face to face appointment.

Then you really need to be proactive! Speak to your practice, explain your circumstances to your GP. They cannot help you with things they don't know about.

I voted "not unreasonable" on the poll, but I do think you are being very unreasonable if you are just going to complain here and not think about ways that you can solve this particular problem.

Do you honestly think that the GP is indifferent? Wants you to miss your appointment? See you go without the care and medicine you need? Of course not! They are the one making calls after hours (unpaid!) to make sure that you are looked after. Please, stop whining on here, have a think, take some adult responsibility for your own situation and work with them!

Probably. I got cancelled three times a row by mine in 2020, and then found I’d been de-registered for three ‘DNAs’. They refused to take me back or even put me on their waiting list. And I’d prepaid a Band 2 and they kept the money for work they didn’t do.

So that was nice.

These fake NHS stats are harmful to patients.

Agree, somethings are ok to discuss, you may not say much for people to hear, other things aren't appropriate.
I forgot tp say earlier - the attitude that you missed the appointment was also wrong if the call was out of the expected time.
The GP didn't speak to you, so could move on to the next person, whose call wouldn't be quite as late as it would have been if you had been able to take the call.

🤨😤🤯🤬

The surgeries I’m with have always been very busy with pre Covid F2F often running an hour late, just sitting in the waiting room.

I now treat timed phone appointments as I did F2F. I can work until the appointment time and after that not work unless I can take a call. it’s great if it’s on time and I’m back at work, but as in the old days it might hours wait or more. I know this has a privilege of an understanding employer.

Years ago I was also the cause of a delay. I only went because I had to for a fit note. thought I would just say I felt low and they would refer me or give me anti depressants. Instead they talked and found out I was seriously ill, but it took time.