What's your experience when it comes to getting GP appointments? And other questions...

Ours have a good system for urgent appointments; you get a call back from the duty doctor and they will see you if needed. Non-urgent is a nightmare; appointments usually at least 3 weeks away but often there are none for longer. If you know you'll need a review or blood test in 6 weeks time the diary hasn't been 'opened' for that far ahead and so you're asked to call back nearer the time, except when you do all the appointments are gone! Not the practice's fault, it's just an inner city GP that's desperately oversubscribed. It does mean that for someone with long-term health issues it's difficult to get any continuity of care though.

I have always managed to get a same day appointment when necessary by phoning up first thing. I have been fitted in late in a day as an extra too when my daughter was ill and there were no official appointments available but I was worried enough she needed to be seen the same day. We now have an online booking system we can use too, though I am yet to need to use that.

What I would say though is that the doctors are under a huge amount of pressure to see the numbers of patients. I find that their time is limited and they rush to get people through and they can miss serious issues - it happened with my daughter. The system is the problem in this circumstance, not the individual doctors who are doing their best to do their job under a lot of pressure. They need more doctors available to ease the pressure at our clinic.

When it comes to the dc out surgery always manages to squeeze them into a same day appt.

I do hate the whole, ring and a doctor will ring you back waste of time procedure though. I've tried to walk in when I've had no voice through chest infections/laryngitis/tonsillitis and been told I had to phone.

I don't understand why the system changed. Who knows they're going to be 3 weeks in advance and what happened to the old system of being able to pop in on your way past to ask for an appt?

Our gp's are fabulous though. It's just the system to be able to see them.

Our surgery is wonderful. You can always get a same day appt with the duty doctor though if you want a specific doc you have to wait sometimes. They have an excellent system where patients considered vulnerable or with a range of needs have a designated doctor who phones once a month if the patient hasn't been in. Our GPs will do home visits (they did when I was having chemotherapy). The chemist has a prescription collection service too.
Here in Shropshire we have an excellent out of hours facility ShropDoc which covers if the GP isn't available. It is more than a phone line as it is attached to the cottage hospitals where you can be seen at any time and there is a 24 hour pharmacy too. No complaints.

With my surgery like others you ring between 8.30 and 9am, the Dr rings you back between 9.30 and 10 and has a chat, usually gives you same day appt especially if it's for kids. The same in the afternoon - you ring between 2 and 2.30 to get an appt between 4 and 6pm.

As an aside my dad made an emergency appt on Monday, saw Dr Mon afternoon, referred to Hospital that afternoon. Hospital rang Tue morning to give him an appt for exploratory test in 10 days. They've been brilliant from GP right through to hospital. Made a very scary time easier.

Our surgery is great - you can pre-book non-urgent appointments, ring for on the day ones, or ask for a phone call back if the doctor is busy / you're not sure if you need to be seen.

They have an on-site pharmacy and will send prescriptions through so you can pick them up quickly and easily when you need to.

You can't please everyone, but clearly some surgeries are managing to please more people than others; not everyone has to go through a mad 8am redial, and some people do manage to book appointments a couple of weeks ahead.

I think the one thing the government should do is review the differing ways of getting appointments and which seem to work best; are they just more flexible, with online as well as phone? Or are they larger practices, which just have more resources to work with? Or do they just have more competent practice managers, who are better at processes and procedures?

And then they should put in recommendations for best practice. But they'll probably still muck it up.

My GP is great for kids. I've never any issue with getting mine in for same day appointments. If they don't have any appointments, the doc rings and if needed, squeezes us in late afternoon.

For me, it's a completely different story. I don't think I've managed to see anyone other then a locum for the last two years and the continuity of care has been appalling. I'm a teacher so ringing up at the times they open appointments, I am unable to pick up the phone to get an appointment. Whenever I say I cannot physically get to a phone to make an appointment, I am treated to a rather unsympathetic receptionist. The times I've needed a doc, I have not been able to get one at my surgery and instead have used a walk in clinic near my workplace - only a few more minutes wait and much more convenient in terms of location. I didn't even have to take off time from work to go as I fitted it in between my lessons.

My husband belongs to a different medical centre which is much further away but he refuses to join the local one for the reasons described above.I don't blame him. I would join his but they won't let us due to where we live now. (DH has been a bit sly as he hasn't changed from his old address nearer the surgery)

I'm rather envious of the online booking systems I see in operation at other places.

I've given up on ours unless the DCs are ill.

The GPs themselves are good but the surgery only has appts for very urgent, if you can ever get through at 8.15am when everyone else is ringing, while doing the school run too. The alternative is to wait for about a month.

It puts me off seeing a doctor about things I know I should.

I don't know how you can please everyone. 8-8.30 not good for some school runs, 8.30-9 wouldn't be good for others on the school run, 9 o'clock onwards for many office workers. I think you can try a dozen different booking systems, the bottom line is there's too much demand and not enough doctors.

Our GP surgery doesn't have on-site phlebotomy. It's walk-in at the local hospital. That should work well as the hospital is only a mile further and you can go when it suits without the stress of being late for your appointment. (I haven't used it, just speculating it's not added inconvenience.)

Very good with our new GP practice.They have a daily morning walk in service. As long as you get there between 8 and 10 in t the morning, you will be seen. You may have a 2 hour wait on a busy morning but if you are desperate to be seen its good to know that its an option open to you.
Appointments are a little more difficult to get, usually a weeks wait but you can also go on a triage list and the GP will call you for anything urgent and fit you in that afternoon.
They have been fantastic with my Nana who is chronically ill and cannot walk more than a few steps. If I call them and say I think her breathing is going downhill again they will come out to see her without question as they know she cannot get in to them and that she hates going to hospital and will lie to us about her condition before having to be admited for treatment.
They were also fantastic with my DD, caught her CMPA and reflux v early at 4 weeks, treated her with the appropriate prescription formula and acid repressing meds and made the right refferals to Pead and dietician.
I was so grateful I bought them a big box of chocolates and a thank you card.
I cannot rate them highly enough.
We are in Wales so I don't know if that makes a difference?

Bloody nightmare - they never have appointments available.

My surgery operate a turn-up-and-wait emergency appointment system. This usually involves a minimum 2 hour wait unless you queue up outside from 7.45am (doors open 8.30, first patient seen at 9). The last time I did this, I arrived near the end of the time slot (10.30) and finally saw the gp at 1pm!!

Unfortunately for me, if I need to take time off work to use the emergency surgery, it requires me booking the whole day off and no pay.

I had an eye infection this week and went straight to my local pharmacist rather than the gp...all fixed now but meant I had to pay for the treatment instead of queuing for 2 hours for a free prescription. However, it was considerably better than losing a day's earnings!

To book a non-emergency appointment, there is usually a minimum 2 week wait.

I don't understand how some surgeries get it so right. Is it because they have less people on their books?

My surgery does appts on the day, I've had within the hour when babies have been ill, easy to book whenever you want , they have online booking/prescription orders but only for adults so far. Nurses/hcas running clinics and bloods etc easy to book in.
Reception staff friendly.
GPS all excellent, listen, read your notes, my regular one knows about me specifically and ds problems and how they cross over.
Only issue I have is they like to go home occasionally

Makes up for the rather crap hospital/trust we have locally.

My local surgery is very good. It has a walk in clinic every weekday, and so long as you get there before 10 you will be seen that morning although you may wait up to an hour. You can also make an appointment and they have some in the evenings and early mornings.

It's a big contrast to where I grew up where you had to wait two weeks for an appointment!

Let people choose their gp instead of forcing them to use the one local to their home. And pay the gp's enough to make it worth going to medical school and becoming a gp.

My gps are pretty good- you can usually get an appointment that day if necessary. I recently had a friend having a crisis and they squeezed in an appoint at 1hr notice because I made it very clear that she needed it.
Though I wish they would differentiate between 'emergency' which to me means A&E and 'need to be seen today'. They always ask if its an emergency, and you have to answer yes, otherwise it's a 2 week wait.

The last two times i have needed an appointment i was offered one for within a few hours, i.e. Later that day.
When i needed appointments outside of school hours i would get an appointment the next week definitely.
The practice is much improved in regards to appointments and i know how lucky i am!

Our GP has a drop in clinic with 2 docs 9 am till 10-30 am mon-fri a couple of afternoons and five evenings for appointments, however for the appointments there can be a wait of around 5 -7 days. A nurse is around most of the day (I think) and someone comes from the hosp to take blood samples twice a week which are back the next day. They also will ring back if you need advice and repeat prescriptions are 48 hr from asking to collecting.
Having a doctor available at your own clinic rather than having to go to out of hours service on a weekend might be helpful to some

More GPs and stop interfering. Stop with all the nuspeak. Don't give people unrealistic expectations. It's not an emergency 24 hour system. Let them do the job they're trained to do.

Stop driving them out of the country?

University fees, workload, undermined by everyone higher up, longer hours...none of this helps.

My GP's surgery is great, ring them in the morning and 9 times out of 10 you will get an appointment for that day or at the latest the next morning. If you ring to book an appt in advance you can pretty much just name your day and time.

Doctors are also happy to do phone appointments or queries. Repeat prescriptions are done by email and taken through to the chemist, so all you have to do is pick it up ready from the chemist 24 hours later.

A couple of times I have rung with a very poorly/distressed DS and they said both times to bring him down immediately and they would fit him in. DP got told by NHS direct to see a GP within 2 hours of the call, again they told us to go straight there.

As its so easy to get appointments there, I didn't change practice when i moved house (health visitor told me not to, as local ones are really hard to get appointments for), its a bit of a pain as its about 15/20 minutes away, but worth the journey I feel. I wrote to them asking for me and my family to be kept on, with the understanding there would be no home visits. Thankfully they agreed.

I've been going there since I was a child, its gone from a one doctor practice to a four doctor practice, but still kept the small, friendly feel.

However, trying to get an appointment with the one nurse is near impossible.

Also for home visits (GPs still do them), 'extras', running to the hospital's mortuary for a death certificate, checking lab results, dictating referrals. There's never a quiet moment.