To think it's no surprise people rock up to A&E

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Obviously I'm not encouraging people to go A&E unless they really have to but you can never get through to me surgery. So it's no surprise people give up and just go to A&E??

I have been trying all day, it's either engaged or I get through and there's 10 callers in front. Last time I had 10 callers in front it took 45 minutes to an hour to speak to someone. My problem is not urgent but what if it was? you expect it in the morning but at this time of day?

my problem cannot resolved with an E consult. Last time I did an E consult I didn't get a reply for 2 weeks. They limit how many E consults they take each day too.

is it just my surgery who is pants at answering the phone?

but weirdly I was in the surgery for a while the other day - queueing for a prescription and the phone didn't ring once!!

Mine are great. Previous was as you described though. I remember when I was pregnant being asked by a midwife if I knew when to contact my GP and I was like, no, e consult takes 2-3 weeks. At current surgery I’ve only ever waited on hold for more than 15-20 minutes once. And 9/10 I get a same day telephone appointment. I’ve used them twice in the last few weeks.
For me: same day telephone appointment, followed by same day in person appointment, prescription provided and 3 follow up calls over 10 days.
For DS 16mo similar story although later in the day, called at 230pm, doctor call back within the hour, in person appointment at 5pm.

I'm lucky in that I've not needed to see a GP for 20+ years. I'd definitely not rock up to A&E unless my condition was critical.

A family friend with a relative of almost 90 had a fall last week. Her family called an ambulance as she is very frail and appeared to have sustained at least one broken bone. The ambulance took six hours to arrive and after twelve hours waiting at A&E overnight she was still in the ambulance awaiting being seen the following morning, whilst people who'd rocked up out of their heads had been seen first because they were ahead in the queue!!

Fortunately, once she was eventually seen it was established her injuries were fairly minor ones, but nonetheless it's a bloody awful state of affairs when a frail elderly lady is left in an ambulance for so long whilst drunks are prioritised.

It’s awful. The poor GPs are so short staffed. Stupid Tories.

With mine you call at 8, can't even get through to be in a queue or just goes to busy.

Half an hour of redialling and you finally get it ringing only to hear an answering machine saying that there are no more appointments.

The practice is signed to an app called 'Ask First' where you can get a couple of appointments for a call, but it really is only a couple of appointments and sometimes I'm told by a doctor to come back to them to continue something and they're not available on the appointment list.

www.hee.nhs.uk/our-work/talent-care-widening-participation/apprenticeships/medical-doctor-degree-apprenticeship

I thought this was very interesting, in order to sort out the lack of doctors they are getting rid of the requirement to attend uni

There are nine GP's at my surgery and the senior partner drives a Maserati. However, it is virtually impossible to get a face-to-face appointment, because they are still working from home.

And as for funding. The NHS/Healthcare budget represents 40% of all government spending plus there has been a further £12billion injected into the system, on top of the planned increase in funding, so how you have the temerity to trot out that tired old trope makes me laugh.

This is infuriating. I had similar when I made a telephone consultation to discuss getting referred for an ADHD assessment. Just got a text at the assigned time saying fill this out and bring it into the practice then we can proceed.

I'd wanted to discuss being referred through Right to Choose so I thought ok I can send the stuff in and have a follow up call to talk through options if they felt I met the screen requirements.

I called after 2 weeks and the doctor was on holiday so called in another 2 weeks to be told by the receptionist that the referral had already been sent of through the NHS.

As I was looking at a 2 year wait (as opposed to 6 months through RTC) I put myself into debt for a private assessment because it was really affecting me.

I can relate to your troubles. I have been there, including booking days off to be able to sit down and call the surgery to get an appointment. I have been for over 1 hour on the phone waiting my turn, and actually feelung lucky because this time I was in the queue, instead of having to ring 60 times more.
They have improved greatly and I think this was due to complaints.
Now they have a proper queuing system on the phones, so you do not end up redialling 100 times, they rarely try to fog you off and they do not refuse to provide a non-emergency appointment (they came up a while back with this idea that they would only provide appointments for 3 weeks ahead, so there was NEVER a single appointment left)
It makes me so sad to see how far things can deteriorate.

I can imagine. A similar thing happened to someone I know. In her 80's and has cancer, she had a fall and has a suspected broken hip and waited several hours, fortunately hip was not broken!

my own grandmother was unwell, sickness, light head, feeling generally unwell, weakness, mild chest pain & arm pain which imo should have been urgent as heart attacks can present this way for females, she waited several hours for an ambulance. Fortunately she was okay and it was some form of gastritis or similar but it might not of been!

i am not suggesting in any way people should go to A&E, I wouldn't unless it was urgent but getting through to a GP is shambolic!

I've finally got through at 5.30! 🤦‍♀️

I don't understand why we can't complain about a service without some busybody jumping in to tell people what to complain about. Scroll on if seeing annoyance at the lack of GP appointments is so upsetting to you.

And as for funding. The NHS/Healthcare budget represents 40% of all government spending plus there has been a further £12billion injected into the system, on top of the planned increase in funding…

Neither of those statistics matter if there’s not enough to go around. Growing population, aging population, and more expensive diagnostics and treatments will take more money to sustain. So it’s not a “tired old trope”.

My friend recently spent 1.5 hours waiting in a telephone queue to try and cancel an appointment at a hosfor her husband. Gave up in the en

Lots of people could speak to a pharmacist for the things they want the GP for as well.

Yea sure. In a crowded space I really would not want to discuss my problem in public.

Almost all pharmacists have private rooms, and phones.

I feel really lucky with ours. They often call back within a few hours of me sending the econsult form and then offer a same day appointment if needed. Sometimes 1 or 2 people in the queue when I phone them but that's it. If anything it seems to have improved over the past few years.

@girlmom21. - I’d rather wait an extra hour or 2 and see a GP in person than them diagnose over the phone… my daughter wouldn’t have ended up in A&E if they had actually seen her, how can anyone give an medical opinion about your eye/ ear without seeing and examining it.
The phone system doesn’t work

Sometimes there's no choice.

I had what I now know was a Bartholins cyst and was in agony. I couldn't get through to my GP so I went to the walk in centre. They were useless, askef me questions about it in the waiting room in front of everyone which I insisted on writing down the answers to (this was triage apparently) and then sent me to A& E without even looking at it. A&E told me I shouldn't have been there but what else was I supposed to do?

I really wish our surgery had e consult or email bookings.
Its the 8 am free for all phone call system that is the worst part.
It makes you so tense and stressed and in my case is the time I need to be on the school run , usually in the rain , with multiple children. This is not conducive to calling / redialing a million times whilst trying to wrangle children.

The phone system works if the doctors use it properly, which yours didn't.

@PinkSparklyPussyCat but you were sent there. That's entirely different. If you're given advice from medical professionals to go to A&E you're not part of the problem.

Well it’s definitely my GP surgery at fault. Pre-Covid you could ring at any time of the day for a non urgent appointment and would generally be seen within a week. Since Covid they’ve introduced an on the day only system but haven’t backed it up with a decent phone system or online booking. Not sure how the government can be blamed for that decision.

Oppps! .... To try and cancel a hospital appointment for her husband. She gave up in the end and drove to her GP surgery to ask them to do it and burst into tears in the middle of the waiting room because she was so frightened she would be fined for him not attending, but they said they had the same phone number she did. She tried again when she got home but after waiting in the queue for another hour, gave up again. So the appointment went unattended.

Yep, I took DC to a and e the other week, he'd had a very definite ear infection for about a week that wasn't shifting but wasn't getting worse iyswim, he felt ok just a bit of earache so i kept an eye on it like ive always been advised in the past - fine - until about day 6 and he suddenly got worse, was REALLY in pain with it and couldn't hear or move his jaw etc without being in agony on that side.

After trying docs for 2 hours I got through and was told they could see him 3 days later!! I said I know its an ear infection, classic symptoms as previous, can they do me a prescription or see him as urgent due it escalating pretty quick. Was told no chance of either.

Soooo took him to a and e straight away, waited hours to be seen, confirmed ear infection, given ABs and was queried as to why I didn't take him to the docs 🙄

Our doctors say you have to que outside at the practice for same day urgent appointment. Que often forms 20 long by 7.30 when I go past.

I would argue if your ok enough to que then is it really urgent? Obviously in some cases it will be but probably only 1/10 conditions. It’s not really a fair system. But then I don’t think triage by receptionist is fair either because they are useless 99% of the time.

I don’t know the answer, but Yanbu!