Anyone else get a GP appointment just fine?

[atronger]

I lived somewhere about 20 miles away 18 months ago. Easy to get an appointment, it was always a telephone consultation but then the Dr would ask you to come in straight away if they wanted to see you

I now live here and I just call at 8am, and get through after ringing for a few minutes

Appointment can be either telecons or face to face, as the patient you can choose what works best for you. I think the surgery got a lot of feedback that telecons wasn't right for a lot of people

Anyway, my point being, I can't be the only person with this easy to access GP service?

I know the same can't be said for other surgeries in the country. My nan for example can get an appointment for 6 weeks?! In advanced sometimes but that's it. Unless they phone her and want to arrange something because a hospital letter says they should etc

My mum is in SE Essex and can't get anything at all. She can never ever get through and you can't turn up at the surgery to book on the morning either

Sorry to hear this

I am in SE, a town called Shefford near Herts

Yup, there are two fab gp surgeries in our town. But we are in the south east, a catchment area with little deprivation and a lovely place to live.

We moved from one town, still on the fb page and there are constant posts regarding 12-16 week wait to see a GP.

In my new town (only 15 miles away but different LA) I've been seen straight, Just yesterday I phoned up, got an appointment, was seen by GP, prescribed a cream, collected it from pharmacist and home again all within 40 minutes.

We haven't had any issues in our family, even through lockdown we've had both telephone and in person appointments when necessary. We haven't even needed to phone at 8am, there have been days we've phoned at 10am/1pm etc and had a call back from a doctor within half an hour to an hour at the max.

The reception staff are lovely at our practice too. I know it's a job that gets a lot of flak but ours are very nice and helpful.

A friend is at a different practice in our area and she has had no end of problems trying to see a doctor there, it's like chalk and cheese between our practices, but mine isn't taking new patients on at the moment so she can't swap.

Ours do a telephone apt first then call you in if they need to see you. I am happy with this system. It's generally pretty easy to get an apt especially for my little one.

I can always get a phone consult within 90 mins. 99% of the time I get a face to face within 2.5 hours.

My surgery is amazing, outside lockdowns routine face to face appointments during covid. During covid a house visit within 30 minutes when I said I was too unwell to go to the surgery that saved my life - sepsis.

I'm in the midlands and my GP surgery is fantastic, but they're understaffed, so it's mostly locum doctors.

Called this morning for my daughter and I've got a same day appt.

Yes route of access has changed to a call first, but last week called a receptionist at 11.00 and seen at the practice at 2.15pm

I’ve been able to get a phone or face to face consultation with the doctor or nurse as appropriate. I’ve also had a couple of conversations with the pharmacist. Excellent service, albeit phone queues can be long some mornings - but I understand why they use that model.

They get paid for it 💰💰💰

I’ve struggled to get through on phone but once I’ve got through I’ve got an appt that day. Only needed two since covid though

Still pretty bad here. The surgery disabled their online booking function — apparently the ‘worried well’ were taking up all the appointments and stopping the surgery from seeing genuinely poorly people.

So now you have to call. But there’s only one receptionist, no callback service and most of the GPs now only work part time so the appointments are like gold dust.

I was told it was an eight-week wait last time, except their system won’t let them book that far in advance so I should try a pharmacist or go to A&E. Effectively I was turned away. I went privately in the end.

No. Cant get through on the phone as their automated system hangs up on you because its so overwhelmed. But they are still taking on new patients

Midlands in a small town and never an issue even if I call at lunchtime they have an afternoon waiting clinic

My GP surgery has been impossible to access for years, but they recently had their contract withdrawn and are being managed by another local surgery.

I used the E-consult system last week to get advice for DS(7), not really expecting a reply much less an appointment, but they booked him in for 6pm that day, which was incredibly handy. So I'm waiting to see whether that was a fluke or whether there is a genuine improvement.

West Midlands - always get an appointment if needed. Also hospital appointments, blood tests etc. within 2 weeks of referral.

Ours has been brilliant: you do call at 8:30, and you can't pre-book non urgent stuff, but they've always got me and my family in that day. Recently I just needed a phone appt: I had mastitis,.I rang, spoke to a Dr, who sent my prescription. I called recently about lunch time to ask for an appointment for my one year old, and they got her into a paediatric nurse appt at another Dr. We are in Northamptonshire.

most of the GPs now only work part time so the appointments are like gold dust.

This is what happened to our GP surgery. It used to be great, but then the older partners essentially retired but nominally remained (very profitably). They took on younger partners who in due course all went very part time, plugging the gaps with random locum registrars working often from home without any support from the absent partners. So on paper the surgery had a full staff of very qualified GPs, but in practice it has been almost empty with no appointments available.

I've been in both the South East (Berkshire) and further north in South Yorkshire and had the same experience in both over the last few years. Bar a move to initial phone calls, I've had no problem getting a phone appointment or then getting seen in person.

just looked at mine

there're 3 telephone appoints on 13/12
2 on 14/12
5 on 15/12
2 on 19/2

f2f

3 on 5th
3 on 6th
1 7th
3 on 12th

or telephone on the day

Phoned this morning when the lines opened at 8.30am, was 5th in the queue, spoke to receptionist at 8.40am and have an appointment for DS (13) at 10.20am today.
I think he has an ear infection (to which he is prone). They have always been easily accessible and I feel very fortunate.
We were able to have face-to-face appts a couple of times we needed them during lockdown (ear infection and something that needed checking out on me).

It's a surgery in a small rural town.

Whiskers4 · Today 08:36
DH recently phoned for an emergency appointment and he was seen that day. While at the appointment he asked about another problem which is ongoing and really needs to be dealt with, but was shut down as the reason for his original appointment has been dealt with.“

signs come up on a screen in the waiting room at our practice saying that if you need to discuss more than one problem, you need to book a double appointment. Fairly standard practice, I think?

I used to be able to. Didn't matter what time you rang, you'd be put on a list to be called back by an appropriate person and given an appointment if you needed to be seen, either that day or in the future. Never more than about 5 minutes on hold to get through.

For whatever stupid reason, they've now changed it. Every time I phone for a GP appointment, an automated message says they've all gone and to call back either at 12pm or the next day. The one time I got through at 12:02pm, I was still told to call back the next day because there were no appointments. I've not been able to speak to a GP since they implemented this system.

It took me 25 minutes on hold to book an appointment for my daughter's vaccinations the other day. I was 8th in the queue and I've never know it to have more than 2 people in front of me before.

They've massively fucked this up. I can only hope that there's enough complaints to warrant it returning to the perfectly acceptable system that was in place before.

Yes mine is brilliant, always get an appointment or telephone appointment when I need one. Had a bit of a mental health crisis in the summer, called up and asked for an appointment was given one for two weeks time which was fine. The receptionist asked me what it was regarding, I said mental health and she asked if I was ok to wait that long. I burst into tears (was very fragile at the time), she cancelled the appointment and had a GP ring me within the hour, I had a prescription and support by the end of the day.

My DP is with a different gp in the same town and it's nowhere near as efficient

I called at 8am when the surgery opened and was 38 in the queue. I took the option to reserve my place and they will call me when I get to the front of the queue... still waiting...