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

Can only seem to get a f2f with the diabetes nurse for the yearly review and their pharmacist.
The rest over the phone (have several health conditions)

Blood, urine etc tests are easier now. Just use the online form and make the requests, message back saying forms and stuff are ready. Before 2020 to get these every 3 months would have to make an appointment first with gp.

I don’t mind over the phone, well apart from asthma as this usually includes a copd test. I was always dealt with over the phone by request before 2020 only going in when needed to be seen.

All my hospital consultants are f2f aside from once during the first lock down which wasn’t surprising.

trying to get an appt for my child the other week - everyone has to ring at 8am - re-dialled over 35 times and it wouldn't even let you onto the "waiting" line just cuts you off without connection until you finally make the waiting line. Can't book anything online and if the appointments are all issued that day just have to repeat the process the next morning. Imagine trying to do this if you are learning disabled, mentally ill or really sick.

I think it does very much depend on the surgery. My MiL had to wait a month for a GP appt ( and this was on the phone which is really not appropriate for her as she is very deaf. ) They ordered a blood test and she couldn't get that for two weeks and the appointment to discuss the results is another 4 week wait.... so ten weeks in total. Really not on for an 86 year old!

Ours is quite hard to get through on the phone but you can usually get at least a phone appt quite quickly and then face to face if they think it's needed. My DH has some ongoing health issues and they have been quite good getting back to him when he has e mailed them.

Yes my GP surgery is great, always seen when I need to be. If I want to see a specific doctor I might need to wait a few days.

My job also requires me to contact GP practices (there's around 70 in my healthboard) and I've never had any issues getting to speak to reception in any of them.

Ours is same day, always. Nothing changed during covid apart from an initial telephone conversation to decide if you needed to be seen in person.

Still same day throughout the pandemic and it is still.

Over and above delivery of service and it's often a reason people consider not moving out of their catchment.

I have found it’s much quicker to get results, using the “ask your GP a question “
in the NHS App.

Ours seems to be varied. These were all since September with the same surgery:

I phoned a few weeks ago with a couple of non-urgent issues that had been bothering me for some time, and got a call back from triage within 5 minutes who told me to come down right away.
About a month later I phoned for an urgent consultation for my daughter who had a severe migraine (she's suffered from them for around 10 years, but this was much worse than normal) and told them it was urgent, got a promise to phone back that day-then got a text saying I had a telephone consultation in 8 days time. Tbf when I phoned back and told them that was unacceptable I did get an adjustment of only 2 days' time, but again a telephone consultation.
Last week my other dd had severe toothache (seen dentist but nothing they could do at the time). She had painkillers, anti-inflammatory, and anti-nausea within the hour.

The one I really felt needed to be seen urgently was the migraine. Mine I wouldn't have been worried if they'd given me an appointment a month away, and I was very glad she got painkillers for the toothache, but I'd have said a severe migraine that hadn't been checked was more urgent to be seen than toothache the dentist had seen.