Poll: Can you get a GP appointment within 3 days where you live?

[JudyBlumesBlubber]

Is the lack of GP appointments a particular problem in the South East or more uniform across the country?

My GP practice has an emergency "same day" phone line in the morning and the appointments are gone within ONE minute. Today there were 150 people calling for less than a dozen appointments. GP friends tell me that they prioritise babies and the very sick (e.g. cancer) which is fair but what about the rest?

Where I live, an appointment queuing system has been introduced to allocate non-emergency appointments using 3rd party commercial software; I've never had an answer or appointment from it yet other than a text to say to book an emergency "same day" appointment instead.

Is this the same around the UK? Anecdotally I've heard it's as bad in Devon/Cornwall and better in Scotland.

Ours has just switched to E consult.
Dh had quite an urgent issue recently and he got a prescription sent through and an appointment in a week.
He ended up going privately and then to a&e, when things didn’t improve after a few days, who were really good. He really didn’t want to but had exhausted every other Avenue.
I would hope they prioritise very urgent cases to be seen on the day. I haven’t had this yet but E-consult was good to get a refill of a prescription that wasn’t on repeat. Took less than an hour for the text to come through that GP had sent the prescription to pharmacy and some advice.

In London

SE London here and someone will get back to me pretty quickly if I do an E-Consult, if it was urgent I think I'd be seen pretty quickly or they send us to what they call a "hub" and that's usually a surgery in the same area that are taking overflow appointments in the evenings.

Yes, used the E-consult yesterday am and quickly had a text asking me if a F2F appt later that morning would be ok, had the app with a GP who told me they would write a referral and order a scan.

Today on checking the NHS app, they have written a referral for me, as the waiting times with the NHS is long, I asked for it to be emailed to me for my health insurance and I'm pretty sure they will send that on before the end of the day as they seem so efficient.

SW

Same day here if urgent, even if you ring at 4pm you’ll be seen if it’s urgent.

As an aside I was told the NHS is rolling out the e-consult to all GPs by the end of the year. So far it seems pretty good.

I can within 3 days same day if urgent. 3 of our surgeries have merged into one health centre. But a lot say they struggle to get an appointment there. So I'm glad our doctors stayed put.

I haven't voted because you CAN get appointments but it's a massive pain in the arse.

As an example - I have recurring cystitis. Even though I have seen a urologist twice and they recommended getting ABs at first sign of trouble, the usual process is:

Turn up at surgery after night of pain at 7.50am (doors open at 8), join queue of around 25 people, and ask for appointment (no point phoning, you won't get through).
How long have you had symptoms?
Lie and say three days as otherwise they send you right away again and urologist has said I need them straight away, but they won't accept that
OK you can see the pharmacist for a UTI, they can prescribe.
I can't because they won't prescribe for someone with a history of UTIs and also because I need a seven day course not a three day
You have to see them.
I go to see pharmacist, they say you must see GP
GP appointments for that day all gone by now
Repeat process next morning
Oh OK you can see a nurse
Nurse prescribes ABs

This happens Every. Single. Time.

I can now try to get rid of some of the steps by seeing a pharmacist first, in an entirely pointless visit, so they can say no I can't prescribe and put a note in the system to refer me to the GP.

When I lived in Edinburgh (last year) I had to wait 4 weeks for an appointment.

I now live in the highlands and it’s about a week to get an appt. At my friends surgery it’s about 2 weeks.

No.

SE here.

I put in an econsult for an appointment, GP called me within an hour and told me to go to A&E because they couldn't fit me in.

Had bloods taken following that. The next day, the surgery phoned me, said my bloods were abnormal and I had to have an appointment to discuss with the GP. They booked me in for a phone call - three weeks later (which was apparently the soonest they could do).

Absolutely not!
We end up waiting hours each time in a walk in centre.
I've got autistic children who need consistency so it's a complete joke!

Presumably just NHS England? Or all UK?

Yes if I'm happy to go to one of the other surgeries I can

This is odd, our GPs had these laminated signs up saying if you are female and think you have a UTI no tests are needed just a telephone appt with a nurse and they will send it to the pharmacy for you. What a palaver.

Not sure, sorry

Incredibly lucky where I am, but neighbouring practices serving same population are a different story.

Example: I rang yesterday at 8.10am. Was in call queue for 2 mins, then spoke to receptionist and said what needed checking. Dr called me at 9.45, triaged me over the phone and offered in person appointment at 12.15. This is typical regardless of age/seriousness of issue/time of call: I've called them at 5pm expecting to leave a message, got the GP directly, been seen before 6 and prescription sent to 24 hour pharmacy for collection by 7pm.

2 miles up the road you can't get an appointment for 3 weeks, even when the GP has said they need to see you in 7 days....

I always tell the all staff at our practice how much we appreciate their amazing service.

South West England. No, its appalling. Our small town has grown too fast with 3 new housing estates, the resources are all over stretched and over subscribed. Doctors, Schools, sewage works, parking, all working as hard as they can, but just too many people with no extra infrastructure or investment. And to make it worse the two major employers have both closed down and relocated.

A year ago I would have said of course. We are rural with a fantastic GP, but in the lady year it has eroded so much that I struggle to get a response in a week even for alarming issues. They have reduced and reduced the ability to contact them, it's now on message only and just the past couple weeks they have reduced that to 4 hours in the morning only, you miss this slot then you are told to call and good luck getting through.

East Anglia (Cambridgeshire) and yes, I can always get a same day appointment as long as I call at 8.30am on the dot. There may be 30 people ahead of me, but I can always get an appointment that day. Depending on the issue, it may be a phone appointment, but that's better than nothing.
When I was living in London, way back in 2006, I couldn't get an appointment usually for about two weeks.

You’re lucky if you can even get someone to answer the phone at our surgery ☹️ E-consult takes 5-10 working days for a response, a further 3-5 days to get a telephone consultation then you have to try phoning again if a face-to-face is needed so it can easily be a month before you see a doctor.
Southwest England here, and it’s farcical really. It’s no wonder that so many people go to A&E.

East of England - no you can't get an appointment. If you phone at 8 am and the receptionist seems that you are worthy you could potentially get a doctor to phone you back, or you could get an appointment that day. If there's any left. By 8.10 there's nothing. On line, 3 weeks or nothing. We had a call back from one of those doctors assistants, who had to speak to a doctor before changing a medication. You can see a nurse practitioner in a few days. It's extremely poor.

We are in SW London and can always get a same day appointment for the DC, and if urgent for adults too - but if not urgent usually within a week.

We used to be able to email, but that stopped during Covid.
They now use the econsult triage, but you need to be waiting at your laptop at 8am, as once its had however many requests it just says try again tomorrow.
My youngest has bad acne, its been a months wait for a telephone appointment. I’d hope they'd see you quicker if you felt ill. We are considering private health insurance because of the poor service.
We’re in a very affluent area of the south east, but unfortunately all local practices seem to be as lacklustre.

I get a better service now than I did before Covid. A lot of this is down to new ways of working, but it's also down to me being competent on a computer (not a given round here) and having a clear understanding of how the surgery works now and the best way to work with them. I still hear a lot of complaints locally about not being able to get through on the phone. I don't like econsult because you have to answer loads of irrelevant questions and it seems to take forever, but once you have, you get a very prompt response.

Surrey. No phone calls, e-consult only. Triaged and reply almost immediately. Either get an immediate prescription for collection later that day, or a timed phone call later same day, or a link to book a future appointment or blood test. Works really well.

Same day usually, or within 24 hours if not immediately urgent.

However I am not in UK, and pay for it, but am very happy to do that. Those who pass a relatively generous means test get GPs free as do all over 70s regardless of means.

I am in awe reading here that people have to hang on hold, get up at stupid o'clock to try and get through to the the surgery and then get an appointment three weeks or so later!

But look, it's your country and I'm sure it works well most of the time. And it's FREE at point of entry for everything, so you are all very fortunate in that regard.