Does your GP practice operate appointments this way?

[BresciaBike]

My practice requires people to call when the practice opens (08:30) in order to book an appointment. Of course, the lines are busy but you have to queue, if you hang up then tough. They don't entertain appointment calls at any other time of day unless it's a GP (not a nurse or AHP) who books a follow-up themselves during a consultation. There is no online service, presumably because you have to pass the receptionnist's vetting process first. This has been the system for about four or five years now. I'm wondering how many other GP surgeries do this.

Yes mine does except it's 8am. When I'm trying to get ready for school & work. If you're in the queue for longer than an hour, which is often the case, the connection drops and it cuts you off. It's been like that for about 20 years.

It also irritates me that GP receptionists are not called this at my surgery - they are 'Care Navigators' and it reminds you of this over and over whilst you're in the queue for what seems like 80 decades.

When you do get through after 80 decades, if you're lucky enough to not have the call dropped, you're most likely to be told 'no appointments' and to try the whole palaver again tomorrow. By the time you get one you've either recovered or died.

Ours are shocking and getting worse due to the 3000 houses currently being built.
No bookings can be made on the phone, it's all online.
Our smallish surgery merged with a much bigger one and, the earliest I have ever managed to get a f2f appointment was 19 days later

At ours ALL appointments must be booked by playing phone-in roulette.theres no schedule for routine appointments unless your Dr(when you actually get to see one) gives you a card telling you to come back in x days /weeks

Ours used to be like that but it’s now all online triage and appointments offered from the results of that , it is a much better system

Ours is 8.30 and 🤞🏻 it mostly cuts you off but if you manage to get in the queue it takes about 15 mins to speak to a receptionist to be told to phone the next day as they're full.
On a bad day it won't even connect you as they're already full.

Currently on day 11 of trying to get an appointment.

There are no advance appointments or online booking.

Ours opens at 8am usually 30+ people in the queue at this time . Wait more than an hour to get through

Can only book appointments via the receptionist who will triage the call. They stopped online appointments a while back . Sometimes you can’t even get an appontment because they all go .

I find it very frustrating but the GPs are excellent .

We have:

econsult for prescriptions, simple requests, sick notes etc,

online booking for nurses, typically 2-3 weeks in advance, or

ring at 8am for an on the day appointment. I rang at 8:01 this week and was 84th in the queue- to my surprise it was answered within 20 mins and I did get an appointment that morning, so fair play to them!

I go online when the practice is open. I then state in detail what my problem is.

I then get a text message which has a link to secure system that gives me an appointment with either a GP or nurse practitioner. I have gond online as late as 1pm and been given a telephone appointment that day even though the issue wasn't urgent.

If the practice pharmacist or anyone else wants to contact me I get a text message with a link to a secure system with what information they want e.g. blood pressure and how to respond.

If I want an appointment for anyone else in my household I have to call. I then get text message linked to a secure email with the appointment.

All my appointments have been telephone but my DDs have been face-to- face. When I go to the surgery I noticed that babies, children under about 10 and people who are very clearly OAPs are 95% of the patients seen face-to-face.

My practice has 3 surgeries and I am walking distance from 2 of them. They also train GPs and are open some days until 7.30pm

Yes mine does. Problem is, I'm a teacher and can't ring at 8.30 and be '97th in the queue' as my children come in at 8.35! Even in the holidays when I've 'joined the queue' to try and get an appointment, by the time I've got through they've all gone 🤦‍♀️ It's insane!

In desperation at half term (after trying on 3 consecutive mornings to get an appointment using the phone queue system!) I went into the surgery at 10am...it was LITERALLY empty!! Not a single patient in the waiting area!

3 receptionists ignored me for 5 minutes until I made it very clear that I was getting a little impatient (they were consciously ignoring me and refusing to open the window thing). I asked for an appointment and explained that I'd been trying the phone system. They just told me that they could not book appointments and I had to phone again the following morning...all appointments that day had gone. I asked if I could book one for any day/any time that week as it was half term and I needed help with my menopause medication. No...I had to keep trying on the phone.

I tried every day that week...could not get an appointment. I now have to wait until the summer holidays as I can't ring during term time at 8.30.

It's so bad! And why is the waiting room empty at peak surgery time?? I just think that they are not actually making any appointments...there's something amiss here!!

I don't mind this system. My problem is my doctors doesn't seem to like the appointments where you don't need to be seen that day. So if I want to book an appointment for a week or two about a problem that isn't urgent it's actually very difficult. Essentially, I have to wait for it to become urgent and ring for same day appointment.

Yeah 8am and wait in the que for us too
but
im at work from 7.50 until 2pm everyday so healthcare isn’t something open to me
I’ve emailed the practice manager to ask what’s the plan for those of us who can’t sit in the phone at 8am ( I have my own patients who have waited 6 months to see me and my boss wouldn’t tolerate me having my phone on in my surgery anyway). No response from the manager
so far I’m 13 months in to some symptoms which need looking at - not an a+e job but pharmacists says needs a gp asap ( last spring )
so yeah it’s not great here

Not if like many people you have to phone sat after sat after sat to be told there are no appointments left. Especially if during the 8.30-9/9.30 period like a lot of people they are travelling into work/working. In particular this doesn't work for people who cannot have a phone with them at work or delay their start time such as teachers.

We have a great GP. We can usually book a non urgent appt within 2 weeks online. If you have an emergency you to call up on the day but there's only a handful of people waiting in the queue for an appointment as it is literally only the ones who need a same day appointment. We can also do e-consults. This should be the norm. The current situation is ridiculous with many many people unable to access an appointment at all.

Such varied experience!

I make my (rare) appointments online, but I'm pretty sure you can phone at anytime to make one.

Only bit of the NHS I can’t fault atm is my GP practice. Phone early in the day for a triage call and a doctor calls back within a few hours ( my record is 45 minutes) then usually seen that day. The day I had what they considered urgent symptoms when I spoke to the receptionist ( during height of Covid but not Covid related) I was seen immediately and dispatched to hospital.

We have this, but online aswell. I prep a message the night before, wait till 7.59am, then cut and paste, easy. Get a call back the same day. Works really well. My mum waited 6 weeks for an appointment with her GP.

Ours is all online requests. Its triaged and then someone emails or rings as needed. Often they direct to the GP with a specialist interest too which is helpful.

It works really well for us. I often need them adjusting doses of medications and its all just done via message which is much quicker than either a phone call or face to face appointment. Had a couple of issues before when I've just been able to send a photo and they've advised and I've not even needed to go in. Same thing with sicknotes - they can see my hospital discharge letter so did one post surgery without the need to see anyone, just request I needed one and pick up from reception.

There is the option to ring, and you need to if you want routine nurse care such as vaccinations, smear, contraception. Ringing would just be a nightmare for everything. 8am is the worst time for anyone with children to get to school or work to get to on weekdays.

With ours, for routine/non-urgent appointments, you fill in an econsult during opening hours - these are triaged regularly, and then you're contacted within a couple of days by the receptionist for an appointment - but how quickly you're contacted and your appointment is depends on how urgent the Dr has decided it is - I've been seen the same day for some things, others have taken longer. Urgent appointments, and those for babies under 6m, you have to call at 8:30, but on the rare occasion I've had to call, I've never had any problem getting through.

Works really well imo and means appointments don't go on a first come first served basis but to those who need them most.

Mine doesn't even do a queue.

You have to keep calling and hanging up until you get through (if you're lucky).

Then, when you finally get speaking to a receptionist, you have to tell them your issue and request a callback from a GP.

Then you dare not move from your phone in case you miss the call which can be anytime up until they close (or if they dont phone because they didn't have time you have to start all over again the next day.)

Then, when you finally get talking to a doctor, they will decide if you need a face-to-face appointment.

If so, they will then book you in for in about three weeks' time. 🙃

No online forms. No email service. No talking to a nurse. No emergency appointments.

I think we're lucky, we can book future appointments online. We can also do this on the phone at any time. Same day slots we phone at 8am for morning appts and 2pm for afternoon slots

I have other options which involve spending over an hour on the phone listening to rubbish music, sometimes getting cut off and the an appointment weeks later.

Mine did this before Covid.

Lines opened by 8am and you had to be quick on the draw as all appointments gone by 08:20

Now they use AskMyGP and usually respond to emails within a few hours, to offer some kind of appointment, depending on the issue.

The receptionists are refusing because they are not allowed to add items to a script. It has to be a clinician.