Booked My First Private GP Appointment

[AutumnBudgetIsGoingToBeFun]

Can't get an appointment at my NHS surgery without alot of stress and phoning in at 8am for god knows how many days.

Tried to get an appointment a few months ago for something else and just gave up. I felt so stressed and I don't work anymore so I had time to sit on the phone trying to get through (god knows how people who have to be at work early cope).

Today I decided I was going to get help for something that has been bothering me for quite a while (although I only just figured out recently what it was having attributed it to something else). I literally couldn't face trying to get an NHS appointment and figured even if I could get through it wouldn't be deemed serious or urgent enough.

So booked today, appointment tomorrow. Booked online. Very easy. Sent form to fill in which took 5 mins just about basic details and what meds I am on, allergies that kind of thing.

I have mixed feelings.

One part of me is thinking - great I'll get this condition sorted and won't it be nice to have a 30 minute appointment with a GP rather than a very rushed 10 min NHS appointment.

The other part of me is thinking - is this the start of a slippery slope and how sad I feel when I remember how easy it was to get a doctors appointment 20-30 years ago.

It was interesting that the choice of appointments started at 20 mins for the shortest one - which makes sense given the NHS ones are too rushed so 10 mins is obviously not long enough.

You could have 20 mins, 30 mins which I booked, 45 mins or an hour.
Price £120, £150, £225 or £300.

I'll have to pay for the items as well I guess but it's a treatment which will be relatively short term rather than years and years (hopefully!)

I doubt I need a 30 minute appointment but I have plenty of other things I can ask him about.

I'm not expecting it to be any different really from an NHS appointment except it's in a nicer building and no doubt I will get the 'Hello Mrs Smith, How are you feeling today' nicer treatment that you get when you go to something private. The GP works or has worked in the NHS so I'm really just getting the same advice, just quicker and convenient to me.

I'll update after I've been for it tomorrow for anyone that is interested.

By the way did you know GP surgeries are not employed by the NHS. They are run like little businesses getting paid by the NHS for every patient they see. No doubt why they give you such short rushed appointments to maximise income. I didn't know that until recently.

By the way did you know GP surgeries are not employed by the NHS. They are run like little businesses getting paid by the NHS for every patient they see. No doubt why they give you such short rushed appointments to maximise income. I didn't know that until recently.

By the way did you know GP practices get paid about £120 per patient per year, regardless of how many times you go? And as “little businesses” out of their global sum income they have to pay their rent/mortgage, staff wages, pensions and NI, utilities, equipment purchase and maintenance, consumables, lab costs, waste disposal, PPE, etc etc.

They’re not employed by the NHS but they have a monopoly contract in that they can only “work” for the NHS, excepting any private work that meets contractual obligations.

You could have gone in person to make an appointment at your NHS doctor's surgery. Ime it has always been the case that urgent appointments require you to call from 8am to be seen on the day. Because of the pressure on survey appointments, a non-urgent appointment can be several weeks away. Many appointments are taken by people who fail to attend and fail to let the surgery know they will not attend.

No I didn't so thanks for posting.

So it is like the NHS dentists who get not enough to actually make a profit.

My own surgery has lots of posters up asking people to complain to their MP's to try and improve the service so they are not happy either.

Are you a GP then?

I had to go private with my dentist as well recently and he told me similar stories.

I have to remind myself it was not that long ago that we had to pay for all medical stuff prior to the NHS which was only set up 80 years ago.

I am kind of shocked that you only get £120 per person per year. I mean that is such a tiny amount it is insulting. I assumed you at least got paid for each appointment even if it was only like £20 or something.

What a mess. No wonder it is all falling apart.

So if I can ask - how did it work 20 or 30 years ago? Did you get paid more per patient so it was profitable.

No you can't. I tried that (going into the surgery) and they literally say you have to phone in at 8am. They refuse point blank to make appointments at the desk. Lots of bad reviews of the surgery repeating this so others have clearly tried it too.

I don't have any problem waiting a few weeks for an appointment but they don't do this either.

Yes I'm aware that some people don't turn up for appointments and that makes me very angry indeed at the waste of resource.

Even the surgery has posters up asking people to complain to their MP about the service. So the doctors are asking people to complain about the service.

I just feel sad (and a bit frightened) about what is happening in the UK although I am aware other countries have their own problems.

Does your surgery not offer online appointments? I go onto the NHS app to book appointments and repeat prescriptions etc ... This can't work if you need an urgent appointment, but handy when booking in advance.

I did it once . Reluctantly but I figured I could afford it and I couldn’t wait. Best thing I ever did

No you can't. Our surgery doesn't do that, you have to phone at 8am and sit in the queue for an hour just to be told all the appointments have gone so ring back tomorrow at 8am.

We also have no NHS dentists.

There's nothing wrong with going private. Some NHS services are contracted out to private practice (therefore funded by the taxpayer) to ease the strain on the NHS.

The only difference really is that you pay for it upfront and in doing so you get the itemised bill. You then get to see how much healthcare truly costs, and therefore how much money people are paying in NI contributions. And considering employer's NICs have gone up, it's pretty eye-opening.

"The other part of me is thinking - is this the start of a slippery slope and how sad I feel when I remember how easy it was to get a doctors appointment 20-30 years ago."

This begs the question; What happened 20-30 years ago? Labour is in power now, right? Taxes are through the roof, the highest since at least WW2, in fact. I guess it takes time to fix 'years of under investment', right? If the issues are known, why wait so long?

"I just feel sad (and a bit frightened) about what is happening in the UK although I am aware other countries have their own problems."

I think what's happening (albeit slowly and painfully) is that there is a lesson being learned which is that healthcare can't really be nationalised with the sheer number of people in the country now. The population has exploded in recent decades and many services just cannot cope.

We're also nearing that time of year where the NHS declares a national emergency because they just can't handle the demand.

My old surgery didn't let you book at the desk either. I went for a smear and needed to make an appointment when I left for my heart condition. They told me I needed to go home and phone them. There was no one else in the reception area and the phones weren't ringing. I went home and couldn't get through for the rest of the day. I moved surgeries because it was utter nonsense. My new surgery is awesome, you can book online, you can book on the phone or you can book in person. I've never had to use them in any type of urgent way, but for ongoing monitoring of situations they have been fantastic, I can't fault them.

No. You can only book by phoning at 8am. Believe you me I have looked at online as I had it at my previous surgery.

Spoke to a neighbour who is at another surgery and she said she has same issue. She also went private for something recently as she just wanted it sorted.

Isn't this how the NHS dentist went. One by one people started going private.

I can't change doctors at the moment as I am lucky enough to be getting schema therapy through the NHS. Hasn't started yet but I think it would complicate things to try and move doctors. Also I'm not sure if that would fix the problem anyway although it couldn't make it worse. I may look into this once my therapy is finished.

I remember when I lived in Edinburgh you had to queue on a Tuesday morning to get a form to register. They would give out like 20 forms per week and the queue each week to register was massive with most people having to queue for quite a few weeks. This was over 10 years ago and before covid so who knows what they are doing now.

Thankfully I don't go to the doctors much as most of my medication is on repeat perscription and that goes through okay most of the time.

I suppose I better start appreciating the NHS while we still have it then. I guess we all do take it for granted to a degree. I mean I never miss appointments or any of that cheeky fucker stuff but yes I suppose we all feel entitled to free doctors appointments etc when in fact only 80 years ago there was no NHS.

It's all a bit frightening watching basic services that we have always had beginning to disappear ie police, ambulances, GP, dentists, housing

Good to hear. Yes I am pleased it was so easy to get an appointment for the next day and I can afford it this once. I just worry what the future holds with the NHS and other basic services.

Our surgery has three GPs who work three half days a week. My named GP is impatient, brusque and rude. She accused me of 'health anxiety' when I kept going abck. Turned out I have pernicious anaemia (quickly discovered via a blood test I paid for privately); rheumatoid arthritis. fibromyalgia, lupus and low kidney function. After 3 years of trying to get her to check for things (she kept saying 'Of course you are tired... you work full time'. 'Of course you are tired, you have a disabled child' etc and being treated like a naughty, annoying child I finally went private. We go private now for everything tbh. I view it as freeing up space for those who can't. It should not be like that, but it is.

Sympathy to you. Not just me then (or my neighbour)

I think we are going to see more of this in the future.

I had no idea you only get £120 a year. I suppose in a way it’s like gym members in that it only really functions if the vast majority of people stay away. Thinking about myself I went loads as a teenager with recurrent tonsillitis (undiagnosed glandular fever) which caused secondary infection so I’d end up in hodpital on a drip. Never in my 20s, pregnancy related stuff in 30s. maybe once a year in 40s. There’s a fairly large elderly population where I am so I’m sure there’s lots of frequent flyers. I bet there’s lots of interesting stats on number of appointment versus number of active users versus wait times for not typically active users.

yes I agree with your post. We are definately moving towards a private or at least partly private NHS. The same way the NHS dentists went.

I too would like to know what happened to GP appointments over the last 20-30 years. I mean I know that's when all the immigration started but is it as simple as that? I think there is an element of GP's retiring and the NHS not creating new posts so phasing out the GP's post as they retire. So there are more patients and less doctors and demand is swamping supply.

Yes, it's an issue. I have to phone 8am too. Not allowed to book an appointment at the desk. Let's hope we don't need to go private. I like the NHS a lot, value it tremendously and we don't ever miss appointments.

I make sure to give positive feedback to staff when I remember usually in writing. They are valued so much by many of us.

I've had doctors like that when I lived elsewhere (although of course they might not be as good now).

I hope that doesn't change for you but I suspect as the GP's at your surgery retire and are not replaced it might.

That's interesting. Thanks for posting your experience.

Has it not got expensive then if you are going to private doctors regularly and for more than one condition?

Or do you have some kind of insurance that helps?

When was the last time your tried your GP?The contract changed on 1st Oct so that every surgery has to offer an online service.

I used to be able to go in the surgery and make an appointment but now I've got to fill a form in online. I've used it once and it didn't work for me but 8am calls doesn't work for me either so just got to find ways round it as private isn't an option.

We have a Bupa membership as it's part of my company's benefits. DH - also fed up with not being able to see the GP - made an appointment. The private GP immediately organised a referral which was approved before the call was over.

The logic of phoning at 8am is now being replaced with online requests which are triagged and then you are told your appointment. So I can't even plan when I see the GP anymore.

Non-urgent ones were a total disaster as you had to phone at 12 or turn up, exactly at 12, and they were also gone in 5 minutes. The system is utterly ridiculous.

I can't even book a smear test for more than 10 days in advance, they only offer two slots a week and none are really practial for me so I need to make a reminder to phone the surgery and hope they still have one - 1 year later I still haven't managed.

Yes I think car insurance works like that too. The system only works if most people don't claim.

So i suppose with an ageing population and immigration there is more demand than ever and it seems GP's are not being replaced when they retire. Thus the new GP's unable to find posts.

Also with new doctors being paid quite poor wages it seems they are discouraging people from going into the profession.

So it is being turned private by stealth it seems (or not since we are talking about it here)

That's insane. I booked online last week and managed to get a face to face appointment for 3.50pm that same afternoon. Then I booked an appointment online yesterday for tomorrow morning. My surgery also offers appointments with Paramedics which means more appointments are available.

If I want a phone call with a GP, I just complete a very short form online and I'll get a phone call within the next 24 hours.

This is the same as my surgery. I have nothing but praise for them.

Maybe it depends on where you live and the size of the surgery. I live in a small village, and my local surgery supports about 5 villages - but it isn't hugely busy.

So a common issue it seems (phoning in at 8 and not being allowed to book at the desk).

I wish I had appreciated it more in the 90's etc when it was all so easy and relaxed (around the same time the housing was so cheap compared to today)

Yes I can imagine the receptionists get quite alot of abuse etc. They have posters plastered all over the reception area about zero tolerance.

They told me I needed to go home and phone them. There was no one else in the reception area and the phones weren't ringing.

I think I'd have whipped out my phone and rung them there and then in the waiting room!

My surgery has had a very efficient online booking system for a while and any time I've used it a receptionist has rung me half an hour or so after submitting the form inviting me to make an appointment which if urgent, is usually the same day. We can also phone at any time. It's quite a large practice and runs very smoothly.

I thought all GP practices must have online booking now?