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.

Everything changed on October 1 if your GP is not offering that yet they’re breaking the law or breaking their contract loads of GPs work part-time lots of them are women who choose to work part time because it suits their commitments

Is that change only applicable in England? Or is that the whole of the UK?

Looks like it's England and Wales.

My gp surgery haven't followed the directive they've introduced an online triage system but it's not available via NHS app.

Read other comments which have confirmed my experience.
The only way of getting any appointment is to ring at 8am

But seemingly I've made that up according to another PP 🙄

The amount of use vs finance is unsustainable.

I don't consider myself unhealthy but I've certainly used more than £120 of a GP practices budget this year already.

Too many people in this country are not paying in to a service that they use. 9.12 million people aged 16-64 -economically inactive. This doesn't cover the cost of the NHS.

And ours

But, then I'm 38 and I haven't troubled the doctor since I was 20! A lot of my friends are the same.

Yep I go some years with little use. As people get older they use far more so the balance of use increases. As the population ages....more use. It is not sustainable

Yes, I suppose as people are having fewer kids, and we have more older people, things are going to get much worse.

I completely understand OP. I rarely go for a doctor's appointment (perhaps 4 times in say 12 years) but I go private. Yes I have to pay, but rather than being told I can't see someone for several days and then having to wait for a screening call first at a time of their choosing (difficult if you are speaking with clients and working) I have used a private GP service. They then ask me when I'd like to visit them and as you say the duration of the appointment can be selected as you see fit. Great if you need to discuss something or want advice. I can see it doing the same way as dentists where NHS GP appointments get replaced by private appointments to a large extent.

I would say my local Gp is very good and if you call first thing they will try to get you seen soon if necessary. I called about DS recently and was advised to call first thing next day for a same day appointment and that’s exactly what happened. He was seen on time by a nice , friendly Gp.

However in Edinburgh my Gp was an early adopter (30 years ago) of the call at 8am and not get through until you get better, die off or end up in a hospital on a drip due to a lack of timely antibiotics or go private.

I do think it’s a real postcode lottery.

Sorry to be light hearted, but I reckon the day will come when we just diagnose ourselves via AI or something. The computer will spit out a prescription or a referral, and off you go.

In the real world, more and more people will pay privately or take out PHI. That frees up space for those who can't afford that. I'm not sure if GPs are allowed to work privately in addition to their NHS contract, but if so, there will be none left in the local NHS practise soon. Why would they? I'm sure many have a social conscience to do no harm etc. but having gone through many years of training, why would qualified doctors WANT to work in a failing system that doesn't offer realistic remuneration?

I think UK needs to look to reasonably efficient EU countries and copy them. Yes, that will probably require an increase in NI to pay for it, but I think it's worth it in the long run. Forget about the scare mongerers citing the disaster of health care in the US, Europe is a far better template.

You can’t at my surgery or my daughter’s surgery.

thanks for posting. Yes someone else who works in primary care posted and said they get £120 per year per patient which is a shocking amount as it's tiny.

They were also able to explain the changes over the last 20-30 years.

I don't blame my local practice as such. I am annoyed and frustrated but understand they are working to the system we have. They seem as dismayed as us and have posters up in the surgery asking us to complain to our MP's to try and improve things.

So if so little money goes to GP's who as you rightly say probably have the most contact with the public, where does the bulk of the money go? Hospitals, cancer treatments, MRI machines etc, consultants.........

Please post again if you can add more. Do you work for the NHS? Just wondered how you know all this.

And yes that explains the too short 10 min appointments then which lets be honest must make the doctors life stressful as that's not enough time and they must always be running late because of it.

the same thing is happening with the police. The pay is not great for the danger that some of them have to face. The pension used to be really good but that has been diluted now as well.

They are having trouble recruiting and retaining staff now and are having to drop their standards quite alot.

I think lots of modern day police don't look like the tall, smart, calm policeman of yester-year.

Can't blame them. Those in response - who go out to the 999 calls deal with awful stuff. From drunk, drugged, aggressive people to domestic violence to hostages being held at gunpoint (yip it happened), not to mention the suicides...picking bodies off train tracks and cut them off trees where they hanged themselves. They get abused, spat at, attacked and frequently covered in all kinds of bodily fluids.

Who in their right mind who work in a system like that with not enough remuneration and all that danger and stress. So much like the gp's the system is falling apart and I for one don't fancy a lawless society.

(Source - dated policeman who worked in response and was very stressed out. I'm ashamed to say I didn't really understand what he was going through at the time and probably wasn't nearly supportive enough. Now much older and wiser I understand things so much better and cringe at some of my younger behaviour)

You made me laugh at least. I was imaging their queueing system.

Press 1 If you feel better now. Press 2 if you have died while waiting. Press 3 if you have gone private while on hold. Press 4 if you have gone to A&E instead Press 5 If you are still on the line and determined to get an appointment. Please note you will be cut off soon. Press 6 if you have become hysterical with the stress Press 7 If you would like to be transferred to your local chinese takeaway. Press 8 if you can't take a hint and are still on the line and have realised the surgery actually shut 40 mins ago for the evening.

Our GP surgery has online booking but only if you want to see the doctor in a couple of weeks. There seem to be a couple of slots a week which they keep open for this type of booking. So they are ticking the box for the new legislation but they still need you to ring and sit on hold at 8am if you need seeing on the day.
When I heard the legislation being publicised, I did wonder whether they were going to specify they meant on the day appointments and I’m not sure they have. Does anyone know?

I saw my NHS GP earlier this year, appointment was rushed and what she did, she did it reluctantly, referring me for an ultrasound after I insisted I get it referred. I saw a private GP she couldn’t have done more, she asked lots of questions, very thorough and also asked if there was anything else I wanted to ask about, something you definitely cannot do with your own GP. I wouldn’t hesitate to go private again. Some Consultants you can self refer as well, so you bypass the private GP.

I barely use my NHS GP now as we have access to private GP service through work (we don't have to pay).

I can get appointments with my NHS GP and do use them for Pill consultations and smear tests, but I have to ring and then they are offered at strange or unsuitable times. With the private service I can book online at any time, get an appointment instantly and they are also offered at weekends and late in to the evening and over video call. I recently had to get a GP referral for a referral to a private consultant and i did it in 10 minutes at work.

Part time in primary care is not like part time in most other jobs.

Practices can be open 12 hours a day. GPs tend to be contracted for sessional work. A session can be a morning or an afternoon. So 6 sessions a week might be 3 days, so potentially 30-36 hours, or 2 full days and 2 half days. Many GPs are women, and might prefer primary care as it’s generally more family friendly than hospital work - no nights, rarely weekend work. I only know of a few GPs that do private work and that’s on top of their NHS contracts - so they might do 8 sessions but do some private work for 6-8 hours a week too. That’s salaried GPs, not partners as IME they rarely have the time or energy to do any private work.

Nowadays I don’t know any GPs that work what you would consider full time, eg 5 full days a week. It would potentially be 60 hours a week which is unsustainable.

The pressure on those of us in primary care to meet targets, demand and produce quantifiable results is immense. Sadly patient care has to be tangible and measurable otherwise our government doesn’t see it as worthwhile.

My GP doesn’t allow future dated appointments, you have to call at 8am to make an appointment for that day.

I pay £80 a month for unlimited appointments with a Private GP, book online for the next day at a time that suits you. Some weekend appointments too. Nothing is rushed, none of this you can only mention one ailment per appointment.
Seriously in my local NHS GP there is a sign up saying only to discuss one ailment per appointment. You can only get appointments by running the gauntlet at 8am over the phone, on hold for hours and that’s if you are lucky enough to get a ringing tone rather than the engaged tone. I drove 25 miles once before they answered the phone.

This will wind you up, but our surgery is superb.

I haven’t been ill for five years since I had cancer, but I was poorly weekend before last. Monday morning at 8am I filled in the online form, 8 minutes later the GP rang me and gave me an in person appointment for two hours later. Gave me treatment there that fixed me.

Yesterday, my husband sent a message about our housebound adult son, an hour later the surgery’s paramedic turned up at our house.

Doesn’t make sense why some doctors’ surgeries work but others don’t.

Goodness that is cheap. Is it an online private GP or do you see them in person. Where about in the country is this? I already toting up what tomorrow is going to cost but glad I am finally get an ongoing issue sorted.