Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think that the reason a lot of people dont go to the doctor when they should

153 replies

GnomeDePlume · 28/03/2012 12:10

is because they cannot get an appointment time which is remotely suitable for someone who goes to work.

If I want to see a doctor then I can either make an appointment for the middle of April (earliest time when bookings can be made) or take pot luck on the day. The pot luck which is available today is 3.30pm, no alternatives available. This would be great someone wanted to take a DC to the doctor outside of school hours. Sadly it is totally useless to me as I would have to leave work at 2.45. My employer is strict, I cant take an afternoon off to go to the doctor.

So would it be so very difficult for the surgery to work out that only offering appointments on the day at fixed times or in over a fortnight's time is not serving a large proportion of the patients well?

OP posts:
Tee2072 · 28/03/2012 12:12

Find a different GP. Vote with your feet.

Mine makes same day appointments or you can ring to get one within, usually, 2 days, if you aren't fussy about which doctor you see. If I want to see "my" GP I sometimes have to wait a bit. But otherwise I get seen in a timely manner.

And they have after hours appointments two nights a week as well.

Winkly · 28/03/2012 12:20

I can't make a GP appointment in advance, all ours are made on the day so I simply don't go, unless I happen to be so ill I'm not fit to go to work anyway. I agree it's shit.

eurochick · 28/03/2012 12:21

I agree. It is a system that is just fine for stay at home parents,pensioners and others who don't need to be away from home for large chunks of the day, but is bad for working folk.

My surgery only has book on the day appointments. So if I think I need to see the dr, the night before I need to bring my laptop and papers home and arrange to work from home. And then call at 8am and hope I can get an appointment at some point that day. If not, I have to repeat the same thing the next day. At least I can work from home, but it is a really impractical system.

BusinessTrills · 28/03/2012 12:21

Doesn't your employer legal have to let you take time off to see a doctor?

Original poster
GnomeDePlume · 28/03/2012 12:26

I'm not fussy, I dont actually know who 'my' doctor is. I seldom go (cause I cant get an appointment). There isnt a problem with getting DCs seen as oldest can take herself and DH works part time so can take the others.

It just seems that the practice doesnt want to cater for anyone who works normal office hours. No late evenings, no Saturdays. Get well on your own seems to be the message.

This is the main practice for my side of town.

Basically you can have a health service if you are young, retired or not working but the poor sods who pay for it dont get a look in.

OP posts:
boschy · 28/03/2012 12:28

Ours have actually said "well if you're well enough to be at work then you probably don't need to see the doctor that much do you?"

I complained but not sure it has made that much difference.

TroublesomeEx · 28/03/2012 12:46

YANBU.

We have an odd appointment system. It's nigh on impossible to see a doctor 'today' unless you are able to phone between 9 and 9.20 - during which time it is engaged and you have to be on constant redial or all the appointments have gone to the people sitting at home and not working. It can be possible to do this if you work in an office not overseen by your manager, but for teachers (for example) it's virtually impossible!

Advance appointments are only available to make 3-6 weeks in advance - so no opportunity to make an appointment for 'tomorrow'.

maddening · 28/03/2012 12:53

when I was working my place of work was an hour away but you can only register at gp's near home - whereas I was normally an hour away so for a 3pm appt I would have to leave work by 2pm at the very latest so couldn't use my lunch hour as it was a 2 1/2 hr round trip and often had to leave for the day

fanjoforthemammaries7850 · 28/03/2012 12:54

The system is not ideal, but neither is your employer tbh, they should let you have time off to go for a doctor's appointment.

doblet · 28/03/2012 12:55

Erm, your employer has to let you take time off for dr appointments, it's the law

startail · 28/03/2012 12:58

The today or in 3 weeks system is a real pain.
I don't want to use emergency appointments for medium term things, but Drs make me very nervous so 3 weeks away is hell.

DH simply never goes

HmmThinkingAboutIt · 28/03/2012 13:00

Has anyone suggesting to change GP, actually tried it? Its a lot harder than you might think in some areas - partly down to gp cartells catchment areas, overscribed practices, the complexity of actually doing it, and not least that physically its not always easy for some people to get to another GP due to location/transport.

OutragedAtThePriceOfFreddos · 28/03/2012 13:01

I don't see the problem. Either it's urgent, in which case you shouldn't be at work or your employer should be giving you the time off, or it's not urgent and an appointment in a couple of weeks is suitable.

It would be great if we could all get appointments at convenient times, but the system is just too overstretched. It's up to individuals if they want to prioritise their health or their job. The GP services in this country are actually very good, and we should appreciate what we have instead of complaining about having to take a couple of hours off work if we want a same day appointment.

Heswall · 28/03/2012 13:03

Ours opens at 7am the GP is on the premises from 6.30am not sure what more that surgery can do to accommodate

Heswall · 28/03/2012 13:04

Catchment areas do not exist any more you can register with any GP

Heswall · 28/03/2012 13:05

Or go to the walk in centre at your local hospital open until 11pm

5Foot5 · 28/03/2012 13:06

I agrree it is very unhelpful. I had to see the doctor about something earlier in the year but, as it wasn't urgent, I was happy to make an appointment for 8 days time to get one at 8:55am. My office is within walking distamnce of the surgery so that seemed OK. (Although the doctor was running about 25 minutes late so I still didn't get to work until gone 9:30am)

But I felt very sorry for one bloke who came in just after me. He clearly wasn't used to driving in to town at that time of day and had misjudged the traffic and how difficult it would be to park because he came running in to the surgery all out of breath apologising for being 5 minutes late. By sheer bad luck the doc he was waiting to see was running to time so had already moved on to the next person and he was told he had missed his slot. He asked when he might be able to get another if he waited and he was told that 4:15pm that day was the earliest or he could just make another appointment for another day. Poor bloke seemed somewhat stunned but he didn't make a fuss. I heard him talking to someone on the phone later and he had clearly arranged to have time oiff with his work already for that appointment.

OK so in a way it was his fault but if he had been coming to see any of the other doctors he would have been alright with a slightly late arrival

FreedomToBreathe · 28/03/2012 13:09

My gp practise does 2 late evenings (til 7pm) and sat for flu shots. There also keep a number of appointments for 48hr release, they do phone consultations and will call you in if you are need to be seen, set times to ring for getting test result when you speak to a gp/nurse to get results. We are really lucky. But if they can do it why can't others? The other GP practise in the area is as others have described and a nightmare to get an appointment for.

gastrognome · 28/03/2012 13:10

I think it's ridiculous. I live in Belgium and here I can phone my doctor and get a same day appointment for any time between 5 and 7 pm.
Same when I lived in France. The doctor will almost always fit you in the same or next day (of course, you do have to pay for the privilege but you get your money back through the health insurance scheme)

When I go back to the UK and hear about the rigmarole my mother goes through to get an appointment I think it sounds so complicated and stressful.

I don't remember things being like this when I was living in the UK (till 1998). Do others think the system has got worse, or was it always like this?

BookFairy · 28/03/2012 13:10

Catchment areas for GPs still exist in my area! Blooming nightmare!

hackmum · 28/03/2012 13:16

Outraged: "I don't see the problem. Either it's urgent, in which case you shouldn't be at work or your employer should be giving you the time off, or it's not urgent and an appointment in a couple of weeks is suitable."

Hmm. On the other hand, it could be that you've found a lump on your breast. It's not going to stop you working, but you'd want it seen to sooner rather than later.

Or maybe you have an ear infection, which is really painful, and which will get worse if left untreated, but isn't bad enough to stop you going into work.

And so on...

Astr0naut · 28/03/2012 13:17

YANBU

Our GP's is shit. It's a health centre, so there actually 3 different practices, so you would think that you could chop and change. But no.

I'm currently on mat leave. When I had my 8 week check, it was at 420pm! I've never managed to get a normal apt then. ANd they woudln't let me change it so someone else (a worker) could have it.

Ours doesn't open until 845. I start work at 840. By break time, the day's apt have all gone. It's bad when you have to get one for yourself, but with the possibility of 2 dcs needing apt in future, it's madness.

Dh's experience topped it off last FRiday. After watching more and more people go in in front of him, he finally went to the receptionist, who giggled that she hadn't booked him in on the system, so he wasn't being called. Still more people went in.

Eventually a patient went in and, out of pity, pointed him out to teh doctor. The receptionist still hadn't booked him in. Over an hour, after work on a friday afternoon, and a 2 minute apt. Dh was not happy.

HmmThinkingAboutIt · 28/03/2012 13:18

Catchment areas STILL exist. This government and the last both have expressed committment to changing it. They said it would be done by Y date or X date but it hasn't. Instead its ended up going to public consultation and nothing has actually happened yet. Unfortunately.

RosieBooBoo · 28/03/2012 13:24

We still have the catchment system here so i couldn't change GP's even if i wanted to, we also dont have a walk in centre at our hospital so if you work full-time you're a bit buggered.

Jins · 28/03/2012 13:25

I sort of agree but I don't go to my GP because she is a buffoon

In the process of changing