To turn up 30 mins late for a GP appointment

[Kasterborous]

I had a GP appointment today and turned up five mins before my appointment time, booked in it said only one person before me. So why did I have to wait 50mins with a bored 14 month old!! It pees me off every time I go its the same, so why can't I turn up 30 mins after my scheduled appointment time!?

disclaimer I know I am being a bit unreasonable but i didn't sleep well last night because this sodding eczema is itching like nobody's business

Mine are always running late. I find it irritating because neither the receptionist or the GP ever says "sorry we have kept you waiting" and I can't think of a single occasion in the last 30 odd years when I've been in for more than about half of my allotted 5 minutes. I have "gone private" in the past with specialists and dentists and find they are worse than NHS GPs for keeping you waiting - but at least you get ots of profuse apologies and nice coffee and posh biscuits in compensation.

I have tried asking for the first appointment of the morning but often the GP turns up late for work ( yes, I can see the car arriving so no nonsense please about being on the phone re urgent cases). As the tax payer pays each of tese individuals over £100k a year I think we should expect good service.

We have 2 gps who are routinely an hour late. People still choose to see them rather than the others because they're very good. I tend to phone the surgery just before I need to leave to confirm whether I do need to leave vi.e. they're on time) or I can go up in q while and reduce my wait there.
But then, unusually, our to receptionists are excellent!

I think it's the one-sidedness that is the issue. It seems unfair. They can keep you waiting for ages and there's nothing you can do about it because you need to see a dr. If you turn up a few mins late, they can refuse to see you.

If someone leaves the GP's room in an ambulance then they don't go out the front door.

Yeah it's annoying having to wait but 10 mins isn't enough time to see a patient and do all the paperwork they have to do once they have seen that patient. Let alone make telephone calls, look up blood/test results, write referral letters, speak to coroners/social workers/other healthcare professionals, pee, look after the NHS budget and all the other shit they have to do.

So cut them a break along with all us other overworked and understaffed NHS workers getting buried under paperwork and bureaucracy.

And as PP's have said, I'd much rather have a GP who is running late as it shows that are willing to listen rather than have you in and out in no time.

Our GP has a notice up saying if we are still waiting after 30 minutes to let reception know. If your GP is running late when booking in they tell you. I had the emergency GP today and he was running 15 minutes late by the time he took me. But we're always told it's the on call GP and they can get called out at any minute.

I can't even get through to my surgery on the phone let alone make an appointment and be kept waiting. :(

I was once the patient that was in with my GP for 45 minutes. I thought it was going to be simple and I'd be out with a prescription in 2 minutes but it wasn't. I ended up in hospital on a drip.

What I thought was a mild allergy rash and sore throat turned out to be blood poisoning caused by some kind of bacteria in my throat and I nearly died.

I feel now about starting this thread. I hope you made a full recovery bubblesinthesky

I have gp appt at 5 20 he is very thorough so expect have to wait the others get patients in out in required 10 mins.
Can understand is long wit with litte one.

Last time I waited hour! He did apologise. However he s very caring and referred me for scan recently as was anxious due to my late mother having ovarian cancer and I had few symptoms.

It depends on the doctor. I had one doctor who always ran late but that was because she allowed the patients to talk about what the needed rather then a quick 5min appointment. I knew that she would be late. On the other hand I also had a doctor who the receptionist would make appointments from 9am even through the doctor was never in before 9.30 after dropping her children at school, so she was 30mins behind before she even started.

I used to get pissed off at the doctor running late until the day that he spent nearly an hour with us when I thought my son had flu but was actually seriously ill and could have died had the doctor not been so thorough in finding the cause.

You're only being a bit unreasonable IMO. I don't mind GP's running late if they need to, would much prefer to wait an hour and know I'll see one than not be able to get an appt at all. But think receptionists should definitely be more helpful to smooth the process along, and think many people would get less arsey about the wait if they were. Ie, you should be able to nip into the loo without fear of missing your appt and if they know the GP is running ages behind when you turn up it wouldn't be such a hardship to quickly tell you so you can settle in for the long haul.

Does irritate me though when people use the fact of it being free at point of service to justify any poor behaviour - we're still all paying for it even if not at that particular moment and so should expect a certain standard. Being an hour late = fine, making the odd mistake = only human but it's not acceptable to keep you waiting and then not give you the time and service you need so for that YANBU.

I'm a GP. I quite frequently visit patients before morning surgery so am occasionally a bit late because of this. But I have been working since 7am; just because a patient has the first appointment with me in the surgery does not mean they are the first patient I have seen that day.

Generally I run on time, but in order to do that I do not see patients who show up having completely missed their appointment slot (IE more than 10 minutes late). And sometimes issues take more than 10 minutes to address fully, so sometimes I do run late.

We do our best. Help us by showing up on time and knowing what you need to say (as in don't come in saying "well, I don't know where to start"...!), and we will try to keep to time, and to apologise if we've kept you too long.

What makes us angry isn't the running late per se, it's the not being told what's going on. I've been in long wait situations, I've never thought for one minute that the doctor was having tea and biscuits, but it's infuriating to be told by reception that Dr is running about five minutes late, then fifteen minutes later Dr is still running only five minutes late (in which case I should have been seen ten minutes ago???), then 'There's been a bit of a hold-up'. So I ask, 'Shall I make a new appointment?' 'Oh no, she should be free in a few minutes' And meanwhile the Evil Traffic Warden is eyeing up my car in the one hour waiting zone.

Appreciate though in fast moving situations like CotherMuckingFunt's son keeping reception updated is probably the last thing on the GPs mind.

Haha Kastorborus - you must have known you'd bring out the po-faced brigade!

I don't think you are being unreasonable. It drives me to distraction, sitting around in the waiting room and watching the clock hands roll by. The silly thing is, all it needs is the receptionist to keep the assembled throng updated and I wouldn't mind in the slightest.

But the most annoying thing of all?

...Why is it that if you turn up 2 mins late, the doctor is running early or on time?

GRRR gets me every time!

we are lucky to have such a good service, and people are ungrateful

If we stopped thinking that we are terribly 'lucky' and complained more in a sensible, unemotive and properly targeted way then maybe we would actually have a good service - but we don't at the moment, and it's attitudes like this that stop it improving. I hope you don't work for the NHS but I suspect you do, because your "shut up and be grateful" view is incredibly common.

I work for the NHS If you would like me to bill you up front for every appointment and drag the doctor away from a seriously ill person to stroke your arm etc then yes we could do that. You wouldn't like it when the shoe is on the other foot though. GPs do an incredibly hard job. People complaining about timing of appointments is just pathetic quite honestly.

No I don't work for nhs, just my daughters life was saved by a receptionist at the drs bumping her up the queue to be seen straight away. That's really all that matters.

But in order for the receptionist to keep those waiting updated, the doctor would need to interrupt the important thing she/he was doing to update the receptionist???

Perhaps the details of all appointments lasting more than their allotted 10 min slot could be broadcast live to those in the waiting room, just so they feel fully informed as to what is delaying them . Perhaps those waiting could be provided with some sort of buzzer to press if they feel their appointment is more important.

it is annoying to be kept waiting for any appointment, but I do try to keep my irritation under control when waiting at the doctors as there may be good reason.

For example, last week my appointment took longer than the alloted 10 mins because I had some neuro symptoms. my gp needed to look at the blood test results, check be over thoroughly, discuss previous neuro problems with me, dictate the referral letter, etc. I was his first appointment of the day, so I would have made everyone else a bit late that day.

equally, some days I've been in and out in two minutes.

Now then, my (nhs) fertility consultant is great. He starts every appointment on time. He's already read my notes, he's come up with a possible treatment plan, he gives us all the time we need in our appointment. I don't know how he manages this, but I'm amazed and impressed he does!

It's not hard to see how far behind the doc is running. The receptionists at our practice just look at the computer and see which appointment is being seen.

OP - Even if you are being a bit unreasonable it's allowed if you're feeling crap and have a baby to amuse in the Doc's surgery for 50 mins.

Think the moral of the story here is that you never really know exactly why the doctor is running late so don't jump to conclusions. I remember seeing my GP (who was running late that day !) when I was feeling down after DS1. A midde-aged lady came and sat down next to me, starting talking and the conversation quickly turned to how sad and lonely she had been feeling. No family visited her and her partner had died, basically she told me that she didn't want to live any more. So I told the receptionist to let the GP know before she went in. I sincerely hope he/she took more than the allocated time with this woman and ran as late as was necessary.

I think I was just fed up because I had DD with me and was trying to keep her quiet and stop her running around. She was as good as I could have expected. I'd I'd been on my own it wouldn't have matterd as I would have been able to read my book. I don't know anyone who I could have left her with as we only moved a month ago. I'd managed to run out of my eczema creams which is my own daft fault so I'd been really itchy and uncomfortable all weekend. I know it's not serious or life threatening. I tried the pharmacy at the weekend and they wouldn't sell me any steroid cream said I had to see a GP. I know it's no excuse and I know they do a good job under a lot of pressure and I posted in haste.