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

GPs are essentially private businesses funded by the taxpayer so are not in any way free, lets dispel that myth right now.

GPs receive about £64 per patient per year for all care, including consultations, repeat prescriptions, referrals, paperwork etc.

The average patient consults 5.8 times per year - up from 3.5 times less than a decade ago. You hear a lot on the news about A&E attendances, but much less about the 80% increase in demand for GP appointments. At £11 per consultation (gross), core general practice runs at a loss. By hitting all their performance targets (which takes a vast amount of work), GPs can get their income per patient up to £100 per year but that is still loss-making. Up till now, GPs have remained in the black by doing additional work but this is increasingly being cut back. Recruitment to general practice is falling, exacerbating the existing shortage. Since 1997, hospital consultant numbers have increased by 50%, GP numbers by only 15%, despite the fact that 90% of all healthcare happens in primary care.

The whole of primary care (not just general practice) is underfunded because it is unsexy and poorly understood by both politicians and the public. GPs are retiring and leaving the profession at unprecedented rates - I'm one of them. I left my partnership 2 years ago because I was fed up of the stress and 14 hour days. I still work but am now freelance. More and more GPs are getting out.

"GPs are essentially private businesses funded by the taxpayer so are not in any way free, lets dispel that myth right now"

I can't agree with that because a private business would have folded years ago if it were run like a GP. That is not to say it is the GPs fault directly but if it were a private business it would never survive.

I dont mind my doctor being late, he's amazing, has been my doctor (and families) for 25 years and I have fought to stay there as I've moved a little bit, he had no problem keeping me there because of things I've been through.

the one thing that annoys me is the pharmacy attached who say your prescription will be ready on Tuesday, you go on Wednesday and your script hadn't even started to be put together, so they say it will take 10 mins to make even though there's 3 trained people stood looking gormlessley at the tablets, you're still sat there 40 minutes later and theres a group of very annoyed people stood around, this is more than common for our pharmacy

"Why don't GPs work evenings and weekends" we work an early surgery once a week. (14.5 hours per calendar month for us). We don't do evenings because we are less productive at that time and if someone has a more complicated problem we have to bring them back to do bloods or investigations as they don't keep overnight. That is our choice as I believe patients get a fresher GP in the morning.

I laugh when patients ask if, because I have started at 7 am I will get away early but sadly no. I still have to work my normal day after this. Also it wouldn't solve the appointment problem as you would have the same number of appointments over 7 days instead of 5.

In a way you are right chocolate but we do run a business and we have to pay for our staff, our building our heating lighting cleaning telephone systems, furniture, equipment, nurses, paper ink postage etc etc. if our costs go up we either have to make people redundant or take home less money ourselves. I could earn a lot more but we choose to spend money on extra GPs so that when we go away on holiday we don't run out of appointments. Because we have patients we are guaranteed an income but our outgoings are getting higher all the time.

GPs do earn a good income (not £250k a year) but some earn a lot less than others but I work part time by choice (3 half days and one full day a week) my full day is supposedly 8-6 and half days 8-1 but I am usually in the surgery from 7/7.30 until 6.30/7 at night and 7-2 on half days with at least one half day until 4pm just catching up. My full time partners come in at weekends to do paperwork. I love my job but it is frustrating at times and I think the general public don't realise what goes on behind the scenes when we are not seeing you.

I'm not trying to justify anything. Just explain. (Oh and I don't like the receptionists at my own GP surgery where I am a patient No sense of humour and they always look at you suspiciously when you walk in)

Sorry, I'm a real blather aren't I.

• blether.

That's interesting, AnyoneforTurps, is there any research into why both GP and A&E visits have gone up? Ageing population, more chronic conditions? Waning of British 'Don't bother the doctor' philosophy? More active management of diabetes/asthma etc? (but these go to specialist nurses usually, right?)

There are more consultations for several reasons.

1. We are dealing with far more complex medical problems than we did 20 years ago. (I was there I remember) often people need to be seen more frequently
2. We now have to do a lot more follow ups that were done in hospital (hospitals in turn are seeing more new patients but it doesn't help us)
3. A lot of patients come to see us to " hurry up their hospital appointments" I was looking at some old records from the 80s and the waiting times for out patients was much shorter.
4. We investigate a lot more rather than refer it to hospital.
5. Granny (or equivalent) no longer says "give him some paracetamol and it will be fine" it is now "better get him checked"
6. We see a lot of social problems and fall outs from the breakdown of relationships.
7. A lot of the care of the elderly is now in the community so we have more contact with them.
8. People come and see us with minor problems that we shouldn't really see lime sore throats (at less than 24 hours)

There are probably a lot more examples but that's just a few.

Just think like this; GP is always late. That means if you're late for some reason he has no reason to get annoyed at you plus you have some extra time-allowance between needing to be out of the house and actually GETTING out of the door with child in hand

That last bit is so true EatenByZombies DD's favourite trick is to wait until she's got her coat and shoes on then fill her nappy arrrgh.

I don't think you're being unreasonable at all but then my surgery is exceptionally shit so I've developed the hump with them all.

I have NEVER had to wait less than half an hour in 10 years, the record being close to 2 hours, the average I reckon being around an hour and never received an apology or explanaition from anyone. In fact there is a sign up telling anyone unfortunate enough to be sat in the waiting room not to approach the receptionists if your appointment is running late. If you dare to enquire they look at you as though you've cracked but are quick enough to loudly publicly berate anyone who shows up for their appointment late. I've been sat in the waiting room with people, non of whom had been waiting less than an hour (and yes, I know for a fact because we were all moaning about it) and heard the receptionist thoroughly embarrass a grown woman and then cancel her appointment because she was twenty minutes late. If they had allowed her to keep the appointment she'd still have been waiting 40 minutes at the very bloody least. I think I need to switch surgeries.

My surgery shuts at 6pm - so the last official appointment would be 5.50pm and they do run late. Yet the pharmacy next door closes at 5.45pm - whyyyyyyyyyyyyy!?

So you can get the appointment but if you have the misfortune of needing the perscription after 5.45pm you have to travel about 4 miles to find a pharmacy that is open later!

Boulevard the nature and volume of work in primary care has increased massively, even in the 13.5 years I've been a practice nurse.

Increasingly aged population being cared for at home/by their GP and PN team.

Increasingly complex medical conditions being diagnosed and managed by the GP/PN team. I hold specialist respiratory management qualifications, as well as specialist contraception and sexual health, travel health and wound care qualifications. Most of these issues are dealt with here in the GP surgery whereas in the 'olden days' a patient would attend a specialist clinic or the hospital.

Increased vaccination programmes, for adults and children.

Increased standards and frequency of monitoring required for many conditions, eg for chronic diseases, people on certain medications or with mental health issues or dementia.

Increasing dependency on medical professionals - many people don't want to wait and see how something goes, they want it assessing and treating the same day.

Shorter stays in hospital post-operatively. People are now discharged the same day or within 24 hours for things they used to stay in for days and weeks for.

Fewer domiciliary services and community visits so people attending their surgery.

I was kept waiting over an hour when ds1 had his injections, by the time we got in the bitch of a nurse said "I don't like grumpy babies" I explained how long we has been waiting she said " yeah well, I've been busy and anyway babies have no concept of time"

Other than that bitch, I've never minded waiting as the staff are normally quite lovely about it.

Forgot to say DS was screaming his head off by the fine we got in....

I'm a Practice Nurse..I work at a busy two-site Practice. Last Tuesday morning when there was just one GP & myself on, we each had a very ill patient, both of whom were transferred to hospital via emergency ambulance. My patient was a 10yo having an asthma attack who was admitted & kept in hospital for 3 days... I completely understand that it can be a pain to wait, but unfortunately it's impossible to predict how long it will take to see & sort some patients. I HATE keeping people waiting. It really stresses me out. Please remember when you see your GP/Nurse after a long wait, they've not been drinking tea...conversely we rarely get to stop on our tea breaks & lunch breaks are usually seen as 'catch-up' time from a busy morning!

YANBU to feel frustrated about the wait. I feel the same way sometimes. And you are sensible to realise that there are good reasons why this happens.

My Dad is a GP. He hates keeping people waiting but also hates rushing people, especially older people or people with mental health needs who might need a bit of time to explain what they need. His solution has been to move to giving everyone a 15min appt. But obviously he still needs to see the same number of patients so he no longer takes scheduled lunch breaks or tea breaks. Over the course of an 8.5hr surgery he'll see 26 patients in addition to completing paperwork and making phone calls and sometimes scheduling home visits before the surgery starts. He generally has to work another couple of hours catching up once appointments are over. And he's 66. Fucking slacker.

I registered with my GP because friends and DP told me she was great when I moved here. Sadly they didn't tell me she runs an hour or more behind schedule. She is lovely though.

She shares a waiting room with a GP who runs his appts like clockwork, ten mins max, the difference is startling. DP used to go to him but say he's rude. I'm tempted to swap for rude and speedy GP!

GPs receive about £64 per patient per year for all care, including consultations, repeat prescriptions, referrals, paperwork etc.

The average patient consults 5.8 times per year - up from 3.5 times less than a decade ago. You hear a lot on the news about A&E attendances, but much less about the 80% increase in demand for GP appointments. At £11 per consultation (gross), core general practice runs at a loss

Very interesting info. The per-appointment amount GPs are paid is absurdly low. Per patient, it would be a trivial cost to double the number of GPs.

You could easily raise the extra money without increasing taxes by having a two tier system, where the most convenient appointments (early/late/out-of-hours/weekend) are paid for by working people who will be happy to pay extra for the convenience, with appointments at other times being free as now.

There would be a good reason for it, but an apology souldnt have gone a miss.

A Gp just cant hurry a eg suicidal patient, a child with suspected serious illness etc etc out of the door when times up.

so yes YABU.

I dont think its that unusual to wait as long as that, certainly at my GP surgery.

I used to sometimes wait 1hour 45 minutes for my previous doctor.
No wonder their practice eventually went bankrupt.
I moved to a newer surgery, closer to where I lived, as the other one was my childhood practice. I never waited any more than 20 minutes. Had a shock at my first appointment. I checked I , and was just about to put my tush down, and my name got called