To be surprised by how difficult it is to get (non-urgent) medical attention?

[VelvetSpoon]

I phoned my GP surgery today to make an appointment.

I am not ill, it is not life threatening. However, it is something that ideally I would prefer to arrange sooner rather than later.

The next available appointment is on 10 June.

The surgery used to operate open appointments on certain mornings (between 8.30-9.30 I think) where you could turn up and wait to be seen. This has now been replaced by an arrangement where you call in on the morning, and there are 10 appointments available (so if you're caller 11, hard luck). However, the next one of those is not til next Tues and of course absolutely no guarantee I'll even get seen then.

I asked if there were any other options - yes, apparently I can attend a local clinic. Great, I thought. Except it then transpires the local clinics only see the under 25s

I was left feeling distinctly unimpressed, and still no closer to actually seeing a Dr! Oh, and to add insult to injury, the only appt they had on the 10th is at 1pm, too early to get to if I take an afternoon off, and too late to get to work in time if I have the morning off. Surely I should not have to take an entire day off for a (pretty routine) Dr's appointment, and have to wait 2 bloody weeks for it?!!

Welcome to the new (soon to be privatised, poorly funded, overworked NHS). GPs can no longer manage the ever increasing demand/workload on the ever diminishing funding. We have been spoilt for far too long and now the system is broken exactly as the government want.
Not saying it's right but this is the way it is.
DOI I am a GP, I am working 20% harder for 20% less money than I was 10 years ago with 100% more stress.

no wonder people go to a&e.
I need new asthma inhalers, but need a nurse appountment for a review for it. next free app in 4 weeks on a day I can't due to work.
so will just suck it up go to a private gp for a private presciption, ££.

Oh my goodness. You got a GP's appointment on the first try

On two of our three last GP visits (disclaimer: spans a family of 4 and about 18 months, we're not there that often!) I have been told "sorry, our system only allows us to make bookings up to 3 weeks in advance, can you phone back every morning until we have an appointment available".

Then it's hit and miss whether they can fit you in at the village practice or whether it's a car journey to their sister surgery in the next village.

I feel most sorry for the poor GPs and staff who must hate working under these conditions.

Surely though things like that can and should be planned in advance? We have been spoilt by expecting to be seen instantly for every need/want.
We saw almost 100 "emergencies" on tues, in my experienced opinion less than 20% needed to be seen at all by a doctor (eg sore throats for 2 days, diarrhoea for 24 hrs, spilt up with boyfriend, headache etc etc etc)

Same here. Rang yesterday morning and all appts have gone. Next pre-bookable appt is next week. Told to ring again this morning which I did - appts all gone again for today. Will try again tomorrow so fingers crossed.

Thelastquestion indeed it's bloody horrible and the government keeps changing the goalposts hence the massive increase in stress. Also the threats and abuse and complaints (for nonsense) have massively increased.

We must be unbelievably lucky with our GP surgery then. I have never had to wait more than 48 hours for an appointment, and if you phone up on the day and have an ill child, you are told to bring them in at the end of the morning session and you will be seen, although you may have to wait a while.

They also have a fab online booking system where you can book appointment such as regular review appointments for medication. I've used these to book more than a month ahead.

The GP is a bit fierce though!

I'm happy not to go to my GP (and leave them to deal with the ill and sick) if there was somewhere else I could go - but the wisdom of my local PCT making EVERY clinic only open to the under 25's is bloody ridiculous.

Can I just ask - if you wanted to see a solicitor or an accountant for a routine, non urgent matter and you had the same wait would you feel that was a long time too?

Littlefish am I your GP :-D

Ummm soprano how much do you pay your solicitor or accountant? My divorce solicitor cost 250/ hour! And our accountant costs £ 20k a year! You get what you pay and at the moment GP funding is the worst in 15 Years.

Do you like cycling macdoodle? If so, then you just might be! She is fierce, but very effective!

I sat on a&e for 4 hrs with DD and a broken elbow till 1145pm when they seen her gave her morphine and decided to keep her in. On bank holiday Monday there were skeleton staff and no one to plaster her arm after hey decided not to operate. The plaster looks like it's very heavy and at the wrong angle and her hands really swollen. I Am going back to a&e tomorrow as I need someone to check it. There's no appointments at docs till 13/06. 2 doctors surgeries merged and it's absolutely terrible now

Someone seriously saw a GP because they split up with their boyfriend? Perhaps if people didn't waste appointments on such ridiculous things then it would be easier to get an appt when it's actually needed. It's fine where I live though, I have never had any difficulty getting an appt within a week.

Oops 14 June bit she's at fracture clinic on the 05/06

How would your GP help with a plaster problem in a fractured arm? You need a+e or trauma clinic not a GP. The amount of time I spend dealing with things that someone else should have done is crazy.

IDK I was just going to see the doc as I'm quite a distance from a&e but a 5 min walk from doc. I was just going to ask if her hand looked ok or if it was expected. I'm going yo a&e in the morning as it hasn't gone down

I have just done a stint in hospital after taking dd to a and e. I was reasonably impressed with how quickly she was seen, triaged and then admitted.But the doctor had to call extra doctors down from other areas to help with children as she was overrun on the maon a and e. Up on the children's ward over bank holiday weekend and some nurse's were doing 14 hour shifts!

To be fair, we do have a full time nurse prescriber shared between the two village practices, so it only took 24 hours to get DS in with a raging ear infection. However, after waiting the regulation 2 days before booking the appointment, another 24 hours in terrible pain seemed quite cruel. I remember when there was enough 'slack' in the system to fit in emergency appointments for this kind of thing. Ultimately, health is very different to other services and many problems escalate if left.

I'd expect to see a solicitor/accountant within a week max - on the basis I'm paying for their services so I shouldn't be kept waiting for an appointment.

I am actually a solicitor, though I don't have individual clients any more; when I did, if an appointment was requested I would always try and arrange that for the earliest opportunity, and certainly within 7 days (unless the client was unable to attend in that timeframe).

I don't want to take up much of a GP's valuable time, certainly don't want to drain A&E resources (as it's not urgent) I will travel and frankly if I could get an appointment this week I'd even take a day off to go, I just want to see someone. I don't care if it's a Nurse (although according to the receptionist it has to be a Dr...).

Whoever needed an inhaler, I got one from asda once, had to pay about £7 and go through some questions but didn't take too long

Live in London phoned appt given for 2pm that day (didn't inform they reason just asked for appt). Gp running late and I had to return to work. Receptionist apologies and re arranged appt for 5pm. Gp was amazing when see. Tests booked and hoping not anything nasty at mo but gp listened and said unlikely. I love my surgery!

I've had this problem. I have a few fairly minor chronic conditions that have caused me issues recently and I wanted to see my gp to discuss them and maybe get referred somewhere. It wasn't an acute condition that needed an emergency appointment, but I was feeling really awful at the time. I was told the next available appointment was in 5 weeks, or I could run the gauntlet of ringing at 2pm to try for a cancellation. This obviously involves clock watching till 1.59 then hitting redial over and over until you get through. Once I rang 29 times then when I finally got through they had no appointments left.
It's sad to think such an important front line service has been driven into this state really.

Well a month ago I was really poorly with a very nasty ear infection and I just cried and they told me to go straight in I saw the Dr twice in a week and I hadn't seen one for six years previously

At our surgery you can only have an appointment if the receptionist deems you ill enough. 2 times out of ten they just immediately give you one for that day.