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 This has now been replaced by an arrangement where you call in on the morning, and there are 10 appointments available (so if you're caller 11, hard luck).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?!!

I have both clients and their relatives on my back all the time to call the doctor out for piles, aches and pains and viral infections.

Your lucky i usually wait 3-4 weeks for non emergency apps

Threads like this make me feel so lucky. Our doctors is fab will always offer an appointment next working day at latest and will squeeze in a sick child that day.

Have previously belonged to a surgery with the ring every day to be told there is no appointments until you get better or die.

I wonder what it is that makes some surgeries so crap and others amazing? Surely they get the same money per patient?

i haven't been to the doctors in a long time Because funnily enough im one of those people who did look after their own health as you suggested people should earlier, by losing ten stone I got gallstones as the result of quick weight loss. Which was caused by losing weight too quickly The surgeon told me this. For ten months I was back and forth to hospital in EXTREME pain. I could NOT eat solid food in the end. Drs were coming to my flat to give me morphine injections. One of them overdosed me on Xmas Eve 2002 and I spent Christmas Day in hospital because I kept collapsing and couldn't stand up.
In Feb 2008 I had bad diarrhoea and was admitted to hospital because it turned out to be a kidney infection.

Full story in this thread.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/a1824580-to-think-the-diet-industry-is-utterly-evil

People forget you can also get advice from pharmacists too! There's a pharmacy on every street corner these days and attached to health centres. Please make use of them! I always go to the pharmacist for small ailments like eye infections and stomach troubles. It's quicker and costs less than a prescription most times.

gracie I think it's management. If you've got good intelligent doctors with a good sense of business skills then the surgery plods along better.

Our surgery does phone call appointments and from there they decide if you need to come in. Most of the time they just prescribe whatever on the phone. It's so much easier that way and you get to talk to a doctor on the same day you call up.

I would consider that what you describe is not a routine problem then

Im better now that was many years ago and im glad I lost the weight. After that experience though I think there should be more support in place for those who become ill through extreme or fast weight loss It wasn't a VLCD either. It was Slimming World.

Cant remember the last time I saw a GP tbh

I have too book a doctor's appointment tomorrow. We shall see.

About the pharmacist point though. In NI you get free prescriptions, so people are going to want to go to their doctors rather than pay £9 for thrush treatment or whatever.
I can get 50 tablets for free from the doctors (lopromide for ibs) or pay £4 for 6, Im going to go to my doctor.

oh FGS, I am not talking about chest pain, crippling pain, mental health diseases, gallstones, ill children (and I mean ill not just temp/sore throat/D+V for less than 24hrs). Everyone has examples of being ill/things missed, its time GP's stood up and told all the stories of the absolute rubbish we see and deal with, the constant crap that is thrown at us from every quarter, and the real reason you cant see a GP, not the rubbish the government peddle.
To go back to the difference in surgeries, there are very good reasons, and it comes down to funding and workforce. In good/nice areas, surgeries were historically funded well and GP's easy to recruit there. In less nice areas, poorly funded areas (especially like inner cities/rural Wales and scotland) funding is far worse and it is becoming impossible to recruit doctors for any cost.
But everyone can continue to winge and moan and put their immediate wants and needs first, the NHS cannot cope, that is clear, and when the government has succeeded in destroying something we should be very proud of and cherish, and sold it off to the profit driven private companies owned by their cronies, then indeed we will discover what we lost. And by then it will be far too late. Sadly a lot of GP's are so downtrodden, overworked and demoralised they have stopped caring.

Thing is, macdoodle, we can see that GPs have stopped caring, and that the system is beyond redemption.

It's not a great time to be ill.

Its not a great time to be a GP. Imagine training very hard for at least 10 years, to do a job that you love, that actually helps people, that is useful and valuable. Imagine during that training, working 100 hour weeks, for pretty poor pay. Imagine having a huge student loan. Imagine finishing your training and finding a partnership that you love.
Then imagine being told every day you are crap, and lazy, and evil, and shite, opening the paper and reading your so called faults every day, same on the TV, at dinner parties. Imagine your workload getting heavier and heavier, your pay decreasing every year, imagine worrying about making staff redundant. Imagine worrying about how to provide cover for your patients. Imagine treating children with cancer, and old people with many complex needs. And not being able to do the job you trained for so hard properly. And then maybe you can see why the job that once you loved and valued, and was appreciated just turns into another days work to get over done with, and why maybe just why, some doctors have had enough.

I have to say my new surgery, which my husband has always attended, is brilliant. I only joined them last year as my doc at my old surgery retired and the new one was a fecker, (long story). I always get called back within a couple of hours to discuss any concerns regarding my husband's health and they always take time to listen. They always see him that day if he needs seen. If I need to see a doctor, the receptionist, if they know me or I explain the situation, will arrange the appointment around my needs. The wee nurses are lovely, as are most of the receptionists. Don't know what I would do if I didn't have their support. Love em.

I get quite annoyed at the blanket statement "GPs have stopped caring". I can imagin they get fatigued with their job but to imply that they don't care is unfair. I worked as a nursing aux for over 20 yrs and at times would have to fake my enthusiasm for the job to cover the fact that I was exhausted or had been given a load of abuse by the previous patient/family member for something out of my control, or had to attend to a patient that was suffering horrendously. In my experience I could count on one hand the number that shouldn't be doing the job but in the main I have found them to be kind and patient.

Pharmacists definitely need to be the first point of contact for less serious things eg insect bites, sore throats, upset tummies etc. Most pharmacies have private consulting rooms if you want to discuss something more private like piles or thrush. And you don't even have to buy the treatment from that pharmacy!

We are also spoilt for choice in this country when it comes to cheap generic drugs and treatments - every supermarket and pound shop does own-brand anti-histamines/painkillers/antacids/first aid supplies etc etc. If people kept a proper medicine cabinet or box, that would make a big difference.

I really do not want to pay to see my GP and cannot afford it myself (though have a HC2 so would probably be exempt) but I have every sympathy with GPs.

I had to stop having the contraceptive injection because of the farcical booking system at our old surgery. You couldn't book a repeat appointment for 3 months time, oh no. You could only book a week in advance and then it was a lottery whether you would manage to actually get a slot.

I'm sure the biggest time wasters will be exempt from paying, so the system will still collapse.

It's a done deal I'm afraid.

What does that mean hiddenhome?! That people who are less well off are all time wasters?!? Wow. Just wow at the sweeping rudeness of that comment.

Macdoodle you're right! it's far worse value for money than than any solicitor or accountant.

DH's tax bill crept just over 6 figures last year - based on the fact that 34% of government spending goes to fund the NHS, DH spends (conservatively estimated) approx 30k pa on healthcare and is still completely unable to access anything like the service we get from any other paid professional. All we ever ask for is a referral, as we have private healthcare, even accessing that is a complete nightmare.

The trouble is the NHS holds a monopoly, with all it's inherent inefficiencies. (Including its monopsonic power wrt nursing staff, hence their shockingly low rates of pay)

To the person who mentioned their duster mosquito bite (sorry can't remember your name) this was just a mosquito bite. No fever etc, however if it was something serious the pharmacist would advise a gp so either way they didn't need an emergency appt 15 minutes before closing.

As for what we class as an urgent on the day appt I usually say it's something that can't wait until our first routine appt. ie infection, pain, breathing probs, ill child, miscarriage worries. If it's an ongoing problem or 'a pain in my shoulder I've had for three weeks now' I'm afraid it'll have to wait because the duty doc simply will not deal with it. Things like that need continuity of gp and cannot take urgent appts away from those that really need it.

Yes we so have the same people at the surgery all the time. Some even have contracts limiting then to one appt a week.

Duck - We pay less for our health care than most other European countries. And many health treatments would be shockingly expensive if we paid privately. Try having a baby and paying for all care privately, or the year long cancer treatment a friend has just had.

And if we had to pay to see a GP, there would be even more people visiting A and E inappropriately. I also find that those who actually need to go, and are often those who are reluctant to visit the GP. A charge would put many of them off.

Duck and whose fault is that? The front line staff? Are you joking? My tax bill is massive too funnily enough a. Is my pension payment for something that no longer resembles what I signed up for. The NHS IS underfunded compared to other countries health spending.

What we really need to do is spend more on healthcare. We expect a first class system, with a second class funding system.

I have no problems booking an appointment, but in many areas of the country there is a shortage of GP's. In these areas booking an appointment will always be difficult as there simply are not enough GP's. Financial incentives need to be in place to attract GP's to these areas, and attract more medical students into GP practice.

We all pay an average of £1,500 per year to the cost of the NHS. A straightforward private birth will, at the lower end, cost about £7,500. So if you have 2 children, simply the cost of a straightforward birth would cost you the equivalent of 10 years worth of your NHS contributions.

It would be a rare parent who did not see any GP, Consultant, nurse within those 10 years as well.

IME people underestimate all the time both what they are paying to the NHS and the value of these services.

The NHS should be better. We should all be paying more to ensure a better service.