to think. regular 90 minute wait at the gp isnt the norm?

[Soleurmange]

Just that. Here with ds. He is bouncing off the walls. Every time we come it's the same. Should I try and change surgery?

Do people not understand that sometimes (very often) GPs see very sick people? As much as they would like to show people the door after 10mins, it's rarely that simple.
I can assure you that GPs do not like to run over. After surgery they then have to fit in phone calls, referrals, results, paperwork for their annual targets, home visits and - oh, maybe a sandwich - before it all starts again at 3pm.
Improvements can be made to appointment systems, but there is no magic bullet. The doctor is free in the UK at point of access. Just be grateful for that and accept that if you need to see a GP you may have a wait.

Confused- your patronising tone irritstes profusely. Yes I do understand there are emergencies. Do they only happen by chance every time I'm at the surgery? I think not.

Not patronising. Annoyed. And you have no idea what goes on in that surgery before you get there.

That is true, confused we are very fortunate to have the health system that we do. But if OP is routinely waiting 90 minutes at every visit, that would indicate that surgery is not being run very effectively.

I have had long waits at GPs (different surgeries) and have accepted this happens.

But, the OP is saying it happens every time - surely she can moan about that?

Yes, I agree Terry

This does not happen every time in every surgery.

90 minutes is quite a long overrun.

We often run up to an hour late though - it's easy to do. GPs are seeing far more elderly, complex and sick people and it's just not possible to deal with it all in 10 minutes. You could extend appointment times but then it has a knock on effect in that you have to wait much longer to get an appointment in the first place.

If it's any consolation the HCPs hate running late too, it extends their day and is so stressful. We're not just sitting behind closed doors reading a book and eating chocolates - if only!

It would help if people didn't want to see their GP for every cough, cold and runny nose...

That's horrendous. As a regular occurance they're doing something wrong. Yes emergencies happen but it shouldn't be regularly.

I would expect to wait 30-40 mins sometimes for scheduled appointments at the South London practice where I go though to be honest I wouldn't appriciate having to wait over 20 mins.

Mine used to be an hours wait, every time without fail.

Then the management changed and despite all the doctors being the same and being as good as usual (well, some are absolutely crap but I soon realised which ones to avoid and which ones to see) the waiting time is rarely more than 10 minutes.

No idea what they changed but I like it.

With a booked appt, I'm seen within 5 - 10 mins (or have been known to be early ).
With 'open surgery' then obviously you expect to wait, but rarely have to wait more than 20 mins.

My GP is always inevitably late. However, she never rushes anyone out - she's sat with me on occasion for up to 45 minutes when I've needed the help. I'd never begrudge her being late as I know she's helping people without booting them out because their ten minutes is over.

Usually about 15/20 minute wait but last two appointments to see the nurse have been 45 minutes plus as lots of elderly patients and they obviously take longer to get in and out.
I wouldn't mind if they would just tell us there is delay, its the sitting not knowing that annoys me.

I'd say 20 minutes is pretty standard for my GP, although to be fair I've had appointments that have actually been early as well (I know!!).

It also depends as my Surgery always see under 3's that same day but you may have to go to a 'triage' Dr where the appointment time is just an estimate as you are actually just in a queue of other people with emergency appointments.

My bugbear is my MW appointments, it's always as standard 30 minutes delay at least. I dread getting late in the day appointments as I know it's going to be a mammoth wait. I once had to wait nearly 2 hours for a scan!! It was a standard growth scan, which everyone gets and had been booked months earlier. I had a 6pm appointment so got there in good time and they eventually saw me at 7.45pm!

How I didn't walk out?

30-60 is the norm. Have you considered writing a letter of complaint to the practice manager?
If it's a small practice, say 2-3 GPs, you can expect the wait to be long. There is no surgery not touched by the current changes in the NHS. Doctors are being totally overloaded and are not being given enough time in the day to deal with a list of patients (about 60 per day). They are backlogged. And it is becoming commonplace to wait two weeks for an appointment. It's crazy. The problem is that services are being reduced/cut and the GPs are expected to pick up the slack. It's not that they don't want to, but with a full day of patients to see, there is added pressure on them right now to commit to more services normally provided externally. Each patient has a 10 minute slot, but many patients are in tears, some have been through miscarriage or are struggling with addiction, depression, marital difficulties. Between the one guy who has a sore pinky toe there are 10 people whose health woes are too great and too demanding for a 10 minute slot. People deserve time. And GPs want to give it. But this means running late.
The way I see it, if you have a GP who runs a little late it means you have a GP who takes time to listen and refer you to the right services. That being said, 90 minutes is unusually long and you ought to be offered an explanation.

30-60 minutes is fairly standard at our GP surgery, sometimes longer with one GP. The thing is, she's one of the best of the GPs there, really listens to people & takes her time with each consultation. I just don't think enough time is allocated.

Oops, didn't see your post, dora, & just made the same point.

90 minutes for a booked appt is ages.

How quickly can you get a booked appt though? We have to wait 2-3 weeks quite often especially if we want a particular doctor.

I'm wondering if maybe the 90 min wait time is a trade off for being able to get an appointment sooner?

Your poor GPs though - they must overrun very late every night.

This may explain the wait - article written by a totally overstretched GP

The trouble is that GPs are expected to do far, far more (basically to avoid referrals to other services etc), see a certain number of patients, complete masses of paperwork, jump through hoops to get enough money to keep going and everything - and I mean absolutely everything - is target driven.

Oh - and that's ignoring the fact that there has been a huge drop in the numbers of doctors going in to work in general practice. So even if a practice is able to afford an extra doctor or two, they just aren't available.

The entire system is fucked. Truly fucked. But the press are adamant that GPs are all rich, lazy gits who don't actually want to do any work. So that is what the public believe. Many people don't get to see behind the scenes. Three of the most brilliant GPs I have ever known have retired early (50's) due to having serious breakdowns. Between meeting targets, trying to provide good patient care and actually dealing with some utterly horrific fuckwit patients it all got too much.

I agree that a wait of that long is not acceptable - to anyone, let alone a child who is presumably ill.

Our rural practice used to operate a 'just turn up' system and people would be in there with the cleaner at 7.30 am to bag their spot even though the DR didn't start until 9.00. You could arrive any time up until 10.00 and be seen that day. Sometimes the wait was horrendous. They did have a policy of seeing under 5's as a priority though. Then they decided that the waiting room was getting a bit crowded, so they introduced a system whereby they tell you roughly how many people are ahead of you and what that might mean in terms of time and give you the option to go home and come back (being a rural practice in a village, this was a practical option for many people). If things then went quicker than planned, they would ring you and tell you to come back sooner.

They then switched to an appointment 'on the day' system so that alleviated the waiting times - although they do mostly run late - as they always give each patient the time they need.

If a GP is called out on an emergency, the receptionist will advise anyone waiting and give them the option to re-book or call back later and would usually offer to ring you if you opted to go home and wait.

If this is a persistent problem OP then I would contact the Practice Manager and see if there is anything that could be done. Some surgeries even have Patient Groups who can work on solutions to issues. If you approach them with suggestions rather than criticism, your solutions are more likely to be well received.