To think not having any pre bookable dr's appointments is very inconvenient?

[SweetElizaRose]

Apparently my GP is changing so you have to phone on the day you want the appointment and can no longer pre book even for routine type stuff like medication reviews.
Why? If you are working this will be very difficult to manage because you won't be able to book or arrange any time off. I don't understand why they are doing this?

Too many people, taxes too low and spent incorrectly.

But what do I know? I'm not in government. Any government.

My GPs have prebookable appointments and same day appointments available.

Call at 8am for a same day which will be 8.30am-3pm or call after 11am for prebookable, prebookables are generally 2-3 weeks ahead, can go into surgery and make prebookables at anytime. They don't let people make same days in surgery unless they see the nurse first.

Call at 8.05 or after and you've no change of getting an appointment. I told them it was asthma that needed looking at asap but wasn't an A+E/Ambulance emergency, for a week I did this. No luck getting an appointment, couldn't even get in to see the nurse when I went down to the surgery. Ended up making an appointment for 3.5 weeks later, which is Friday. Still suffering.

My GP has a telephone triage system. It also has same day appointments released online at 7.30, one hour before the phone lines open. I suspect DH and I are the only patients at the surgery that are aware of this because we never fail to get pre work same day appointments, it's brilliant.

works well at my surgery. You can book a telephone appointment with dr of your choice in advance (up to a week ahead) via online or on the day by telephone. You state which dr you want and if he/she is in the dr will phone you back. If your chosen dr is not in you are told when he/she is next in or given the choice to speak to someone else.

I have used on-line system and stated no telephone call between 10 and 12 because have other appt and dr always phones back at convenient time. If you need to be seen you will be seen by that dr on the day.

I was very sceptical but it has worked brilliantly at my surgery and has cut the did not attend rate to virtually nil.

Nurse appts are pre-bookable up to 2 months ahead

YANBU. My surgery are struggling to replace a GP at the moment and are struggling to cope as they can't get locums so only releasing 2 weeks bookable appointments at a time otherwise it's phoning at 8 for on the day urgent ones. i accept their reasons for trying to control demand but for me needing an HRT check that fits in with my work it took about 6 weeks to get sorted.

busstopbetty where do I start with who doesn't need to be seen?

Well people with a sore throat for an hour
Those with toothache (see a dentist)
Those who just want a housing letter (see the council)
Those who want a passport form done (we don't do them)
Those who need an asthma, diabetes or pill review (see the nurse)
Those who have thrush, conjunctivitis, hayfever, verrucas etc etc etc (see a pharmacist)
Those who want a letter so auntie Ethel can get a visa to come here (not sometime we do!)
Those who want to know when their hospital appt is or have a complaint about the hospital (talk to the hospital)

I take all these calls regularly

Another very useful aspect is that if I can tell from the story that bloods and an xray are going to be needed, I can arrange those first then see the patient with results in hand so they only need to come in once.

I think I'm in the clear then. Although I do have prescribed antihistamines as the Otc stuff just wasn't cutting it and it was affecting my asthma. Sorry!

It is difficult though when you have small children and the pharmacist won't sell you anything.

to cut a long story short - i said to my dr's receptionist how can people who are bus drivers, etc., ring at 8am? she said there's not a one size fits all thingy so if you asked them they could help you in that way? there must be a zillion of jobs for who the ringing at 8am thing doesn't work for.

My GP has a similar system. They do have Tuesday night appointments for those who work. You can book in advance. caveat is that you need bring proof if employment with you to your appointment like a recent payslip. If you don't have it you won't be seen. It is also possible to get a sit and wait appointment so there is always someone who forgets their proof of employment. This works well for me as I have a number of medications which I need to see a doctor to get.

our surgery used to do that...however due to 1GP retiring and another on maternity leave now you have to turn up at surgery and wait to be seen on the day!!...ok if you're there first thing as usually see quite quickly....not so good if you turn up later in morning though and need to get to work...crazy

We have this , I love it means you almost always get a same day appointment.

It would help if it were possible to get (at least some) prescriptions from a pharmacist without seeing the doctor. Last time DD had a minor skin infection - the same as she has had a couple of times before - the pharmacist refused to give us anything before we saw a GP. The NHS seems to want it both ways - GPs to be gatekeepers to practically everything but then moan that that takes up appointments! I've resorted to private treatment in the past a few times to speed things up or to get treatment at convenient times, but even then you invariably need to see the poor GP first. We need to look more seriously at other countries' systems to see if we can come up with a better way of using these scarce resources.

I also get fed up with the constant message that patients are using the NHS wrongly - the system is complex and it's unfair to expect people to be able to triage themselves especially for things like asthma. If people could get help earlier they'd be less stressed/sick when they did get in to see the GP.

The issue with patients taking up appointments for random non-medical things probably says no more than that people still trust doctors. Maybe doctors should put leaflets in reception explaining how to sort the most common things they're I appropriately asked about (or co-locate with CAB).

My GP does this. I work in education and need to leave by 8.10am. Fecking nightmare. I actually cried with the stress of trying to get seen about my displaced coil and the receptionist just rolled her eyes at me

Inappropriately, that should say.

Millions has been poured into educating the public but it doesn't seem to help, we have CAB on ground floor of our health centre too. I used to try and explain/educate but it just gets people's backs up so I've stopped. I see the patients booked in for me and give them my best. There isn't even a consensus on this thread re same day appointments vs book in advance so we are never going to please everyone.

I suspect demand will always outstrip supply when it comes to free-at-the-point-of-delivery healthcare.

I actually wish my surgery did this. They do the opposite; almost all appointments are pre-booked and current waiting times at my surgery are in excess of five weeks. Perhaps a 50/50 split would be better?

Ours does this - although there are some routine appointments pre-bookable for things like chronic conditions. These are often a few weeks out and are bookable online.

If you are ill enough to see the GP then I don't think it matters as you're not going to be in work anyway or will be willing to take the day off to get seen.

I've never had a problem getting an appointment. In fact once they couldn't get me to see the doctor but said come in to see the nurse and if needed the GP can see me. The nurse took one look at me and brought the GP in and I was very quickly sent to the hospital.

Must also be a nightmare for anyone whose Depo injection is due

bluecarpet well you seem to have a long list of people who are wasting your time but my DHs GP did not care today that she was wasting HIS and MY time.

DH got a call from his surgery saying the GP wanted to see him, DH (although a pensioner) runs a charity shop he has to be in work at 9pm and at the moment his asst manager is on Holiday so I had to take a days holiday from my work to open the shop for him.

So he rings up in the morning no appoints, rings up in the afternoon gets an appoint.

New GP who DH hasn't seen before wants to see him because she has noticed he has stopped taking statins WTF????? he stopped taking them 4 years ago because they crippled him, then 2 years ago he agreed to take another type, after a week they crippled him so he refused to take them. In January statins reared their ugly head again so DH was sent to a lipid consultant (he still refused to take them)

2 weeks ago the consultant signed him off his cholesterol is FINE

So why the fucking appointment, it should be on his NOTES that he refuses to take statins even if the notes from the consultant hasn't reached the GP yet, the very fact that he was referred to a lipid consultant because he was intolerant to statins should have told the GP why he isn't taking them.

But NO due to QOFS or NICE guidelines or flawed Systmone IT system or whatever reason statins was back on the agenda his time was wasted and I lost a days holiday.

The consultation lasted a minute as he just said I am not taking them and it should be on my notes and walked out.

If my GP surgery doesn't want me or mine to waste their time then I would suggest they afford me and mine the same courtesy and stop wasting ours.

Totally pissed off about it

Oh and because I had to take a days holiday at short notice I worked until 10pm last night to get a lot of work done.

Our GP used to have open surgery - you basically just turned up and waited your turn. Then they changed it to appointments only - which could take up to three weeks to get one.

Then they added a phone service where you could call at allocated times of the day to be registered for a call back with a doctor - but they only took so many calls a day and it was almost impossible to get through.

Now they have open surgery again 2 days a week but you have to call at 8am to book a slot.

It's pathetic to be honest. If i am ill and need attention or my kid is sick and I can't get an appointment than I go to the local Aand E and wait there and explain to them that I wasn't able to get a dr appointment for 2-3 weeks. I know I shouldn't, but honestly, if you need a doctor you need a doctor.

Phineyj in NI we can get prescriptions for minor ailments straight from the pharmacist.

It has taken me 2 years to suss our system. We have a mixture of sit and wait every day, phone at 8 or 2, book 2 weeks ahead.

Our surgery has an online booking which is mainly 2 week ahead appointments which are released at 10pm or 8 am it's a fun game to log in just at the right time! However cancellations do pop up sometimes during the day.

I disagree with the theory that if you need an appointment ypu are too ill to work. I need to be referred by gp to midwife at our practice - not a reason to waste a day wiring for a call/appointment. In my first pregnancy I had a weird pain in my breast was uncomfortable but not excrutiating and my students had an exam coming up so I needed to support them at a prearranged holiday revision day asked doctor not yo call me back before 3 got called mid lesson.

I have written to Practice Manager - response I got was they didn't care anyone else had a job effectively.

Have written to mp as there is a 2000 home development in my town planned with no plan for health provision to be improved and it us struggling already and got a very dismissive response as well.

Luckily I am now part time so manage to fit appointments in on my days off but feel really sorry for full time works who commute.

I am also not able to self medicate due to pregnancy - all pharmacists turn me away even for things like thrush!

We can book online for non-urgent things, and you can choose a named doctor or any female doctor or any male doctor. It's rare to get an appointment earlier than about 3 weeks ahead, if not more, and I don't think they show appointments more than two months ahead or so. If the GP wants to see you again in 2 weeks, that can be booked by him or her while you're there.

You have to ring to book the nurse or phlebotomist, who are not the same person, unlike in my previous surgery. I found this out when I turned up expecting the nurse to do BP, urine and bloods, but she couldn't do the blood tests. They were talking about putting this bit online, too, but I don't know if that's been done.

They used to have online booking for urgent, on the day cases which were just for the duty doctor, but I think now you can only phone. Last time I went, I had spoken to NHS Direct or whatever it's called currently, and they had already told the surgery I needed to be seen that day. Can't remember whether I phoned the normal number or a special one, but I didn't have to wait long, and I remember thinking, this is bloody brilliant service, compared with all I've read on threads like this one. I don't know if it's that efficient if you call without having had NHS Direct magically smooth the way.

Also, we have appointments from something like 07:15 to 19:00.

But - it's a large town centre practice with something like 15 GPs - that how they can offer that level of flexibility. (That's not why I chose it - it's about 8 minutes walk away.) My previous practice, in a small village, they had 3, and however you juggle rotas and so on, they just couldn't offer such early or late appointments or anything.) - it's a totally different logistical challenge.

My surgery has done this for years, and I am another one who prefers it. Yes it may take me 10 minutes to get through, but its very rare I can't then get an appointment at a suitable time that day. I understand though that ringing at 8 doesn't suit everyone.

Might be wrong but I think one of the reasons my surgery introduced it was that too many people who booked appointments in advance then failed to turn up (didn't still need it, couldn't then make it, or simply forgot) though didn't cancel.