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?

oldsu sorry to hear you had a bad experience

did your husband consider asking whether he could have a phone consultation instead of coming in, and whether it was urgent or could wait until a day that he wasn't in the shop? Did they really insist on seeing you that day - sounds odd.

Because demand is too high, expectations are too high, and there is not a system that will work for everyone. If everything was pre book able there would be nothing for people that were ill that day. Not everyone can ring on the day, so there is a mixture, but there is also a limit. Offering phone consults helps, but again, a gp can have a full day of consults, home visits, results to check, questions to reply to, referrals to do, other agencies to Lisa's with, and then 30 phone calls to make. No wonder they are leaving in droves.

People are not able to manage anything themselves, we've had children booked in and seen at 9am who woke up with a sore throat an hour earlier. People who want an urgent slot because their sick note has run out, people who are not our patients but urgently need to be seen because they are staying with a friend and should have seen their own gp before they left, but didn't. It's the usual 80/20 rule a lot of the time which also causes problems.

hear hear cherrypepsimax

I agree cherrypepsimax with people using urgent appointments for the wrong reason. However earlier this year I was discharged from hospital post appendicitis at 15 weeks pregnant with no sick note. I was not fit to return to work (driving needed) without seeing a doctor and only opion was an urgent appointment as the next one available wasn't till 2 weeks later. That wouldn't cover me in terms of paperwork for work.

I try to rarely use my GP and do self medicate as much as I can but find being pregnant frustrating as pharmacists will not advise anything. So I end up ignoring symptoms or waiting 11 weeks and getting full blown sinusitis! Or send hubby to pharmacy and pretend it's for him!

Ours does this too. Call at 8.45, sit in the queue for 30 minutes, tell the receptionist what the problem is, wait 3 hours for a gp or NP to call back to determine if you need an appointment. Thankfully they've set up online appointments now which can be booked a week in advance. I can also check my medical history online which has been an interesting read!

Ou surgery does this. But it does work because if there are no appointments left they get a doctor to call you within the hour and then they help you. Usually by giving you an appointment. They have one doctor working all day who just sees people who couldn't manage to get an appointment but do need to see someone. They are always really good with children and see them ASAP.

Missed appointments have dropped by about 96% so it's helped there.

Oh and they have evening and early morning surgeries where they prioritise working people and school kids.

Noodle- the hospital would have sent a letter to your GP outlining your condition. The receptionist could have asked GP for sick note and gp would either read the letter and make a judgement call to do sick not or ask receptionist to book you in If they felt you needed to be seen.
No need for an appointment.

Contraception can be done by a nurse or family planning centre- no need for gp appointment.

Admin stuff is done by secretaries- no need for a gp appointment.

The dc with a skin infection not seen by chemist- infections are usually treated with antibiotics, something GPs are being discouraged from using, needs to be seen by either a prescribing nurse (ideal) or gp.

Our surgery doesn't do the call back thing.

It's a bit of a nightmare getting an appointment because of work and nine times out of ten you're told to just try again tomorrow. I can't be missing work or late in to work several days on the trot as I'm sure most people can't.

I'm feeling a bit sore about it because last time my husband failed to get a GP appointment four days on the trot he ended up in A&E - chest infection got really out of hand and was putting pressure on other organs.

The consultant said if he'd started on ABs sooner it was less likely that he would have been admitted and that the complications arising from the infection could have been avoided.

Having said that, prebookable would probably have been too late to see anyone. The only thing that might've helped was a drop-in system.

It's tricky and I don't know what the answer is.

I did ask the receptionist if I needed an appointment am normally quite happy to disclose the reasons to make sure I see the best person. Was told I had to see the doctor.

Our online system is good but I am currently unable to use it as I have two appointments booked one for midwife who can book your next one at previous appointment and one for whopping cough vaccination with nurse!

The problem with my doctors same day appointment system is that you are given the next available appointment even if you cannot get there in that time- appointment is for disabled child who becomes violent when in pain and you have had to shut them in another room to stop them attacking you. Yet you are supposed to get them there in 10 minutes. It is now on his notes that they have to allow more time but you have to battle receptionists who don't want to look at his notes because the rules are.... I dread ringing up.

Littledrumnergirl many practices don't have the staff you refer to . Ours doesn't have a prescribing nurse , in fact because I live in an area with high levels of elderly people the wait for a nurses appointment is as long if not longer than a GP . I was asked by the GP to make an appointment to see the nurse for something and the wait was around 6 weeks .Our receptionists are very nice but they won't chase up sick notes or letters , last time I rang to ask if I needed to see the Doctor or not, happy to see nurse or have a telephone , her response was that she couldn't tell me I had to decide myself and call back when I had decided . I was trying to avoid wasting Drs time .Local pharmacist has only one piece of advice : see your GP . It is a bit of a joke around here everyone knows they will never give advice on anything .

Background reading

They should do open surgery like my old Drs did. You turned up from 7 am and as long as you were there before 10am then you got seen.

Afternoons had pre book able appointments. I really can't understand why all Drs don't do this.

The have to phone up at 8am only benefits the surgery and not the patients imo.

noodledoodledoo provision of a sick note is included in the tariff that the hospital is paid for seeing you. if you were discharged without one please complain to them.

They should do open surgery like my old Drs did. You turned up from 7 am and as long as you were there before 10am then you got seen.

we used to do this. it isn't fair on the elderly/infirm and we had a queue down the road from 6am. It's not a way to run a service.

The queue down the street model benefits the 'sore throat for an hour' patients. Not those with exacerbations of asthma who are having breathing problems, painful conditions, mental illness (you'd have to be pretty determined, robust and motivated to get up that early and stand for hours surrounded by people) or the elderly/infirm. It could also be pretty challenging for those with a few DCs and no childcare.

As a doctor I quite like open access surgeries though.

People complain about open access too. They can come down and wait to be seen at 12, by any gp, so not suitable for someone with multiple on going problems that needs to see their own gp. They'll typically be seen within an hour, that still isnt good enough. It is the NHS, I think being seem within an hour is bloody brilliant. The reality is doctors nurses and support staff have lives and families too. There are only so many appointments available after school and after work, if you want an nhs apt, then you have to be prepared to be flexible , and not expect to fit it in around your work, Pilates class, or after school club. That's not what the nhs is for. Two people who prebooked did not turn up today. Some reasons today why people took up apts : pregnant woman wanted a nasal spray and refused to buy one over the counter at the pharmacy, man who had a scab on his knee, someone did not order Rpt prescription in time, you get the picture, so it's not just the fact there are not enough apts to pre book it's often that people can not manage themselves and their own basic care.

My GP did this. It lasted about 3 months because the system just didn't work. They are still crap though

YA definitely NBU. It's a massive pain in the arse for working people - at the very least, there should be the choice of pre-bookable and "on the day" appointments. Telephone consultations are also no good for anyone with a job that means they can't pick up the phone at the drop of a hat in a 3 hour window. I have actually been removed from a list when I failed to get to the phone on time and then had to start the whole rigmarole again the next day. I needed AB's for cystitis - not serious enough to be off sick, but equally not likely (ime) to clear up without a prescription.

My GP surgery is actually pretty good and allows bookable appointments. I would protest loudly if they didn't tbh - although they are pretty crap at other things. (Lots of the stuff they prioritise as "essential" are actually just box-ticking for money, which sticks in my craw a bit. The GP insisted on seeing me to confirm pregnancy - like I hadn't already done that with 50,000 POAS tests - and then told me not to smoke and to take folic acid. Which, as a highly educated professional, I already fucking knew and had been doing for the 3 weeks I waited for an appointment.

OTOH I used the drop in centre at the local hospital recently and was triaged promptly and given an appointment about 3 hours later which is very good indeed.

Personally I would rather pay for GP appointments so we could improve funding and (hopefully) get a better service that actually addressed some of the frustrations patients experience when trying to access GP services. Everyone could afford to pay something - obviously it would need to be a sliding scale - and I increasingly believe that most people just don't value "free" things and have no concept of, or indeed interest in, the actual cost of delivering them.

bluecarpet Doctor at hospital told me I would only need 3 days off work (part time so apparently easier for me recover and go back to work), I was not fit to return that quickly. Was also told to take it easy as I was at a higher risk of miscarriage due to the surgery, given I don't have a job I can take it easy in I did not want to take that risk. It was part of my PALS submission - generally positive but a few areas for improvement.

cherrypepsimax the flexibility can work both ways - I also work in the public sector and try to not let my life impact on my work so I try to make sure I get an appointment to minimise the impact on my students and colleagues, I can't catch up with my work when I have had time off as the lessons have gone. I don't expect early or late appointments as I have said I try to do it during my holidays or on my days off, but sometimes a little consideration that others also have jobs/families etc does help. Being able to get an appointment at 5pm when the surgery has appointments till 6pm is not a huge ask but is an impossibility.

As for getting the nasal spray when pregnant - was she visibly pregnant? I have tried to buy OTC medication and been refused as I am visibly pregnant - as I said before I don't need to go to the doctors to get Thrush cream, nasal spray etc but I have now resorted to sending DH - nearly all OTC medicines say not to use in pregnancy to see a GP first so its catch 22.

I hugely support the NHS, I am not one to bash them, I have worked out how to use my surgery's system to get appointments with the least stress and honestly try to have the least visits possible. Sadly two pregnancies and an appendicitis in last 18 months I have been more regular than I like.

I think it's very common now. Our GP does it but you can book appointments a couple of weeks in advance.

I don't mind phoning on the day. The GP phones back and talks through the issue. Often I've been given advice and it's saved me going in. At other times they've decided I need to come in and given me an appointment the same day.

If you're ill, you're at home anyway, you don't go to work. It's the same principle if the DC are ill. It can take ages to get through though. Sometimes I just go there at 8am as it's only 5 mins away.

I do agree that rather than moaning about this we all need to be contacting our MPs. What is needed is (1) proper funding for GPs and (2) removal of the system that rewards them for offering same day appointments which is what leads to stupid practices like this.

Doctor at hospital told me I would only need 3 days off work

pregnant and after having your appendix out? glad you complained

Agreed but surgeries do need to help themselves

I have to make an apt to see dr, so he can give me a blood test form and when the results are through i need to make a further apt to discuss it. I would love to do that over the phone

Dd had a blood test, they rang and said we needed an apt to discuss the results (now i am worried) first apt a week later, waited for 45 mins to be told by the dr that there was no problem

I appreciate that our surgery is overstretched, but out of three appointments we only needed one

When i had a problem with my shoulder i went private straightaway, i knew it would take months otherwise

I do like my dr and the surgery, its not their fault its so busy

Oldfarticus,how do you think we pay our staff and our bills if we don't tick our boxes?
As frustrating as it is for everyone. If we don't we get no money, no money no staff. No GPs