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?

Regarding dna (did not attend) appointments. I have booked people in to see a Doctor in the morning and they don't bother turning up a couple of hours later. The one I had this morning, booked an appointment at around 8.45, time given to come in 10.20, telephoned at 10.29 to cancel! We do our best to give people appointments but it's not our fault that people don't turn up.

The surgery I work in has phone in the morning for same day appointments. If no bookable appointments left and not urgent, we can book in a couple of next day early appointments. We have bookable in advance. For really need to see Doctor when no appointments left we either give them an afternoon time. If it's so urgent they can't come at a time you give them, there is a wait your turn session and it will be a bit of a wait. We always have the entitled and can't be arsed to ring in the morning sick people who just turn up when they fancy whether it's urgent or not.

Our doctors system recently changed. It's always been you phone at 8am for an appointment that day. And you could prevent book appointments.
Now though you can only pre book appointment for anytime but only in the next 30 days (unless it's been asked for by a doctor to re see you again and it's longer than 3odays then you can book)
On the day though you phone up and they normally get you to see the nurse (their some exceptions eg the nurse can't see pregnant women) any way if the nurse can't treat it or it needs a doctor the nurse will get an available doctor to see u then n there. Free up the doctors time but if you phone up in morning and know it's something a nurse can't deal with you will autonicakky get a doctor. Only problem with seeing the nurse first us she can't write prescription so then she needs to send it to a doctor but they only sign prescriptions in the afternoon so you can't pick it up till late afternoon so sometimes you can't get the medication you need till the next day depending on if you can pick it up or not.
However my doctors are very good with my lo she is 4 with seve autism and she gets a doctors appointment right away even for something silly (because my lo doesn't like the colour if nurses outfit) and if they don't have available appointment and I have to take her to sit and wait. They either take her as soon as we arrive or allow her to play in am empty doctors room.
But saying that they are good with all kids and they will always make appointments for kids/elderly.
I like the systen my doctor like except the fact the nurse can't prescribe things. She apparently waiting to go on a course but because if the funding God knows when that will be

This sounds like a system called Doctor First - you do get to speak to a doctor the same day, & then the doctor decides whether you need to be seen face-to-face - if you do it is nearly always the same day.

I wonder if we have the same doctor surgery OP mine just started doing this and I found out at the worst possible time.

My GP service is a nightmare, they have changed to a sit and wait service, so you phone up at 8 am then you turn up at 11 and sit for up to 2 hrs and wait to be seen. It is supposed to be for urgent care, however when I have phoned up to get a routine appointment for my DD ( eczema flare so only need the nurse )I can't get one for three weeks, I say ok and go to try and book it only to be told by the receptionist that she needs to be seen sooner than this as it's causing her discomfort and I should bring her down today, I say it's not an emergency and I don't want my DD sitting in a very full room of germs waiting for 2 hrs. I tell her if it gets worse I will book out of hrs or go to the walk in centre and - I get an appointment the next week - very odd and annoying!. They may get fined if patients use walk in centres instead of GPS. When I did need to get my DD seen Rash and high temp we were told we would need to be in isolation and sent in to a room with no chairs r furniture for 1-30 hrs, whilst I was happy to wait a chair would have been nice.

I do really feel for GPs and the receptionists that have to deal with everyone who wants to see the GP on the same day and a lot of people who misuse the service. However it doesn't work for my family and I will looking to change surgeries to one where I can pre book appointments and get a time to be seen.

I agree this is happening because the system is understaffed and underfunded while the demand is increasing exponentially and the respect which previously meant people used the health service appropriately (turning up for appointments and not using it for trivial stuff) has gone.

Our surgery has bookable appointments but they often are about 3-4 weeks ahead which people complain about, we then have a triage system where people get called back, dealt with by phone or given an urgent or 48hr appointment. It seems to work but people still complain

I tried to book an appointment as a non emergency and I got one for 6 weeks away!

I then phoned for the morning ones and they'd all gone by 8.10 (was on hold for ten minutes). Was then told I'm on the triage list but I'm not allowed to have my phone on in work. Calls start at 11 and they can't give a time, so I've given up trying

bluecarpet he thought it was to do with something else that's why he went he thought it was important not just a routine bully session for statins.

Ours has this system too, though I believe you can still book for routine things, though I never have. They also have a marvellous "walk-in service" which they try to encourage everyone to use instead of booking. This involves turning up at some point between 8 am and 11 am and waiting for a couple of hours to see a doctor. I once tried to use this to squeeze in an appointment before school run. We arrived at 7.45 and there was already a queue of 6 people ahead of us. Needless to say we did not get in and out before school. You have to lie to the receptionist to get an appointment and always say it's an ongoing condition, because if it's " a new issue" they tell you to come to the walk-in. Er, no thanks, I don't particularly want to waste my entire day there.

On the subject of unnecessary appointments, DC carries an epipen.
Epipens have a life time of about a year.
GP requires this prescription to be reviewed every 6 months.
The first renewal I actually had to take DC out of school to get to the review appointment.
Now at least they will do it by phone.

The truth is simple - want to know why you can't get to see your GP?

Over 1 in 10 GP posts are vacant. GP finances are in a mess - chaotic fiūnding streams, payments late or not being paid at all. Costs going up. More and more workload. There's a whole generation of GP's reaching 55 & wondering what is the point when they can retire without the constant worry about complaints, meeting pt demand or being asked to do more for less. Increasing paperwork ... And then there's the pts... ppl who demand a visit because its raining (true), are disgruntled when they don't get antibiotics for a cold ... I could go on and yes guess what I work in Primary Care and am married to a GP.

One name: Jeremy hunt

You will find most GP surgeries have too much demand and too little supply. We have tried several systems - none of which solve the problem.

This is down to:

• Patients not cancelling appointments
• Patients wanting to be seen for a letter to excuse them from exams/so the council may rehome them/because the Daily Fail has told them that this week the medication they are taking would be better replaced by eating 10 tomatoes a day
• More work from secondary care (hospitals/community) being passed on to GPs
• A shortage of both doctor and nursing staff

GP surgeries currently handle 90% of patient interactions within the NHS and yet receive just under 8% of the budget.

The government is making role of GP so unattractive that we have gone from medical schools being oversubscribed to having a shortfall of 300+ medical students this year.

You cannot recruit GPs for love nor money. Nursing staff are the same.

GPs are humans. Just like you and me. They are, really. They can only work a set number of hours per day before they are falling on their feet. My GPs (I work in a GP surgery) are part time. Most weeks they are in on days off to keep on top of paperwork. Most days they are in working a 'normal' day they will be in at 8am and leave at 8pm. Short of someone inventing a cloning machine they only have a finite amount of time they can provide appointments.

If you think it is bad now, give it another couple of years and see how we're really struggling with little improvement in funding and no recruitable clinicians.

I'd say complain to your MP (because GP surgeries know they are struggling) but that will probably achieve very little as it will get redirected to the most appropriate MP who, so far, has done more to destroy the NHS than anyone has ever done before.

We have a 50/50 system. 50% of the week is walk in surgery, 50% of the week is appts. It works reasonably well. The only problem is that we have two surgeries and the balance for distance within the catchment is crap. We are on a peninsular and both surgeries are on one side, one is on the far side :(

my last doctors surgery you could only book in advance with the nurse and getting an appointment with the doctor was near on impossible, I managed to see a doctor once in the two years I was there. In addition the number of times the receptionists would somehow manage to write down the wrong time on the appointment slip was embarrassing. Thought I was a genius and signed up for online booking to discover that online you book a time frame to maybe have a call back from a doctor.... My new doctors surgery is actually fabulous, a good mixture of on the day 'my hypochondriac exnurse mother in law thinks my baby is exploding' appointments and nice far in advance 'the doctor wants to see if this works after a month' appointments.

Obviously again geared up to be convenient for the those who don't work our surgery has added a late night for people who are working

For years our surgeries have been call on the day for an apointment but you can also prebook appointments. Most people choose to call on the day I think. It's a pain getting through on the phone lines but we find it mostly works out ok!

The receptionist said you ring them and then they arrange a telephone consultation and then they decide if you need to be seen?!
How can you manage that if you're at work?!

It depends on the time of appointments - my GP is open to 6.30pm and has one late evening until about 8pm.

You can book appointments on line as well though.

If you have a sick child or an acute medical problem you don't want to wait but if you are at work then you will be asking for a later appointment.

My GP also priorities late appointments for people who are working. It is in a large council estate and many people are not working due to many factors, single parents, long term health issues etc.

The prob with a phone call is, even if I am at my desk (not a given), I don't want to discuss my symptoms in front of 25 colleagues!

You will find most GP surgeries have too much demand and too little supply. We have tried several systems - none of which solve the problem.

For what it's worth, there is a well known system that is guaranteed to solve the problem, provided you give it a bit of time to bed in. Charge a flat fee for every appointment, then gradually raise the price until GP's have enough time left over for the occasional tea break. (Time to bed in might be a few years if the number of GP's needs to rise, but judging from comments above there's plenty of quick progress to be gained from deterring the time-wasters.)

Obviously I realise this is a completely heretical suggestion that will never be implemented in the UK. Several people will be along shortly to explain why it is completely out of the question to have a system that works in reality, as opposed to one that makes you feel cosy when you think what it would be like, if it was working.

Our surgery requires a call at 8am to get an appointment between 9-12.30, or a call at 2.30pm to get an appointment between 2.35pm and closing time (which varies between 6-8.30pm). It's frustrating that they're closed every day 12:30-2.30 but they open later in the evenings. They use the time when they're closed over lunch to do telephone surgeries and as they're a dispensing doctors, to get prescriptions ready. There are 4 surgeries in the practice, they alternate late nights so if you can't get into the surgery you are registered at, they will see you at another location. Pre-bookable appointments are very few and far between but I've never had a problem getting a same day appointment or telephone call from the doctor.

They are very good indeed with small children, I got home from work one day to find DS really wheezing. DH thought he was fine . Rang doctors in a panic, 5 mins before they closed, receptionist was a bit scary but she did go and speak to dr. He agreed to stay behind to see us, even though he'd finished appointments for the day. He took one look at DS and sent us straight to hospital. They are a proper village surgery though, much better than what we had when we lived in a town centre!

For what it's worth, there is a well known system that is guaranteed to solve the problem, provided you give it a bit of time to bed in. Charge a flat fee for every appointment, then gradually raise the price until GP's have enough time left over for the occasional tea break.

Theoretician the word from Government is that at some point something is going to have to give and there will be some elements of healthcare that will no longer be free at the point of need.

This is probably just around the corner. However, this is not what a lot of those in Primary Care want. As far as we are concerned this is another step closer to privatisation and a USA style healthcare system.

What we really need is a government funded initiative to teach patients to take responsibility for their own health and actions (rather than demanding a home visit from a GP to have their TV fixed/booking an appointment at 8am for 2 hours later and not show or cancel).

It seems to me that if a GP appointment is inaccessible for all bit the retired or the unemployed then the NHS provision of primary health care is no longer universal and needs urgent reform

I've been unwell this year but have been able to access high quality treatment albeit not without being assertive and spending a lot of time sorting out admin cock ups. I am pleased to have receives the care bit it has been nor more or less than the system should provide and I am not grateful for it.

My teenage dd has also been ill with both mental and physical issues. Healthcare was not forthcoming. It's a good job I had the £4-£5k to secure the care she needed. Physical would have been provided once identified but the NHS failed to ide tidy and refused the range of blood tests required.

The system is broken within and without. I have never wasted a doctor's time. I don't expect mine to be wasted either.

My surgery started this - then abandoned it due to massive queues and they mistakenly said if you turned up you would always be seen - cue doctors not being able to stop until 10pm. We also had people complaining they couldn't get through on the phone so now they do a mix of on the day, pre booked and online.

What they have started doing, which really really works is doing repeat prescriptions or medicine reviews on Saturday mornings thus freeing up the weekday appointments - if you work this is great. Surgery is really quiet too.

YANBU.