To not wonder why gp surgery’s get so much aggro...

[sophisticatedsarcasm]

Just got back from drs . I literally walked in, checked in, sat down, took my phone out and the nurse called me. I mention how quick that was as I was early and they are usually late, she said it’s a really weird day as it’s so quiet today. Yesterday when I’d called up, firstly it took 20 minutes to get through, then she told me the only appointment was at 2.30, yet I get there today, the place is practically empty and the nurse says they are really quiet 🤐
I’m not really surprised that people get really pissed off and no wonder more people use the hospitals. I’m not saying people are right to get aggressive and rude it’s just I’m not entirely surprised.

I'm a practice nurse
I agree with previous posters; some appointments are longer than the standard 10mins but the patient doesn't turn up. Or turns out they booked a long appointment for themselves as that's what they usually need but when they get into the room they have improved or healed or whatever and don't need as long.
The amount of wasted appointments every day is staggering despite text reminders the previous day.
Some ppl ring that morning for an urgent appointment but then fail to turn up for it!

I do think there needs to be a charge for missed appointments, you’d find A LOT less people missing them then.

YABU though, you’re complaining because you got good service . Can the NHS win?

My doctors does a triage service. You have to call up on the day for appointments, 8.30am for morning, 2pm for afternoon/evening appointments. It works as you have an appointment for that day, and they text you the appointment. If you forget that, well...
My doctors surgery has 12 doctors and about 14000 patients 😱

@glowglumworm

I’m not moaning I was seen early, I was just stating that when I’d Called the day before she told me the only appointment was the one I was given, fine... then I get thier and the nurse tells me it was quiet and to top that off I was the only patient yet the receptionist claimed to be full. I have no issues with the doctors, no issues with the nhs.... just the policies and procedures of my doctors surgery. Especially when it takes you 20minutes to get through on the phone in the first place. I’m not saying it’s right to go to the hospital instead I’m just saying I understand why some people feel they need too. I don’t go to the doctors unless for a blood test or I’m really really ill. The last time I went for something not related to my health condition was when I had tonsillitis 4 years ago and even then she first told me there were no appointments until I mentioned I had a 41 fever and all of a sudden they had an appointment. but when you go there its literally empty, so where are all these people that have supposedly taken the appointments. It just makes you feel like your not worthy enough for an appointment unless you say a few keywords.

It's not about being worthy, it's about them having to prioritise patients. Surely that's clear?

Do you think it's more likely that they lied to you about that being the only appointment at the time or is it more likely there's only 1 gp in / a few people have cancelled

Wow people are so defensive of the nhs. Read the fucking OP you morons - she didn't moan because she was seen early. She was commenting on the fact that the place was empty and she had to wait til 2.30 as they told her they were busy. Perpetual offendedness re the NHS is exactly why no politician will properly reform it. Morons.

Practice Nurse here too, OP you sound like exactly like a heart sink patient I.e. those patients you see booked in with you and immediately get a sinking feeling in your chest because you’re known by the entire surgery to be a nightmare. Hope you not a patient where I work; complaining about being seen on time ffs get a grip!

You ask why it is quiet on some days but not on others? Because patients don’t turn up to appointments! Some days amongst GPs and nurses up to 3 hours of wasted clinic time can occur. We have some patients how have up to a 75% DNA rate I.e. for every 12 appointments they book they only manage to show up to 4 of them (yes this is permanently marked on your medical record). I saw a patient the other day for their asthma review - they had DNAd the previous 6 appointments over a 3 month period for this - when asked why by reception they shouted at them and have now put in a written complaint!

It’s not GP staff making appointments difficult to get it’s the patients themselves.

I’m more than happy for a receptionist to direct me to the right person when I phone up to make an appointment, cigars.

It’s the waiting for a call back from a doctor that’s an issue unless it’s something that’s making me ill enough to be off work.

The policies and procedures of your surgery will be the same or similar to most others.
They are all following the same rules and protocols. Look at the gp forward view

We were fully booked today, it's unusual we aren't. We had a good handful of patients not turn up to their appointments wasting time and other patients who turned up 25 mins after their appointment time not understanding that they had missed their appointments and the drs had taken other patients in. They were told if they waitied 20 mins for dr to catch up they would be seen, they all walked off and refused.

All of our appointments are same day ones. If a patient calls after these have all gone they are told we are fully booked sorry try again tomorrow or try a walk in centre

Unless a) child is under 1 - we always accommodate squeezing them in for obvious reasons
B) the patient states they need a medical emergency appointment that can't wait until the next day - in which case they will be given an appt that day but if it's not a medical emergency and they are seen to be abusing this the gps take action.

We do our best with very very limited resources and the demand is incredible. People call up every few minutes complaining they have forgot they run out of their medication 4 days ago and shout at us that it's our fault if we can't order them a prescription immediately.

Without rules in place the service just would not run. Everybody seems to think they are some kind of exception or special and the rules can be bent. We try our best but there is also the option to go to a private gp if you are unhappy with the service.

backstreet do you not even have pre-bookable appointments for patients with chronic health issues who might need routine appointments or don’t necessarily need a same day appointment?

@sunflower8409
Like I said I hardly go there and all my results are given over the phone for which I use the online service to book. I doubt the drs even know me. I’m not a nightmare by any sorts, I book my appointment go, I don’t really talk unless they talk to me. The doctors and nurses I don’t have an issue with they are all nice, my dr in paticular...she’s very laid back and I do indulge in a joke or two whilst we are discussing results over the phone. If anything one of the receptionists our of the 6 I’m aware of is really rude and there have been several complaints about her whilst I have been in the surgery. She is patrionising and condescending.
I’m not complaining about being seen early.... I wish people would read properly rather than between the lines 😬

YABVU to complain about suddenly appointments being made available if you have this or that or are a child or elderly person. Of course GP surgeries have to prioritise appointments to the most needy. And they have to mop up people given shoddy care by overstretched hospitals (chucked out of maternity post natal ward at 2am 2 days after EMCS with no pain relief whatsoever and barely any bladder control after botched catheter and in agony to the point of hallucination, GP sorted me right out).

Maybe a whole bunch of patients were called in to see other doctors / nurses just before OP walked in, and the patients for the next appointments hadn’t turned up before OP was called

Or maybe it was a day / afternoon with relatively few doctors on duty combined with a lot of patients who didn’t bother turning up..... there’s always a big poster whenever I go to the GP saying “xxx number of patients missed appointments last month”.

And as for the appointment being the only one - how does your appointment system work?
My GP surgery has a mix of on-the-day and book-in-advance appointments.
The book in advance appointments are great if you have a non-urgent problem, or a chronic condition that needs routine appointments. But if there’s only 1 book in advance appointment left for the next day, then the receptionist might very well say that the only appointment they can offer you for tomorrow is the 2:30 one. But they’d still have all the on-the-day appointments left free until the surgery opened at 8am the next day, and if they weren’t all taken then it might well be emptier than normal when the 2:30 patient turns up.....

FFS. I’m a GP seriously teetering on the edge of quiting due to shit like this. You got an appointment for the following day and are seen early - count yourself bloody lucky instead of whining.

I can guarantee you that none of us are sitting around drinking coffee with our feet up. I can see 50 patients in a day plus numerous phone calls, home visits, admin etc. I get paid for 8.5 hours but routinely do 12.

Appointments are often triaged by receptionists the best they can. Your appointment might have been the last routine one available. There were likely to have been emergency slots released on the day which might not have been used. Patients don’t turn up. We try to predict demand but it is unpredictable.

You get my first ever

OP the reason appointments 'suddenly appear' is because they block off certain ones for emergency appointments, so that when people like yourself with an infection and a temperature of 41 call up they can actually see you rather than giving you the option of waiting a month until the next routine appointment is available or going to A&E when you deteriorate. Hopefully you'll agree that's a very sensible protocol, rather than complaining that emergency appointments have been made available to you when you've needed them...

In addition to that, lots of surgeries will squeeze little kids in even when there aren't appointments available. Personally I think you should be grateful, my surgery doesn't do this and had me calling back every 10 minutes for two days when my 5 month old came out in a rash all over her body, before eventually deciding no appointments were going to become available and I should just wait until 6pm and call out of hours, which is excellent abuse of the out of hours service of course.

My GP surgery was always very good at squeezing my DC in when they were babies, especially if I briefly explained the worrying symptoms.

I believe they’ve got a policy of prioritising babies because they can go downhill a lot faster than adults and older children if there’s something serious going on.

The irritating info TV on the wall of my Dr's gives the number of failed appointments each month. Last month was 194, but I do remember it being int the 300's at one time.

It doesn't say if this is GP or Nurse time, but still.

Spam my Gp practice, that I think are bloody fabulous, will squeeze anyone in without an appointment if they really need it. I suddenly became quite unwell one lunchtime and although they had no actual appointments left, they squeezed me in because I've got a chronic disease. Like I said, my practice are fantastic.

I think YABU and moaning about nothing really.

I think my GP surgery are pretty fabulous too. I live in a city so not a sleep little village with hardly any population.

If I want to see a particular Gp then I have to wait about 2 weeks. They run a triage system where you tell the receptionist the issue. I've always been polite and got nothing but helpfulness in return.

My teen dd recently had an illness that caused her hallucinations, vertigo, headaches and nausea. They saw her that day, twice in a week.

Sometimes I've been in and it's empty and I've said something to Reception like "gosh it's quiet!" But in a "how fab!" Kind of a way. I wouldn't dream of thinking up a moan about it.

My practice de-registers you if you miss 2/3 appointments in a set time period (maybe six months).

I missed an appointment a few weeks ago - as I was having a seizure outside on the street; the receptionist was wrangling the toddler and baby to safety at the time. Everyone was lovely, apart from the person that came in 15 minutes late to their appointment and couldn't quite understand why they would not be seen because the staff were dealing with a medical emergency on top of their lateness.

I did still get the letter about missing the appointment but it's because they are automatically sent. I'd rather my practice did something then didn't do something...