‘Call at 8am for a GP appointment’

[purplepufferfish]

I work for the NHS and personally understand the stress that the service is under. I get it. But does this frustrate anyone else?

Call for a GP appointment. Get told that the nearest one is two weeks away and to call back the next day at 8am for a same day appointment.

Call back at 8am the next day, as is everyone else of course.

Finally get through at 10am to be told that the next appointment is two weeks away and to call back at 8am for a same day appointment!

Again I know that this is no one’s fault and I genuinely blame no one for this.

Am I being unreasonable for being frustrated?

I am so, so sorry to hear that AuthenticChicken

My GP surgery is call at 8.30am or 2pm and you get triaged. If you want to see a nurse you can book online.

The problem is a huge shortage of GPs. In most areas on any day there will be more people wanting some sort of GP appointment than there are GP appointments available

I hear this a lot and it’s not a brag but my surgery has the same system of calling up at 8.30am. I will always get a same day appointment for a telephone consultation and if it warrants a surgery visit it’s done the same day as well. I’m not sure how they do it but they do.

Our GP's have the same sysyem. Call at 8.
You have to call at 7.59 and keep redialing till you get through. One time I called constantly until 8.15 and by then all appointments were gone. But usually you get a spot. They will not book appointments a week or two weeks out. which would work better for me for non urgent.

We have this. But we get told 'you need to call earlier'. Thing is, you've been calling since the phone lines opened and get through at an hour or so later. They know that.

DH called up yesterday as had a text to call about the vaccine. 8 in the queue. Got to his turn. Listens to the several minutes message and then is cuts off.

It's almost like you need a call centre for doctors appointments, so staff can screen you and book an appointment to a gap near by if you are happy to do so.

I meant to add that I know 08.00hrs is a really bad time for people to ring but I have found in the past is that I have phoned a little later ( 09.15 say) and they havechad cancellations. People have had a chance to cancel their appointment but the receptionist wouldn't have known that at 08.00hes as they hadn't cancelled then.

Our GP surgery is by and large fantastic when you can get into see them, but their appointment system is like something from Brazil (the film, not the country!) You can only ring between 8am and 9.30am for same day appointments. If you ring for anything else at this time you will not be served. If you ring at 8.01 you will already be 20th in the queue and so no appointments. Non emergency appointments minimum of 3 weeks. You can only ring for test results between 9.30 and 10.30. If you ring at 10.45, even though they have the test results they will not give them to you. They shut for lunch between 12 and 2, no one will answer the phone at this time. Repeat prescriptions by online form or letter only.

They are however incredibly organised with routine care such as smear tests, baby vaccinations and covid vaccinations. They are quite far into group 6 and have been generous who they assign to group 6. They are also great at using the lovely nurse practitioners skills to free up GPs. The GPs themselves are very through and caring. So I will put up with the bureaucracy.

It's a horrible system. My friend recently had a kidney infection urgently needing antibiotics (self diagnosed on the I ternet) . Tried calling his GP surgery at 8am the next day, only to be told that by the time he got through, there were no telephone appointments left that day and to call back the next day.

He saw a private GP that day instead, £140 but diagnosed a quite severe kidney infection, prescribed antibiotics and told him to go to A&E if he developed a fever.

The NHS is far too focused on acting as gatekeepers to deter people from wasting limited resources, rather than increasing resources. GP service is the pits in the UK. When I lived abroad, I was able to access my Dutch GP at any time for usually a same or next day appointment. And they would have plenty of time to discuss the issue with me in that appointment.

Same problem at my GP. Appointments are released at the start of the day, so 8am. You need to call and get one before they’re all gone, which generally happens within half an hour. So everyone is trying to call at 8am. If you miss out you have to try again the next day. No waiting list to say you actually called the previous day, so theoretically a new person can call and beat you to your appointment every day. And if the receptionist doesn’t think your illness warrants a doctor she directs you to the pharmacy and won’t give you an appointment at all.

My GP surgery haven’t even been answering the phone at any time of day for the last two weeks.
They do offer online bookings but to register you have to take photo ID to the surgery. And you aren’t currently allowed.

Non-urgent appointment in a fortnight would be great. Everything in my surgery is same day.

I went in with toddler on the way home from hospital to drop in a letter and ask for followup appointment in a week.
The initial reaction was to tell me to phone for same day appointment.

The gp surgery i used to work for (receptionist) always had a duty doctor. When the slots had all gone we would book a telephone call and the gp would call the patient. We could only do this if the patient gave information about their issue though.
We had some gps with specialisms and would book with the most appropriate person where possible for things that could wait. We also had a fantastic team of nurses who may have been more appropriate and quicker.
It's worth having a quick chat with the receptionist about the best clinician.

We moved to a mainly online system pre-pandemic (phones still answered/reception manned to those who really can't use it) and personally I've found it incredibly helpful and stress-free way of speaking with a doctor that day. What I detest with a passion though, and am currently waiting upon, is the midwife query service. You have to call, leave a message, and the next day they call you back between 8-9am without having listened to your message at all. Last time it was a nightmare, as it fell over the time I was guaranteed to be commuting, and there is nothing like an angry midwife shouting at you to disclose intimate medical details when you have a carriage full of passengers crushed around you. Utterly pointless and half the time I'd miss the call anyway as I'd be on the driving 'leg'. Today we've reached 9am and no call whatsoever, so guessing I'll have to go through the whole message rigmarole again.

At my old GP surgery they changed their system to only allow same day appointments, aside from things like regular clinics, blood tests etc. If you needed a normal appointment you had to call at 8am for a same day appointment. Usually they were all gone by 8:05 and then you had to call again tomorrow. That meant that, for some people, they’d have to preemptively take time off work, hoping for an appointment, then when they didn’t manage to get one, do the same thing the next day and then the next... Fortunately they changed back to a mix of same day and future appointments when vast amounts of patients complained.

It's stupid. Happens at my surgery too. Cannot make online appointments for my young son - not allowed - only option to ring. I feel that GPs these days don't actually want to see any patients. I also hate having to divulge the reason I'm calling to the receptionist who inevitably gets things wrong / tells the GP the wrong thing. I don't see how this helps anyone tbh. And I do think it is impossible to diagnose some things over zoom

And if the receptionist doesn’t think your illness warrants a doctor she directs you to the pharmacy and won’t give you an appointment at all.

Receptionists prioritising appointments should not be allowed.

Our GP is call at 8am and pray you get through, if you do and the receptionist feels its not an emergency you are declined an appointment and told to ring after 10am.

If you are deemed an emergency you are told you'll receive a call at some point in the day to speak to a GP who will then decide if they need to see you. Even pre covid this was the case.

You need a whole day off just to go to a drs.

I rang at 8am the other day, deemed an emergency and didn't get a call from the dr till 4:45. Was in there half an hour and sent the hospital.

Do they offer an online booking service?

If not complain and ask how they meet the needs of people of working age.

@makingitupaswegoon I completely agree, this is another issue. Some problems cannot be diagnosed using a phone camera and a call. I have some quite serious health concerns but my GP still will not see me in person.

@Authenticchicken 100%. In this situation I would ask to speak to a nurse to be triaged if possible.

@Disfordarkchocolate no online booking sadly. That would be great.

Our surgery must operate some sort of triaging system behind the scenes because I once rang with a chest infection to be told no appointments try again tomorrow. Then about an hour later the receptionist rang back to say due to my asthma the doctor had said to come in that day. No idea how it works though.

Ive given up. I have diabetes and haven't had an invite to a jab. I'm struggling g with something but can't get an appointment or a chance to talk to the right person about why I haven't been called. But I see out of my window barely anyone goes in all day. Including staff. They're still off because covid.