‘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 felt as if I was being ungrateful for the service. I know we are so lucky to have free GP care but the wait times are worrying.

The longer I live away from the UK, the stranger I find it that people are expected to be grateful for a service that is being paid for from their taxes, or consider themselves lucky to have a 'free' (taxpayer-funded) service that treats them as if they have nothing better to do than waste time trying to access care. Most developed nations have medical care that does not leave the patient seriously out of pocket, and mostly they treat patients' schedules and needs with a good deal more respect. The NHS really needs to clean up its act.

@Ilovemaisie

Are you saying to the receptionist it's a routine appointment or a emergency appointment you need? At my GPs you have to do the ring at 8 thing but if you say you need to see a doctor asap they have a certain amount of slots they leave open for this. If it's a routine follow up appointment - just book in advance. This is how most GPs that I know of do it.

We used to have that too, but since covid it's only like the OP's. They also won't set a specific time to call you back, they just say that the doctor will call you that day.

@emmathedilemma

It's a crazy system. My old practice did this so if you weren't desperately ill but wanted to see a Dr you had to take a gamble on going into work early and then ringing, but if you got a morning appointment you then had to go all the way back home (I worked 15 miles away), or you stayed at home, rang, couldn't get an appointment and then you were late for work! My parents think it's fine as they're retired so they just walk down the road and stand at reception at 8am!

Yeah having to explain to work that you are late as you had to get a GPs appointment but couldn't get one is always annoying! Especially as you'll have to keep trying.

Our surgery has basically been shut now for over a year.

You used to be able to book a same day appointment by phoning at 8:00am (for a morning appointment) or 12:00pm (for an afternoon appointment).Alternatively, you could book ahead by phoning or calling in at any time during the working day or by booking online.

Now you have to phone at 8:00am as other posters have said, the most inconvenient time of the day for most of us. My record for the number of calls before I got through, is 129! You can no longer book online. The stress this engenders is off the scale.

Once you have secured a telephone appointment, the call back can come any time between 9:00am and 8:00pm. There will be no face to face appointments for the foreseeable future.

How is this any kind of service?

After over 200 attempts this morning I finally got through to be told that there are no appointments left.

Ok that happens but when I was phoning about a CEV child who has just been diagnosed with another potentially life threatening illness for whom an infection could be serious the lack of help was rather frustrating! I eventually persuaded them to at least do a prescription for antibiotics pointing out I didn’t want to let things get to the ambulance to A and E and emergency injection stage!

@makingmammaries

I felt as if I was being ungrateful for the service. I know we are so lucky to have free GP care but the wait times are worrying.

The longer I live away from the UK, the stranger I find it that people are expected to be grateful for a service that is being paid for from their taxes, or consider themselves lucky to have a 'free' (taxpayer-funded) service that treats them as if they have nothing better to do than waste time trying to access care. Most developed nations have medical care that does not leave the patient seriously out of pocket, and mostly they treat patients' schedules and needs with a good deal more respect. The NHS really needs to clean up its act.

I so agree. Having family overseas, I think that we have been conned into believing it's NHS or the US. There are many systems with some form of limited and low cost for those who can afford it, completely free for those who can't that therefore offer a far far better service, with measurably better outcomes.

I''d be perfectly fine to pay £10 for GP appt (as my family overseas do) if it meant we could all get better service.

Terrible system. I think this method of getting appointments should be removed as it basically becomes fastest finger first, rather than based on need and urgency.

I recently moved to a GP using online systems to request an appointment. The GP will also deal with minor things over the online system. It’s brilliant especially for those working who don’t have time to be calling all day. Getting a discreet email message that you can check in your break is much better.

Same. Ours has 8 am and 2 pm and no quoting system. This screenshot was me trying to get an appointment for my daughter last week. Nuts!

Iv list had this battle. Unless you can get through between 8.30 and 8.50 theres no appointments. Rinse and repeat. Iv ended up with a severe infection due to not being able to get an appointment.

You can't do online bookings at my GP service but you can do an online consultation and they call you back the next day. I have never got the timing right for the 08.00 deadline, continuously engaged.

Are you me? Literally called over 60 times and ended up having to contact 111 this morning. This time around, it seems like they’re having an emergency staff meeting or something so disconnected their line, regardless it’s a common occurrence. I shouldn’t have to fight to get a phone appointment like this

I would actually pay per appointment if it meant I could be guaranteed to call up and get through straight away and speak to someone and organize an appointment.
I would be fine with £20-30 per appointment nominal charge etc , even for the kids.
I know that if one of us needs to see a doctor it’s going to be a complete rigmarole

I can’t change surgeries
The other surgeries in our town are also fully subscribed
The issue is lots of new build housing estates in our small town
We currently have completed and in progress
Wimpy
Bellway
Persimmon
Etc all building huge schemes

Have they built any more surgeries ? No

Same issue here. Like pp we have also resorted to a private gp. We're lucky to have that option.

The GPs here used to do this, not sure what's changed but now you can phone up anytime and get a call back from the duty doctor, who will then make a same day appointment if neccessary. I had to call 30 mins before closing the other week and had a call back straight away and was able to go in. I'm not sure how they have managed it, I doubt they have managed to secure loads more staff.

Same. Ring at 8 or 12
End up being 23rd or something in the queue. Get through, say I have an infection and I'm immunocompromised "sorry all appointments have gone" 🤷🏽‍♀️

The 8am scrum is an appalling way of handling this problem. DF’s surgery does it and it’s a nightmare. It’s a complete lottery whether the person with the really urgent issue gets seen at all.

My surgery used to open slots at 8am and 2pm for same day appointments but you’d normally get a slot. Now they’ve got an econsult system which is a bit of a pain because you need to type all your symptoms in so many boxes but it does enable the GP’s to triage properly, and you can fill it in at a time of your choosing - I did it at 3am the other day when the pain from an ear infection woke me up and I got a text at 9am telling me to expect a phone call between 11am and noon - GP rang me and I picked up the prescription from my local chemist at 12.05. As long as they have a phone system still available for people who can’t use the online one due to internet, language or literacy problems I’m all in favour.

This is why I am so glad I have American healthcare. I have always got through on the phone to my GP at anytime of day with occasionally a 2 min wait on hold. I always get a same day appointment, there is a walk in clinic for blood work and I can see a specialist easily, usually within 2 weeks of being referred by my GP

So what I’ve found is that calling your doctors secretary on the direct number is useful rather than just the surgery and failing that, call any of the other doctors secretaries at the surgery directly even if it’s not your designated doctor.
I agree though. It’s a terrible system. What they need is more people to man the phone lines in the morning. I’ve often thought there is an opportunity to get people some extra work between say 9am and 9.30, and 2.30 and 3. Dunno how it work though 🤷‍♀️

It's the same with my surgery at the moment. They have an online booking system but have suspended it due to covid, so you have to call.
I was actually told off for calling at 9.30 one morning, receptionist did apologise when I pointed out my toddler had woken around 9 feeling ill and hadn't gotten any better, and got him a same day appointment, but it doesn't account for people who become ill later in the day and might need an appointment that day.

Again I know that this is no one’s fault and I genuinely blame no one for this.
This is 100% the fault of our Conservative government, no-one else.
Unless significant numbers stop voting for them in the few constituencies where it actually makes a difference, I do not expect this to improve. They have shown repeatedly that they don't care about these issues.

My lame GP doesn’t have any online presence either. Can’t email, use the patient access app (they have one, but disabled all the features??) - all you can do at the moment is phone in!

189 attempts to get through for my baby when they operated that system.

Now it's all econsult. Which is useless.

If you really need to though, it’s lnly a lot £60 for a same day private GP appt

@Peanutbuttercupisyum

If you really need to though, it’s lnly a lot £60 for a same day private GP appt

I’ve tried to do Push Doctor online before but my surgery is not linked with them.

I would pay £60 to save the hassle , how would I go about finding private GP? Would I just google for local area ?

@DynamoKev

Again I know that this is no one’s fault and I genuinely blame no one for this. This is 100% the fault of our Conservative government, no-one else. Unless significant numbers stop voting for them in the few constituencies where it actually makes a difference, I do not expect this to improve. They have shown repeatedly that they don't care about these issues.

No way! It’s alway been like this! Dare I say it, it’s probably more an issue that come with a free for all National Health System. It’s really not a problem in countries where you need to pay/need insurance.. (Not that I don’t support the NHS, I do, but it isn’t without its issues!)