Waited in hospital since 10pm to see out of hours gp. It's now 2am. Do I give up and go home?

[GrrrlPwr]

There's 5 people ahead of me in the queue. Receptionist has no idea how long they will all take.

Do I go home and plead my GP for an appointment tomorrow?

Feel so stupid to have waited so long and to go home. But I ache so much. I need to go to bed

@Malibuismysecrethome

Can you buy antibiotics privately without a prescription? I think if you could and pharmacists could prescribe them it would take the pressure off the NHS and GPs. We need solutions to this rapidly escalating problem of not being able to access healthcare.

Bloody hell, that would be a fast-track to a massive increase in antibiotic resistance imo. The number of people who seem to think they need ABs for the slightest cough or cold never ceases to amaze me.

And there would be a risk of people not being able to recall which ABs, if any, they might be allergic to.

Our a and e had an 11 hour wait a couple of weeks ago. It is never really below 6.

So sorry op, hope you managed to get seen to. This is shocking but I'm not surprised. We moved back to the UK, and for us private medical aid was an absolute must. Both dd and I were ill recently and we were seen to along with medication the same day. You can't even get through on the phone with my nhs gp surgery. Can you try a pharmacist instead? I know there is boots online doctor, I haven't used it though. Wishing you feel better soon.

How are surgeries seeing more patients and appointments when no one can get an appointment. Frankly I don’t need to be told to sign up if I could do better, I think the defensiveness is part of the problem. Maybe the staff could do a better job.

@Malibuismysecrethome

How are surgeries seeing more patients and appointments when no one can get an appointment. Frankly I don’t need to be told to sign up if I could do better, I think the defensiveness is part of the problem. Maybe the staff could do a better job.

They're doing loads more appointments by phone.

People only complain when they can't speak to a doctor. You never hear from the problem who can.

Between myself, DP and DD we've had, probably 4/5 GP over-the-phone appointments in the past couple of months. This is really unusual for us, and we have had to wait a while to get through on the phone, but we've always had call backs when promised. Most things have been resolved over the phone and we've been given face to face appointments where necessary.

And yeah, we're with a surgery where everyone complains they can't get an appointment

Lakielady it works in other countries in the world though.

@Malibuismysecrethome

How are surgeries seeing more patients and appointments when no one can get an appointment. Frankly I don’t need to be told to sign up if I could do better, I think the defensiveness is part of the problem. Maybe the staff could do a better job.

Probably all the waste and duplicated appointments when someone gets a phone appointment and then needs a face to face appointment. That takes up 2 GP appointments, when it would have only been a single appointment if they could have got a F2F first off.

@Malibuismysecrethome my local hospital have recd some of the equipment bought for the Nightingale hospital

@LakieLady

Ime, first thing in the morning is the worst time to try and get through. My surgery switchboard opens at 8 or 8.30 (can't recall which), and you'll be waiting an hour to speak to anyone if you ring then. It's as though everyone's trying to get through first thing. I find that if I can leave it until 9.30 - 10, there's only 3 or 4 people in front and I get through pretty quickly.

Trouble is that in a lot of GP surgeries, all the appts have gone by 9.30, and you're just told to phone back "tomorrow at 8am". That's the real problem - GP surgeries being inflexible, not offering online booking, only booking appts for the same day, etc.

DS had a nasty ear infection a few weeks ago- he has a history of burst ear drums and glue ear so it really needed seeing ASAP as his long term hearing was at risk. We called 111 and were referred to the local Out of Hours- they didn't get back to us with an appointment for nearly 24 hours (to be fair to them they did call to apologise frequently and check if we still needed the service but they didn't have clinicians available).

We also tried using Babylon GP as we have a subscription via DH's work- even they didn't have appointments for 48 hours.

@user1497207191 but they can also do 3 phone appointments in the time it'd take to do one face to face appointment. It means once you go for the face to face they already know exactly what you're there for so that saves time too.

It also prevents the issue of everyone running late or the people sitting in the surgery all day who pounce on doctors without appointments, and means doctors don't have to waste time on people who don't actually need to see a doctor

Our NHS GP will prescribe antibiotics over the phone- call and ask to speak to a duty doctor today

The quicker the NHS is gotten rid of and private care comes in the better now. I’d rather pay for care than be unable to access it at all. There’s no private option for a broken leg at the moment so you are stuck in the crap NHS system. Since my children were born 10 years ago I have never had good NHS care. Get rid!

@MrsLargeEmbodied

the nhs is overwhelmed and i cant believe anyone thought seeing an out of hours GP was a good idea at 10 pm

🤔

We also tried using Babylon GP as we have a subscription via DH's work- even they didn't have appointments for 48 hours.

We also have Babylon GP and I found that you can get an appointment very quickly. I do call through to the contact centre though to make my appointments, as the app sometimes crashes. I had a bad uti recently and the doctor called through at 4.30am and had my meds waiting for me as soon as the pharmacy opened.

I’d never dream of going to A&E for tonsillitis, I don’t consider it to be a life-threatening emergency. At 10pm I’d phone 111

This is dreadful.

I know this was the plan all along but it really is time for the NHS to be dismantled. It's completely dysfunctional.

I'm not sure why the concept of a European system is so terrifying. My sister in Denmark pays to see a GP - 20 or something. Those on very low incomes don't pay. Anything after 100 a year is free. Great health service. Seems really sensible.

Sympathies OP. Really hope you get treatment soon.

And for all those saying ring 111... well I never even managed to get through to 111 over the weekend despite trying several times and hanging on the phone for over 40 minutes each time. That was just to get triaged, let alone a call back. And that was with a UTI that started Friday evening.

Thanks to mumsnet i learnt that boots online doctor does some AB prescribing - for £22.

The NHS has seen funding reduce in real terms every year for the last decade under the Tories, while our population gets older, and also heavier. Various issues inc Brexit mean there are 10s of thousands of unfilled jobs in primary care and hospitals. Stop voting Conservative, please.

@Pippi1970

I'm not sure why the concept of a European system is so terrifying. My sister in Denmark pays to see a GP - 20 or something. Those on very low incomes don't pay. Anything after 100 a year is free. Great health service. Seems really sensible.

For some reason people think that the only two options are our current one or a US type system, whereas actually there are many other effective models.

We're fed the idea that's either the NHS or an American style free for all with extortionate premiums.

When actually a European style system works far better than either.

@DGFB

I’d never dream of going to A&E for tonsillitis, I don’t consider it to be a life-threatening emergency. At 10pm I’d phone 111

She didn’t go to A&E, she went to the out of hours GP which happens to be based at the hospital. Which has been pointed out on this thread many times already.