To think we should be able to pre book a doctors appointment?

[Meltinthemiddle]

I rarely go, in fact the last time I went was 3 years ago. I've had a few ongoing health concerns which are now starting to effect me and my job, so I called to try and pre book an appointment to fit in with my work hours happy to wait a few weeks even (can't just have time off) and they have told me I now have to ring up at 8am everyday. Today was the first time I was successful ringing, number 2 in the queue first thing and yet even then they seemed to struggle to get me in. She also asked if it was urgent which it isn't so names me feel bad taking the appointment, but it's ongoing and affecting my quality of life. I now have to wait for a doctors call, and he may the treat me over the phone or bring me in. The thing is luckily I have a day off mid week, but when I worked in a school this system would be impossible due to no phones allowed. Its not a fair system for people who work.

or people who need urgent appointments on the day or who have ongoing health concerns. Where is the triage system? 😒

I agree, it's the same at my surgery, 'urgent' appointment on the day, or nothing!

I don’t know what to say other than it is nightmare trying to see my GP as well. I know from friends who use different practices they can book in advance, send in an email and get seen. My doctors themselves are great but the system for trying to see one is hideous.

My GP has the same set up for on the day appointments but I can also pre book using an app. It works really well.

It’s completely stupid and I don’t understand how it is at all beneficial to the practice never mind the patients.
Not everything needs to be seen on the day, book advance appointments and leave on the day appointments for those who actually need them!
When I have to book an appointment for my daughter it’s a nightmare as I have either started work by 8 or I’m travelling so I have to go in super early or late so I can spent 20/30 minutes in the phone queue, then I need to be available with my phone in hand basically all day for the doctor to call back at any time, to then tell me to go in at 2/3/4pm depending on when they get back to me. It means I give my work zero notice and just have to up and leave to make it to nursery then to the surgery by 4pm.
Surely I’ve wasted a doctors time twice, never mind my own and my employers? Why not just say okay does Wednesday at 3pm suit and book it in?
Make it make sense!!

Seriously, does anyone work in a GPs?

Why is this the system??

There is no system that works for everyone.
Some like to pre book, some prefer to ring on the day they feel unwell.
Bottom line - too many patients, not enough doctors.
The country is overpopulated.

We have a great online triage system. You submit a request online before 11 and they'll always get you in on the day if it's urgent or book you in a few weeks if it needs an appointment but isn't today urgent eg back pain but send you some advice to keep you going til then. Plenty of people complain about the system because you don't get seen/ prescribed antibiotics for a cold etc but I find the system brilliant personally. I understand some elderly may struggle though

I just don't see how this is fair for people who actually need urgent appointments on the day or people with ongoing issues especially those who work and need to pre book to fit around their job. I'm now limited to what I can do now due to having to wait for a call back and not wanting to miss their call, its rediculous.

Ours is the same. No options to book anything the only way you can get an appointment is to ring on the day and see if they can fit you in, physically go to the surgery and wait all morning or by having a gp/nurse book you an appointment at the end of your last appointment (providing you got one in the first place).

It's maddening because sometimes it's not an emergency but you do still need to see someone and yet the only way you can get to see anyone is by being lucky enough to be 1 of the first 20 or so people to get through that morning. This then means that people who actually do need a same day appointment miss out because the appointments are all gone.

There is a system for the logic that was already in place before covid though, it was called booked an appointment in advance for non urgent things and phone up on the day for an emergency appointment! How does that not work for everyone?

GPs capacity for appointments is a totally different issue to no triaging which ultimately just pisses away resources.

It is truly dreadful now. We are storing up masses of problems down the line as people can't access routine healthcare. I don't know how elderly people are managing.

We are lucky in our GP practice as they have returned to a relatively normal way of working post lockdown. Everything is still triaged but it is possible to book an appointment in advance. But my student DD1s Practice is the same as yours.

Please complain to the practice and your MP. There is a national shortage of GPs and authorities have been warned about this coming for years. It takes years to train a fully qualified GP and Gov has failed to plan for this despite repeated warnings from GP leaders.

I'm a GP.
We do prebookable appointments in the afternoon, book-on-day in the morning.
The afternoon slots are booked up within a few hours of the surgery going on the screen.
The on-the-day slots are gone by 10am every day.
We keep a few afternoon slots back for genuine on-the-day emergencies and they all get used too.
We are a nice practice in a nice area and we can't recruit any more doctors. No one applies to job adverts. Our area has seen a lot of building, patient numbers have increased massively, and we're not allowed to turn people away if they live in our area.

I'm baffled at these endless posts wondering why people can get GP or hospital appointments. It's really very basic.

Take a half pint glass and a 1 pint jug. Fill the one pint jug with water, and now try and get all that water in the half pint glass. That is literally the challenge facing the NHS.

Sounds dreadful for you all. I'm so sorry. I think we all appreciate GPs so much. It's the system that's broken after years of Tory rule, not the people on the front line

No its bad patient management based on assumptions that patient time has no value. It also discriminates heavily against the most disadvantaged. None of this is forced on healthcare by "funding cuts" - its about basic business operations and a presumption that patients time is valueless.

If the costs of patient and employer time were included in NHS operating costs I dread to think what overall costs would be.

When we ring surgery we just ask for a telephone appointment as that’s what you get anyway. Receptionist asks what’s the condition and then GP rings back and if they want to see you will make an appointment. This takes quite a bit of time, I’d say 2/3 minutes to find appointment and sometimes it’s not at surgery but at a local community hospital and I can imagine what happens when the elderly are being told they’ve got to go there. So telephone call has lasted around 8 minutes with GP doing what receptionist should be doing in the first place. DH had appointment with a nurse last week 8.40 am. I asked him how many were in waiting room pre covid there would be at least 20 people, he said 3 people.

"There is a system for the logic that was already in place before covid though, it was called booked an appointment in advance for non urgent things and phone up on the day for an emergency appointment! How does that not work for everyone"

@luxxlisbon but what happens when all the pre-bootable appointments have gone? They get put on the system in 6 week blocks, and are all gone within hours.

And what happens when all the emergency on-the-day slots have gone too?

And pre Covid MN was full of gripes about GP access, so this is nothing new.

Too many patients, not enough doctors. That's it.

That’s the theory at our GPs but I have never been able to book an appointment through the app. There are either none available or if I go on at 8am Precisely I might get one for next month if I’m lucky.
And those are telephone appointments, not seen a GP or nurse in the flesh for a couple of years now

I have no idea how anyone who works gets an appt, I rock up at the surgery at 8am to ask for an appt otherwise I never get through on the phone line. Thank God I'm flexible and can go pretty much when they offer an appt.

My GP is online (Babylon), i book appt's online and they are done via video or telephone call. Never have to wait too long for an appt. and can arrange to suit my schedule. have you thought of joining an online GP?

Can you message the surgery online? That's our surgery's first step, then they will reply, or book a phone appointment.

It’s shit practice management.
If they are so busy and over run why does my GP block out a doctors time to call me, just to say every time without fail ‘oh for a 1 year old we would really need to see her in person’. Which obviously the receptionist already knew in the first place.
Its operating on a ‘computer says no’ system and employing no logic. It means, through no fault of my own, I’ve used 2 doctor’s slots instead of one.

It’s directly linked to covid, my practice and many others started this system of only being able to do on the day appointment during lockdown and they have stuck with it.

And I’m saying this as someone who agrees with telephone appointments in principle! There are so many things that helps with and suits, but it’s applied across the board with zero thought process.

@C8H10N4O2 see my water analogy. It is really very straightforward, and nothing to do with poor management of services. I've been a GP for nearly 30 years, seen 3 different practice managers in that time, had literally hundreds of hours of meetings trying to figure out what appointment system to use .

We have tried every possible system - at least 10 different regimes in the time I've been there. We've done pre bookable, book on day, urgent on day, telephone triage, email, different ratios and combinations.

Our list size has got bigger and bigger and we have worked harder and harder, and it is still not enough.
Too many patients, not enough doctors. That's all there is to it.

There is a system for the logic that was already in place before covid though, it was called booked an appointment in advance for non urgent things and phone up on the day for an emergency appointment! How does that not work for everyone?

Our GPs practice have recently changed from this system, I was very worried as you now have to phone, or book online, for that day, however you are guaranteed to see or speak to a GP or nurse that day.
It has actually worked extremely well. (Nurse appointments such as bloods, smears etc, can be booked ahead, plus if the GP thinks you need a follow up appointment, they book it in for you.

I piss my boss off, that’s how!
I sit unavailable from 8am to about 8:30 waiting in the queue, I sit with my personal phone out in meetings waiting for it to ring, try to avoid client visits as no doubt the call would come while I was on the tube and you obviously can’t call back you’ve just missed your chance, then I dash off to answer the second it rings and then have to leave work with no notice to get the train back home and bring my DD to the surgery.

This is exactly what happens at my GP.
Phone at 8am for an appointment on the day, no appointments available for future booking.

I recently discovered (because I politely but firmly pushed the issue) that GPs can book you in themselves for a future appointment but not the receptionist which seems a huge waste of their time.

I think its worrying that the GP system is so run down - why would anyone want the pressure & hassle of being a GP?
We need hundreds of GPs across the country, the main reason A&E depts are overrun is people going to them when they should be booking in to see their GP.