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.

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.

This^
A large amount of GPs work is managing chronic conditions. If people with these conditions can't access GP care then they deteriorate and end up at the hospital

I wonder why they bother to ask if it's urgent? It's not as if they're going to offer an appointment another day if it isn't, so it seems like a total waste of time asking.

My GP practice is the same - they don’t offer appointments in advance. You have to call at 8am for morning appointments and 2pm for afternoon appointments. It takes me around two weeks to get an appointment, but I’m lucky that I have a flexible job so can easily carve out time for an appointment. I often wonder what people who don’t have that privilege do.

Once DS was unwell and needed an urgent appointment. I was told they don’t do emergency appointments and I should call 111. 111 sends us to the hospital and we are left waiting several hours in a packed A&E for something the GP should have helped with.

I just don’t understand the logic or logistics behind this system that’s being used. Maybe someone who works at a surgery or medical centre could explain?

Why can’t people ring up in the morning if they feel they need to be seen that day, but make advanced appointments - ringing up in the day or the evening for something that isn’t immediately urgent? This idea that people don’t have jobs and can sit on the phone in the morning at 8 is really silly (pretty much everyone is busy at that time with commuting to work, being at work, or doing a school run/ getting children ready for school - it’s just bonkers) I have no doubt people put off important yet non immediately urgent things because of this - think mole checks, breast lump checks, certainly testicle lumps or prostate checks! You know men won’t get that checked out at the best of times, never mind when it involves telling your boss you need half an hour off this morning to sit in a telephone queue for an appointment you might not even get…

I’m guessing there must be a reason for this daft and I think damaging system but I really can’t guess what it is, there seems to be little common sense involved - I’d like to be proven wrong. Someone please explain.

My day off work is Mondays.
I can guarantee they every time I contact the surgery on a Monday the appts are for emergencies only.

my issue isn’t an emergency yet. I’d prefer it not to become one but I’m a bit lost at how to avoid that.
any ideas?

I agree we need more GPs now, but the myriad of shockingly bad appointment systems long predate Covid and the shortage of GPs.

The entire NHS mass of appointments systems assumes patient time is of no value and always has. The irony is that more efficient appointment systems actually save doctor/HCP time and costs. As always, its the people at the bottom who suffer most - they don't have access to alternatives and they are less likely to be in work or situations where they can lose hours/days just trying to get and then waiting for an appointment.

Before covid I never had to ring up for an appointment. This was because my surgery operated an online booking system (you could ring up as well if you wanted to). It was great. I always had a choice of appointments from on the day to weeks in advance, so I could choose the appointment which best fitted my circumstances. But when covid hit they took it away and it hasn't come back. Why????? It makes no sense! There is an online form instead which you can fill in, but you can't choose the appointment slot. You get allocated the next available slot which may or may not be convenient. Bring back the online booking system please!

We have this. It's utterly terrible. No other way to book whatsoever and no telephone queue either. You have to keep redialing. No advance appointments. No online bookings. No turning up at the surgery, the door is locked, you speak through an entry phone, no appointment no entry. I have phoned every day for weeks and never got through. I now use a private GP

I'd say you are urgent on a day you can make it those circumstances. Given you have a number of worrying issues. Alternatively ask for phone appointment with doctor so they can assess you.

We have an excellent GP practice. I can pre book appointments- if I'm happy to see any doctor the appointment will be within a few days, if I want a specific doctor I may have to wait a 5-6 days. It is possible to request in person or by telephone. My daughter recently had a flare up of an existing condition, phoned the practice to explain and a doctor phoned back within 90 mins. I phoned on a Friday pm for a blood test and was given an appointment for 10.10am on the Monday. If the matter is urgent, a GP will call back the same day and if they feel it is necessary will see you the same day.

I have no idea how the surgery can offer the level of service they do. I think there are 6 GP's a nurse practitioner and two practice nurses. It sounds from reading everyone's else's experience that we are extremely fortunate!

Sure there is a system that works for everyone - one where you can book an appointment for the future (in the week, or within the month, whatever) for non-urgent issues and also have the option for getting a same day appointment for urgent issues. That's what I can do, I call, or go on the app and speak to a nurse online who does triage, then get the appointment at the time that is right, or if its something like just need a referral the nurse talks to the doctor then gives me the referral.

But the too many patients, not enough doctors thing is why people aren't getting good systems that work, agree with that. I live in a small town in a country with a small population, hence being able to have a decent system. But with more doctors and nurses (that's a big difference, we don't get triaged by receptionists, but by trained nurses) and better organisation I don't see why it couldn't be possible in the UK.

You are extremely fortunate @cuteasaduck as I also am with my GP surgery

You're problem will be if 3 of these GPs retire over the next few years as they won't be able to replace them. See post from GP further upthread that no-one applies for their vacancies and that's happening all over the country

My GP surgery has the ‘ring dead on 8 ‘ system with only appointments that day or exactly two weeks later. I recently spent three mornings trying to get through - ringing repeatedly up to god knows how many times in quick succession until I eventually got through on the third day.

my condition I need to discuss with GP is gynaecological ( I think I have a prolapse). I would like a female GP as I want her to understand me when I say I feel like I have put a tampon in and it’s not high up enough and dry. Only a woman would understand that.

But there are no appointments for a lady doctor on the day two weeks away. There is the next day but I cannot be given an appointment for two weeks and one day. I will have to start again….repeatedly pressing the call back button 100s of times.

i say no I can’t start all that again

i will have the appointment with the male doctor

i do wonder if this is discrimination?

Another thing I then had to tell the receptionist what soem of my symptoms are. I guess they triage it from that regarding phone calls but like some one said it puts you off going.

It depends on the system your gp has in place.

Ours allows me to email in a query - such as a longer term thing that is causing an issue. In the email, you can explain things like being a teacher, add photos etc. The emails are dealt with within 72 hours and an appointment with doc, nurse or pharmacist is booked in advance.

Phone is now for urgent stuff only.

Our GP has a ring by 10:30 and then they text you back with an outcome - so a call back on the day or on a day in 2 weeks time , or a nurse appt etc . Pre covid you could turn up by 10:30 and were guaranteed to see a GP that day face to face . You cannot just call and book an appt for the future . You cannot choose face to face over telephone . Frankly it’s crap and I don’t think the GPs even like it as a few of them that had been there for a long time have left for other jobs . It’s made the GP inaccessible for people who work and can’t take phone calls like nurses , teachers etc .

@Natsku of course there's a system that suits everyone if more doctors/nurses could be employed, but obviously that's not the situation. We're talking about reality, not a wish list. When I said there's no single system that suits everyone, I meant in the context of the shortage of medics.

In the current situation can't a system where appointments are mostly booked in advanced but each day there are a certain number of emergency appointments available for urgent issues when someone calls in the morning, work? Or is that not feasible with staffing levels?

I think the main reason is that there are significantly fewer appointments than people who need them. Both for urgent and less urgent issues.

The more appointments you make available in advance, the fewer you have available for urgent things on the day. So different practices will make decisions about how to divide up the appointments.

If a practice is only offering on the day appointments, they may be drastically under staffed and unable to recruit.

I completely agree it's a bad situation, but I can't see a good solution without managing to increase capacity.

I think this is what most practices are doing. But the demand for both routine and urgent appointments exceeds those available by a large margin

I’ve been trying to get a gp appointment for 5 weeks now. Don’t even get me started on the receptionists who think they’re at all qualified to decide wether my case is urgent or not.

That was meant to be a reply to @nat

@hopelesslydevotedtoGu There was a GP on similar thread the other day saying they used to he 2/3 of their appointments bookable in advance and 1/3 on the day. It's now the other way round due to insufficient staff for all the patients. I imagine they HAVE to try and cover the urgent work so the rest gets thrown under the bus!

I heard that part of the problem is targets. If you're measured on "percentage of patients seen within 3 days", or something of the sort, then you don't want people booking in advance.

There were problems with the other system, too. I once wanted to see my own doctor, and could never get an appointment because her advance appointments were always fully booked almost as soon as they were released for booking - probably while I was on the way to work. Eventually a kind receptionist told me which day my doctor was doing the emergency clinic and told me to ring for a same day one that day!

We used to offer pre-bookable appointments. It wasn't unusual for over 20% of people not to turn up.