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.

At my surgery you have to fill in a form online and send a photo (if relevant) if it’s non urgent matter and then wait (a minimum of three days) to be contacted. At that point the doctor may send you a text telling you that they will phone you or you may be given you a face to face appointment for some time in the future. I don’t understand why it’s not possible to go online and book a non-urgent appointment as you can do for most things now.

Getting through to my surgery is a joke. So, if you have a telephone appointment and you miss the doctor’s call then you can find yourself in a queue for an hour or
more. As they often don’t give a specific time for a telephone appointment or are running late, I have to leave my phone with my husband if I need to go to the toilet whilst I am waiting for the doctor to call. It’s all bloody ridiculous.

You need to send an email to the Practice Manager with all the dates you've phoned.
It's unacceptable you haven't got an appointment in 5 weeks and she needs to look into this as their system clearly isn't working.
And the problem is they don't know how many people out there have been unable to access healthcare unless you tell them.

I think part of the problem is that that there are too few GPs also, particularly ones that want to work full time. I'll admit to not knowing the answer to this question, but are the BMA still holding the limit down on new medical students and new medical schools?

I would hope that their attititude has changed since this article in their journal, particularly given the move towards part-time working.

www.bmj.com/content/337/bmj.a748

I have recently resigned as a GP as nothing I can ever do will ever be good enough however hard I work.. I cannot magic time for extra appointments out of thin air, I already work 12 hour days with no breaks at all with never less than about 6 things that need doing urgently in my head at any one time. I refer people knowing it will be a year till they are seen and I have already exhausted what can be done in primary care. I am bloody good at my job and have stuck it for 20 years.. but it is quite simply no longer doable, and all the time the tidal wave of need looms over me with a sheer drop of zero support or resources on the other side. I'm walking forward and out before I get pushed over.

I agree, this is ridiculous at the moment. For the very first time in years I have needed to use my local GP, the last time was 7 years ago. So I have no idea as many people like me that if I suddenly become I`ll I need to call at 8am or its tough.

A lot of people who really use their GP only use them when there is a real need, like myself last week and can I get seen not a chance. I called at 9am to be told all the appointments had gone at 8am and I should have phoned then. I've not used the bloody GP in years how am I supposed to know. So I asked to book an appointment for the day after to be told we don't do that you have to call at 8am next day. So the day after I called at 8am and could not get through and no appointment when I finally got through.

Well by mid afternoon I took myself to the drop in center at the hospital and ended up staying the night with a drip in my arm. 😡

GP numbers in England fell by 5% between 2015-21
Despite the Gov agreeing with RCGP in 2015 that 6000 extra were needed

Does anyone know if the training places for GPs has been increased?

Our surgery has 4 GP's, pre Covid there was an on line appointment system for all of them. Post Covid it's phone on the day - ha! Or fill in an E-Consult form (after which I was offered a telephone appointment in 3 weeks! For a burning cough and complete loss of appetite, I've got Asthma and had Bronchitis in the past). At my recent Smear test I asked the nurse when things would be getting back to normal and she said it already was! Whilst waiting to go in an old man came in with his Son to book an appointment for a bad Knee, he was offered one but it didn't suit him so he got one the next day. Then the receptionist told the Son that he - the Son - had missed his 9.30 appointment that morning . "Yeah, I slept in" he was offered one the following morning but he refused it as it was too early so he got a later one. I was aghast, obviously there are appointments available but they just don't like giving them out.

I can book face to face or phone call in advance.

Only do same day for emergencies.

Get through usually straight away. No waiting.

More patients are requesting appointments than before covid. GPs can see double the amount of patients if they see them remotely; they were offering twice the amount of assessments during lockdown which was unsustainable

I can book a face to face if I'm willing to wait 3 weeks. Had to do that a while back.

I can get a call back but noticing now they're taking longer.

Pre£covid our GP surger were brilliant, but now they insist on phone "appointments" as first point of call. You can try in the morning at 8am if you don't get one then you have to try again in the afternoon. If you do get on the list for a call from the doctor you have no idea when it might be. My husband spends all day on conference calls so having to find time to potentially ring up several times during the day is a joke let alone then not knowing when the GP might ring. I work in a small office with just my male boss and have had to go outside to discuss personal issues while at work. My daughter is at college in lectures, how is she supposed to take a phonecall from a GP. If only they would give you the option of booking a specific appointment time to receive the call all these issues and potential missed calls could be avoided. It's such a shame they've adopted this system which just doesn't work for their patients. We're considering moving but not sure anywhere else locally is any better and while I understand the problems with lack of GP's I don't see that this system is a good solution except maybe people don't bother phoning at all but that's surely just delaying health problems that may become much more serious.

At my surgery they have kept the best parts of the Covid response and the best parts of the pre-Covid system and it works well.

Ring at 8am for an urgent same day appt. Ring after 11am to pre-book an advance appointment or go online and book an appointment within next 6 weeks.

You can also book nurse appointments online etc. it seems to be working really well.

Yes, it took me 3 months to get to see a GP For what was quite clearly skin cancer. No pre bookable appointments available. It beggars belief.
(Ps: not bashing the surgery, I'm sure they're trying their best)

I have a complaint going atm with the gp and also the mental health services in my area. It’s appalling

It's becoming like this everywhere. There are at least two other threads running on AIBU about this today.

It's totally unsustainable and its only a matter of time before there's a disaster or scandal that brings this to the attention of the political classes. The GP system is completely non-function in certain areas.

Mine operates both , urgent in the day which is good as you can't always predict being ill and they also release a certain amount of bookable ones often 4 weeks plus in advance and sometimes you have to call in for a few days to get one
Its not surprising though the area I am in has grown hugely in the last 20 years , yet no new dra surgeries and less drs in the ones that we do have

This is where fines for missing appointments come in handy - I make sure never to miss an appointment (or cancel in advance if I have to miss it) because I do not want to pay a 50 euro fine! I think I remember there was some talk about introducing fines in the UK but I guess that never came to anything?

@Sarahcoggles same in my area , I actually wrote to my MP about it but he just claimed they are trying etc
Well not enough , needs to be more incentives to train as a gp and work within nhs
Maybe student loans written off after 10 years service etc etc
This situation will only get worse

We can pre book online but you have to log on at midnight when the new appointments get released. By breakfast time they have generally gone.

My MIL was an nhs patient with Babylon and it was really good. You could close a dr, a nurse, a prescribing pharmacist, a mental health expert to speak to. A few times she had a video call and then they needed to see her for bloods - she was fitted in same day or the next. No gate keeper receptionists to go through, just book a video call with someone yourself.

Unfortunately, the closed their service in Birmingham so she’s had to register with a local GP and is fighting to be seen again. Now Babylon NHS is just London.

It was a great model.

Would cost vastly more than it brings in to administer. Impossible to collect from the poorest - are you going to refuse healthcare til it is paid?

Babylon was paid hugely more than GPs are, to provide a service which didn't include F2F consultations. If we were funded at the rate that Babylon is, we'd be able to offer much better services. And it has now pulled out of many areas as it isn't making as much profit as the founder wants.

It recently took three weeks for my surgery to call me back when I was worried about high blood pressure.

After the first two weeks I called again to see where I was on the list and they said that the Dr had called me twice the day before so I had now dropped off the list and had to start again. I found two missed calls on my mobile (both timed at 10.05) when I had specifically asked them to call on my landline as the mobile signal here is a bit hit and miss. I haven't had a face to face appointment in about 5 years.

More info here about why Babylon aren't the best thing since sliced bread.....

www.wired.co.uk/article/babylon-disrupted-uk-health-system-then-left

Ours is the same. Ring on the day for urgent, OR book online for end of December. Nothing in between.

And don't even get me started on the fact that they still aren't properly open for patients to go in - 99% of appointments will be fobbed off with a phone call.