How important do you think it is to be on time for a GP appt

[Ireolu]

Just that really.

Do you think it is important to turn up on time or early for a GP appt? Do you think you shd still be seen when you are 10 mins or more late for a 10 minute appt.

This is just for adults over 18 not for children. TIA for thoughts.

So what's your suggestion? Have an open clinic for people with ND? The clinic can't work like that so they'll just have to find ways to get to apps on time

Every GP practise I've been at wants you there 5 to 10 minutes early - and often state they won't see you if late - so always have been that early.

I was once late to dentist appointment for child- school pre warned were absolute mare about letting child out for needed treatment - had to run down the road don't drive plus with traffic probably quicker. I felt so bloody lucky they saw guy after us first - there early - then fitted us in.

However I have been sat waiting by GP. Once when very ill while pg and with young child very upset tuned out she had ear infection but GP wasn't for her-for over an hour at GP that was hard. Another time they were so late I had to leave to pick another child up from school and they were not happy at reception at all - and tried to make out I was being unreasonable.

Very.

Yes, as I said, I do turn up on time. But in future I’m unlikely to worry about being 2 or 3 minutes late when every time I have to wait for 40+ minutes!

I'd hope that GP surgeries were sensible about looking at a patient's notes and clocking that, if they are normally bedbound, housebound and/or severely disabled, they might be having transport problems.

Or realise that someone who is coming in for a mental health appointment because they rang up earlier having suicidal ideation, might need a bit of leeway.

I've previously had nightmares with late taxis / transport / carers. And then you try to ring the surgery to explain, and can't get through. Luckily, the receptionists have been very caring and pragmatic, and I've been very grateful.

I would think they should see you if they are also running late. If you are 10 mins late and the GP is 20 mins behind then your lateness makes no difference.
If they aren't running behind there needs to be a time limit when they won't see you.

What's a GP appointment?

I always make sure I'm there early. Sometimes the GP is running late which means a bit of a wait but I don't mind as I have had some long appointments with DC over the years!
I wouldn't expect to be seen if I was late.

Well, it’s important not to put the doctor or nurse out and to be there when they’re ready to see you - but, honestly, since that is ALWAYS at lease 30mins after your booked time, I don’t obsess with being there early myself.

It doesn’t bother me that the GP / nurse doesn’t run exactly to time, I love my surgery because I know they fit urgent cases in at the drop of a hat and are very responsive to actual urgent need. So I have no problem at all waiting around when I’m a routine non-urgent case such as a vaccination.

But then, I’m from a part of the country where it’s all a bit “dreckly” and running 5 mins behind schedule isn’t the catastrophe it seems to be for those in London and the south east of England 😉

I always add in a bit of buffer time for parking etc, so I’m always a bit early. At the practice at my university, appointments were always running behind, so I turned up a bit late once. Missed my appointment and got a bollocking from the receptionist. Never been late again.

I take my book and once I've checked in I hust sit and enjoy a peaceful read. I aim to arrive about 10 minutes before my appointment so I have been known to sit in my car for a while too.

My dad was a GP and I heard a lot about the job when he was working. He talked about how doctors simply don't have time to listen to and help patients as they'd like to, so if I have to wait 45 minutes or whatever because the GP is running over, I assume it's because they're doing their job properly.

Always they’re a little early to check in and get parking. I hate being late but also as a nurse I get frustrated at others not being punctual.

I asked why you had asked because I have had a few people with genuine reasons for being late and I have learned not to assume that a person is simply bad at time keeping. Obviously we still can’t always see them whatever the reason and often they need to rebook but as I have said I’m more understanding than I might have once been.

I aim to be around 5 minutes early so that if I can’t park or there’s another problem, I’m still likely to be on time. I used to aim for 10 minutes early but my gp is often late and dd2 isn’t very cooperative in the waiting room so I don’t want to wait for longer than necessary. However, the last two times I’ve been to a nurse appointment, they’ve rung me to ask if I can come any earlier!

I always arrive ten minutes early for medical appointments as I think it is only polite. At a consultant appointment recently I approached the receptionist after I had been waiting 35 minutes and was told “doctors are always late”, I replied that my time was just as valuable as theirs and I would only wait another ten minutes, I was seen in five but the consultant seemed surprised I had said I wouldn’t wait. I totally understand GPs run over and would never complain and if I was seeing someone who had to rush to an emergency, eg a surgeon or obstetrician fair enough but I could hear this consultant make phone call after phone call which I think could have waited (he had casual conversations with his receptionist in between and when I arrived she said he was on the phone and would be finished shortly which I took to mean one phone call) and as the appointment was costing me $260 I wasn’t willing to wait because he couldn’t organise his schedule. I loathe senior doctors with God complexes.

I am always 5 mins early and always have to wait a minimum of 25 minutes

I'm always early, and accept that I'm unlikely to be seen on time. Last time I was there there was a man who arrived over an hour late and was absolutely furious they wouldn't see him, how the receptionist managed to stay calm with him I don't know!

Important. But at my surgery it's so hard to get appointments I wouldn't be surprised if people agreed to a time and then had to rush because it slightly clashed with something else. Yesterday the only appointment they could offer me for DD216 months (and she did need to be seen, we had to have a GP call first who wanted to see her) was tight for making it on time after picking DD1 up from school but I had to agree or I'd have had to go through the whole rigmarole the next day of ringing at 8, having a phone appointment, being offered a face to face appointment.
If I was a single parent, or couldn't drive, or didn't have DH wfh, I'd have been late to that appointment. But she's a 16 month old with potentially a serious health problem that thankfully she's now been referred for. I couldn't turn the appointment down.

I always turn up 10 minutes early, just incase someone before me didn't turn up or, in my case, often out of there in half the time needed 🤓
Figure they will be glad to be ahead of themselves.

Not a minute late though!

I’m always there 5-10 minutes early. On the odd occasion that the GP has been running a bit early I’ve sometimes been called in and I’m sure it must ease the time pressure on the next couple of appointments if people are in and out quicker than expected.

Therapy is different to usual health appointments where clinics are occurring.

I am early for everything. I was 40 minutes early for a therapy appt once and walked around for 30 mins before I rang the bell.

I was welcomed in but very kindly 'told off' about appt times and boundaries of therapy times.

There's literally no reason why a therapist should have to have separate waiting and leaving areas to accommodate people who have turned up too early.

Very important

This is just for adults over 18 not for children.

So children can be late for their appointments? Or you only want adults to answer the question?

I always aim to be 10 minutes early. Sometimes, I've been seen early because the person who should have had the slot is late and it suits the doctor to swap the appointments round for efficiency. Sometimes, I've had to wait for anything up to an hour and sometimes I've been seen bang on time.

Generally speaking, I don't think a long wait is the GPs fault. They are dealing with human beings not machines and some people genuinely can not be dealt with in the allowed time slot.

I've been that person who kept everyone waiting for ages and yes I felt bad about it as some of them glared at me and made some nasty comments as I walked back through the waiting room but honestly I needed that time on that occasion. I never begrudge waiting now however frustrating it seems - I just hope I'll not be in that position again and I'm still grateful to my GP 18 years down the line

What's the point of an appointment if you don't actually arrive for the assigned time? I think this applies to ANY appointment, but something like a GP where there are a series of back-to-back appointments with barely enough time anyway, it seems even more important. I'd assume if I was late to a 10-minute appointment, I'd get whatever time was remaining and I honestly can't imagine what could be useful done in LESS than 10 minutes, so would expect to be asked reschedule, and be extremely grateful if i was seen. There was once when circumstances out of our control (car crash blocking a major road in a rural area - going alternate route took a significant amount of time) meant we were late to an important appointment for my daughter, and I was very grateful they let us hang about and squeezed us in when later appointments didn't show up for the same reason - we did phone from the road and let them know we weren't making our time, as apparently so did others, whose slots we then got.

I have found that I've been seen ridiculously early if I show up early - I usually show up 30-40 min early for a BP check as I walk ~1 mile uphill to the GP and it takes that long for my BP to calm down again after that exercise. After too many times being called early because I was there, explaining I'd walked there and that's why BP and HR were elevated, and them having to see me again at my actual time or just trust my home readings, I've learned not to check in super early even if I'm there...