Has anyone ever just turned up to a GP’s office because they can’t get them on the phone for an aopointment

[Plinkety]

Posting here for traffic. Sorry.

Just that really.

DS needs an appointment quite badly. Certainly can’t send him back to nursery until we know what’s going on. He’s 3. Can never get through on the phone in time for an appointment. They always say phone 111 if we get through later as they are ‘full’.

Don’t want to be an arsehole so wondered if turning up as they open was a reasonable thing to do.

No, but it sounds worth a go.

That's how we make our appts here,we can go at 8am when the surgery opens and book an appt in person.

I've gone in numerous times to make an appointment for a few days time

I drive past anyway so easier for me

It's what everyone used to do here, if they needed an appt that day. There'd be a queue outside for about 20mins before they opened.

Since covid they've made it so you have to have a phone appt before you get a face to face, if they feel you need it, so I don't think it happens anymore.

Have you tried 111?

A few times recently we’ve had to do that, they’ve spoken to the Gp and an appointment appears.

You can’t get an appointment at our surgery by going in. The receptionists that do appointments aren’t based in the surgery anymore (it’s a very odd set up now)

Depends on the booking system.

At a previous GP before econsults it used to be that people would queue before opening to speak to receptionist to book an appointment whilst the phone lines went crazy behind her and other staff fielded calls to book in for that day too.

Now at my current GPs receptionists can’t book appointments. Everything is done via econsult or klinix. Even if you go in that is what the receptionist is completing. They are then triaged by a team and appointments scheduled due to urgency. Sometimes you’ll get a text asking for more details/photos.

Really depends on what your GPs system is.

Ours won't book appointments at reception, you juts get directed to the phone line.

At our surgery it's impossible to get through on phone in the morning to get an appointment so we can go and queue to speak to receptionist when surgery opens at 8:30am. At 8am there were 35 people in the queue yesterday morning.

Yes, that is precisely what we do when we really need an appointment.

Please remember if you can't get a GP appointment from your normal practice you can go via different routes - so after they are closed you can use the out of hours service for example.

I would, it can't hurt can it. If it's not possible, call the heath visitor, they will be able to get an appointment for your child if he needs one.

Yes, my GP has both telephone and in person booking. I walk in at 8.30 and always get a same day appt

I have for DH. He couldn’t complete the econsult as it said he urgently needed to see a dr. He called the receptionists but they wouldn’t make him an appointment. I went in and asked for DH to be put on the triage list so a dr would phone him. Y the time I got home a dr had called and asked him to come in for an appointment.

Have you tried phoning 111 ? They can make bookings with GP directly if needed

Unfortunately nobody can really help you as each practice is different.

My practice will only take appts arranged on the phone and would refuse a drop-in.

I am sorry your child is unwell and hope they are flexible with you. There simply aren’t enough GPs or appts available. But I hope they can juggle things around for you. Good luck.

If my GP practice had told me to phone 111 then I would have done that and said I need an urgent GP appointment - they take you through all the bloody questions but then in our area they book you in with a GP.

Different gps have different policies. Some have phone only whilst others gave queue in person only.i think it’s worth going in person, especially for a child. I’ve heard that in one surgery, if they turn up in person, they refuse them an appt and make them phone up, as they say they’re were queue jumping on those phoning. Always seem a bit unfair to me if you’ve taken the trouble to go in.

Ok will give it a go.

111 were totally useless about this. Worse than useless. I knew he needed a doctors face to face and explained that I had had an online appointment that had said this. But the 111 person refused to authorise it and said I had to wait another 2 hours for another phone call with a pharmacist before they would even approach the idea of a face to face. This was whilst his temperature was almost 40 and he was terribly listless. Don’t judge but I ended up having to pay for a private GP as it was just before Christmas.

No but the GP's receptionist once advised me to do this when I complained about difficulty getting through on the phone. Hope he's ok.

That is so convoluted - the triaging is adding in more bloody work as a doctor had to speak to him to agree he needed to see a doctor!

Makes my head explode.

I am not sure that the continued variety of GP practices is working. I'm not dissing the doctors themselves but we do need some standardisation across the NHS - it is really hard to know how to access care now as the options in our GP are 'I need to see someone right now' and 'I can wait weeks and weeks' but actually so many things are somewhere in between.

Not judging but could you have also accepted the pharmacy phone call and then also waited for the normal GP appointment? I mean I understand you wanted to have a face to face but did you get to see the private GP in the 2 hours you were supposed to wait.
Fwiw they always for me have called back much quicker than the timeslot given. I've had callbacks from doctors and been to collect prescription issued to pharmacy all within the 2 hours slot. Maybe London is different

I'm not going to judge - everyone understands how hard it is when you can't get help - but today is a new day and you are not in this situation now, so 111 might work fine for you today.

Can you explain a little about what the issue is? Sometimes it is about presenting it correctly to 111 - you can use the online symptom checker - to unlock the right call back.

It is awful that it is like being in the Crystal Maze trying to find the right route!! At least there is no instant lock in.

My daughter tried to speak with a receptionist and was told they don't book appointments in person only by phone. So she stood at the desk and phoned the same receptionist 🙄

After 3 days of not bring able to get an apt by phone, I took my DS to a walk in centre about 20 min drive away. Its attached to a hospital and has a gp. We had to wait about 40 min but saw a gp and got anti biotics

Yes I did this several times last year because my son was sick and deteriorating and I needed to talk to someone other than the receptionist. He ended up being hospitalised.

Since then our gp has moved to using a online app for booking an appointment request. This system works better than ringing in at 8am but I've still had to do the go in and stand their thing twice when there have been problems with his meds.