How do you get a doctors appointment if you are not available between 8.30 and 8.35am

[shaniahoo]

I had to slightly change my work hours today and work from home just so that I could fill out an e-consult form to get a doctor's appointment because in my experience the form closes by 8.35. I was refreshing the page every 5 seconds from 8.29 onwards and on one refresh it changed from "you can submit a new request from 8.30 today" to "you can submit a new request from 8.30 on Monday". I don't know whether it filled up in 5 seconds or whether they just didn't open it today for some reason. I rang instead and am number 23 in the queue. Isn't this ridiculous?? I know from previous times that they WILL NOT give you a routine appointment for in a few days time, say. They will give you an appointment today if you ask at 8.30 exactly otherwise you have to call tomorrow. But I thought that was the point in the e-consult form, so you can submit a request whenever and they can work through them? What the hell is the point in it if the online form also has a strict 8.30-8.35(or earlier) time window? And what do people do to get doctors appointments if they are working at 8.30am in the kind of job where you can't fanny about with your phone, or on the school run or something routinely at that time?

You don’t. It’s going to cost the nhs more in the long run. I know people who have had mild symptoms but not been bothered to go through the hassle of seeing the GP and then it turned out to be diabetes and even cancer a couple of years later. Prevention is cheaper than cure but that’s what you get with a Tory government

Exaggerate your symptoms. If I need an appointment for one of my children, I make it sound as if it might be an emergency by stressing certain aspects of their symptoms that prompt an urgent response of "we'd rather see them than not" from the receptionist because they're afraid of not seeing them.

I don't do this for myself so just tend to go without care unless it's absolutely urgent and then see the out-of-hours GPs at our local hospital (who are much better than our shit surgery anyway).

@porridgecake it the nhs app which won’t work! According to the screen we need to upload a video of our faces - ok, video done, but the app won’t accept the video! Our practice wants us to use two apps - the nhs one and patient access. The system requires four pass codes to use the two apps, only issued by the surgery - which won’t give us those codes. So… we have two separate issues now. We’ve filled in all the paperwork and provided drivers licenses and council tax proof of who we are, with photos of ourselves and yet we are no further forward. Even if we get the apps to work, it’s e consult followed by telephone call and then eventually a face to face appointment with a hcp not a dr.
In all, we feel like they just want us to go away and die quietly and not access the nhs in anyway. I have asthma - and can’t even get a nhs prescription anymore because I can’t get an appointment. So I self prescribe based on previous meds and buy it privately and fingers crossed I can still breathe!
111 won’t help this issue locally, as they just send you to a and e. But neither of us are willing to wait in and e for 18+ hours and frankly it’s not an emergency in the way heart attacks/rta/ broken bones/stabbings/gun shots are.
Add to this the local nhs trust has just closed an entire dr surgery in town and are refusing to open another one or provide extra funds to other surgeries (failed cqc and we were promised new premises for a new surgery to replace the failed one)- so now we have 12,000 patients all trying to get access at the remaining surgeries and all at the same time.
It really is die or go private or become your own expert and source what you need online.

edit to add. Our out of hours is appointment based with a few walk ins - but people queue up hours before it opens and are often turned away at the door.

I got turned away from my appointment which I had waited for over a month yesterday because I was classed as being late which I wasn't as when I got there a confused old man was monopolising the one receptionist. I was late by the time I got to the front of the queue and they sent me away to wait another month.

@Alphabet1spaghetti2

That is really awful. I am so sorry.
I didn't need to do any of that to sign up for the NHS app.
I had to take my passport and a bank statement to the surgery to get the patient access.
I wonder if it is just your practice that has invented all these extra checks, or if it is a national thing that has happened more recently?
Either way, it is excessive and seems to be designed to stop people getting access to their GP.
Have you written to your MP?

This is just inexcusable.
At my surgery you enter your details on a touch screen that is just inside the door. Once you have done that correctly a message pops up to say you have been "arrived for your appointment" and to go and take a seat. You don't need to go near the receptionist.
I hope you wrote a strongly worded letter to the practice manager and your MP.

You can apply that prevention is cheaper than cure to majority of council issues.

I feel very lucky reading this thread. I've called our surgery twice in the last year, both times when the children have been unwell. I've called mid morning, got through to reception within five or ten minutes, and been told the problem sounds urgent and I should bring them in at a certain time that afternoon. When I've done so we've seen a GP who's examined them and issued a prescription.

The only problem we've had is that the pharmacists have been out of stock of the prescribed medication both times. Once they phoned another branch and found what we needed, but the second time nowhere in this city had any stock. When that happened the pharmacy sent a message to the GP asking them to prescribe an alternative drug that was available, and that took until the following morning to come through.

You're with the wrong practice.
Our GPs now offer appointments up to 9 pm.
And weekends ( Sat and Sunday).
I send message via patches.. get phone call back same day and book to see a GP

I had this last year - round and round in circles with ever decreasing amounts of repeat prescription as GP needed to see me for a review. In the end I wrote a letter to the GP I like the most and explained that I'd be trying to get an appointment for 3 months. She texted me back within 24 hours to schedule one - so they did have slots available then.....

@porridgecake I suspect it’s a local issue to manage supply and demand for services. Although reading this and similar threads, I think it’s a slow creep across the country as demand outstrips supply. It does feel like a form of rationing that’s slowly being phased in, with the aim of dismantling the nhs as eventually only the most determined will
be able to use it, the rest either going private or dying. Bearing in mind, those in power have access to private insurance at subsidised cost or are simply paid a lot more than the rest of us and can afford private care, there is zero incentive for politicians or even business owners to lobby for nhs improvements. After all us minions are easily replaced by another worker bee or by a machine/computer….. as it simply doesn’t affect them and their view is it’s all our own fault - like the mortgage/Costa coffee and avocado argument!

Rishi Sunak says he has made great improvements to the NHS. His plan is working

Last time I tried to book a gp appointment, I was told to do it via the NHS App. Brilliant, I thought, so I logged in and went to the booking calendar, nothing available that day so I clicked to the following day and booked a slot. When I checked, it had actually taken me to the next available day.. which was in 3 months time.

I think with children they will be more cautious. Any older, not so much.

I worked at the Health Service Ombudsman as an investigator a few years back. (The place of last resort when you've exhausted any other NHS complaints procedure!). I saw many cases of elderly patients who clearly hadn't received the care they needed. But even at the Ombudsman, the general consensus was "well they're old they were going to die of something" 😳I did only work there for a couple of years but it was notoriously difficult to get any complaint upheld, more so the older the patient was.

Change your GP. I don't have any problems getting appointments at my GP

Yep And if employers DO want to be choosy they can always give you a wage rise so you can afford to go private.

Not hard where i am as they have a walk in or you can call at any time during opening hours and book one but it will be weeks away. Calling at 8 here is only for same day appointments

I wouldn't have put up with that at all!

Snap - DH got a txt after a chest x ray asking him to come in. Obviously panicking and spent hours in hold, nothing on his notes as to why and the first appointment is 31st May so hoping it's nothing serious...

Our e-consult is always there, otherwise I can walk in and speak to a human to book between 8-6.30.

Ours is hopeless, the booking line is open for 30 minutes during the school run, but all appointments are gone in the first 5 minutes. I try and avoid using the gp but have on several occasions when desperate phoned up at the ‘wrong’ time and after being told to phone again at 8am I’ve refused and been assertive, and they have invariably found me an appointment the same afternoon…

But we shouldn’t have to do this!

This is what baffles me - it's a fucking NATIONAL health service. I understand there's private contracts etc but part of those contracts should include some form of minimum standard / universal booking system. We're lucky here but I dread to think what will happen if our practice changes.

Not to mention the amount of money wasted by each surgery researching, setting up and testing different websites / apps etc why the hell isn't the NHS using its gargantuan buying power and putting the same tech in every surgery?!

I think everyone should write to their practice manager, cc to their MP. There is absolutely no excuse. If some surgeries can do it, I can't see how they can't all do it.

I felt like a lottery winner last week, called at 8 on the dot and was first in the queue. That’s never happened before!

You sign up with a GP that lets you book online any time you want. Haven't done a phone call to book anything in years.

If you can get into a GP on a university campus or in a student area, even better. They are only busy in exam season when students want sick notes.

Very few babies, children and elderly patients on their books taking up all the spots so easy to get an appt, even easier between semesters when the students have gone home.