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?

Our surgery doesn’t allow any of those options. I have full access to the NHS app for me and my child but we cannot contact the surgery or book online via the app as there is no e-consult option available at ours.

It's rubbish but it helps for some. Unfortunately as GPs are private businesses they can make the decision on whether or not to participate, the NHS nationally is pushing them to though.

Thats rubbish, I'm sorry. Hopefully the national push will encourage your GP to take part.

I stopped calling and waited outside at 8 am.

I've never experienced that. I usually fill one in the afternoon/evening sometime.

Ours is great. Opens at 8am. I get a note pre-prepared the night before, then cut and paste, sitting there at 7.59am waiting for it to open. Gp then rings within 2 hours. Having spoken to many people, read many mn threads, clearly this is very good service.

Yanbu

Originally the consultant form made things easier to access an appointment but now I'm sat with an implant 2 years out of date, can't get it changed cos they either never have the time or resources to do it or never have their consult forms open and if you do get through to the receptionist they tell you it's all online now.

My gp surgery is rubbish (for the patient - tbh it's probably shit for the GPs as well)
You can only book an appointment for that day.
IF you can get through between 8.10 and 8.15....which is nigh on impossible.
DS had an ear infection last year. After 3 days of waiting in a queue for 30-40 min and not getting to the front, and being late for work, we ended up going to a walk in centre and I took the morning off work.
But my work colleague, who has health anxiety (lives in a different town) can call at 8.15 or mid day for same day appointments and can book in advance for an apt as well. She has an appointment most weeks for either herself or her child.
And my sibling had a Saturday morning appointment that she booked in advance.

I’ve reluctantly had to go private for GP as the NHS system is so broken - including blood tests I’ve spent about £1k in the past few weeks, but I finally feel that I’m being listened to and that someone is ‘joining up the dots’ my NHS GP told me that I couldn’t be tested for X or Y - I stupidly believed them when what they actually meant was that testing was too expensive, not routine etc
I am angry that I’ve been fobbed off for years when I could have had help to feel better!

But lots of jobs don't allow phones. As a teacher I could organise so I could take a call if I knew what time they were calling but couldn't have my phone on all day on the off chance they might call. What would happen to the class when I need to speak privately?
Friends husband works in a factory/production line and they are not allowed their phone on the factory floor . It's great IF it's accessible for all nut it's not. We just have the mad 8.30 'call now!' And we repeatedly call "closed, closed ,closed. You are 17th in the queue'.
I think an issue where we live is the number of houses that have been built but the infrastructure has not been expanded to match.

We have a call system but times changed a changed a little while back.

Never heard of e-consult. We used to be able to use my health online to book routine appointments, but I never managed to see one available on there. Not all were released on there anyway. I used to use it to request repeat prescriptions, but get the chemist to do it now. They have stopped using my health online and there has been no replacement.

Used to be that phone lines opening at 8am for appointments, but had to be before 10am for an emergency morning appointment. You either got an engaged tone and needed to keep redialling, or got held in a queue, but without any indication of where in the queue you were.

The new system is 8.30 for emergency morning appointments, and 10.00 for routine ones. If you call too early and pick the option for a routine appointment, the message says you are too early. It will then end the call so you need to redial. I find it best to call at 9.59 so you get through the recorded message and can join the queue at 10.00.

Even doing that it is easy to be number 12 or 15 in the queue. I normally find I can get an appointment within a few days of trying. My latest one took 8 days of calling. There were some days I didn't call because I asked in advance if they had appointments to give out on the following day. Sometimes they don't (not enough cover to offer them) so I don't even bother. One of the days I hadn't checked I was number three in the queue and there was none available so I assume they had none that day.

Having said that the one time I asked what to do, as the surgery had sent me a letter telling me I needed to see the GP following blood test results, but I couldn't get an appointment after a few days of trying. I was told to email and they added me to the call back list instead - GP needed to just ask one or two quick questions before deciding whether to change my description so didn't need to actually see me in person.

There are times when I am not sure if they will class it as an emergency or not. When asked if routine or emergency appointment is needed will explain the issue and let them decide. Doing this has sometimes ended up with being offered an emergency appointment, either with a GP or nurse practitioner.

I feel sorry for everyone involved. There are not enough GPs and the pressure means that more are leaving than joining the profession, making it even harder for those that remain. Patients in some practices find it hard to get an appointment, and when they do they can often see different doctors so there is no continuity of care. The GPs are also against the clock when it comes to an appointment and so for so many conditions it takes time that they do not have to gain a full picture/understanding. That can lead to patients either not getting the care they need, or getting it but feeling that they haven't been fully listened to. Receptionists get stereotyped, and whilst some meet up to that picture, not all do. They probably don't get very well by some patients either when only trying to do their job,

We are in a Cornish ( large) village and my experience is the same as yours.

My brother called 111, they said gp would phone with an appointment. He waited and waited and finally phoned the gps and was told they had forgotten about him and there were no more 'reserved' appointments left - call again at 0800 in the morning! My wonderful brother is now dead due to their utter negligence and lack of care.

Late to this thread but YANBU and I think this system unfairly impacts women who generally do the school runs which are at the time you can ring for an appointment

We actually fill in the preferred method of contact on our phones, you choose phone, email or text. I chose phone because i can answer my phone. Didnt put it in my op as didnt think it was relevant to how i got my appointment.

For something non urgent I have found writing an old fashioned polite letter to a named person (either a doctor or the practice manager, as appropriate)and either posting it or dropping it in can get results.

You get past the "computer says no" admin and people find it more difficult to ignore a letter I feel.

If you write a letter explaining you cannot get an appointment but you need one for x, you may find they will book one for you. If this doesn't work, follow up with a formal letter of complaint.

Yes, me too. Phone at 0830 sharp (according to the text message) to make an appointment for that day only (if you can get through and are prepared to be on hold for an hour).

It seems to me that individual surgeries are just inventing their own systems and some of them are ridiculous.
GPs don't offer phlebotomy here, everyone has to book an appointment at one of 4 local phlebotomy services attached to local hospitals. (London).
GP will do the forms and will either post or leave to be collected.
Then you book your slot by phone or online.
It works well, but you have to be organised to book as the slots are released 4 weeks at a time. The online system is very easy and efficient.
My surgery is generally very good, but it is a long established practice and seems to be a really nice place to work, so the GPs stay for years and the same locums seem to come back regularly to cover holidays etc.
The practice is good with texts/emails and phone calls.
The only problem I have had is with repeat prescriptions, but that is only since they have employed an inhouse pharmacist as an intermediary and he seems to get it wrong most of the time.

Also if you need to be at work at a set time in a place eg retail, teaching, hospitality etc. If I phone at 8.10....and am in a queue for 40 min , I can't leave for work in case in the extremely unlikely event they say they have an apt for 10am and I'm half way to work

@Manthide If you dont mind will you come back and update how it goes with the MP?

Another thing im sick of hearing is that the NHS is free at the point of use. How the fuck is it free when im fourteenth in line and my phone credit is being used up waiting

Will do! Everyone from the oncologist, the paramedic who confirmed his death ( gp couldn't even come out to do that and they now employ paramedics) to the coroner (had to go to the coroner as he hadn't seen a gp in the previous 28 days - year) has said his treatment was beyond awful.
The surgery are requiring a copy of his Will to pursue the complaint despite my brother authorising my dm to deal with the surgery on his behalf. Even the day before his death they were causing major issues regarding his prescriptions and sent the wrong ones.

Its broken. We can't ring our surgery. It goes like this...
Send in e-consult which usually can only accept new e-mail in 2-3 days time at 7.30 am. Wait 2 days to send e-consult.
Send e-consult. Wait 5 days for a text reply.
Text reply instructs you to collect meds in 5 days time from the pharmacy.

Its now been 2 weeks and I have either rung 111 or ignored the problem and hope its not serious.

Oh God im so sorry. How utterly useless and inept they are

How old was your brother...............not that it matters

Our surgery opens the lines for appointments for the day after next at 1pm. It used to be 0830 but they moved it to a more accessible time.

If you need seen urgently you phone anytime & ask for a same day appointment. The receptionist asks for a brief outline & if you meet the urgent criteria you're called back by the duty doctor.

System works well. I was very unwell last year & besides hospital tests I had something like 15 GP appointments over a 3 month period. All same day appointments.