To ask how long it takes to get a GP appt?

[HunkMarvin]

I’ve been ringing all week at 8 am and by the time I get to them they have no more appointments. This is even for routine ones in 2/3 weeks time as they release them in small batches each day apparently? No appointments you can book online.

I called bang on 8am and I’m number 24 in the queue 😭😭

I go to the surgery in person for 8am and will get an appt that morning, if I ring I never get through. We have E consults now which is slightly better for minor issues.

I ring BANG on, as in the very second it ticks over and I generally get an appt that day (depending on the seriousness of the issue) but I do have a very good surgery.

If it’s not urgent, usually takes me around 6 weeks for an appointment.

I would go to the surgery don't bother ringing. We do have econsult and that takes between 3-7 days for a gp phone call, I've gone to an urgent walk in centre a few times due to not being able to see a gp more urgently.

I can get them easily enough but I have to wait 6 weeks to be seen.

They don’t let you come in to make an appointment at ours you have to call

Its not life or death, but think my son has Impetigo and I don’t really want it going round the family and the pharmacy said GP (on Monday)

I dont know how people use econsult successfully as when I bring my surgery's econsult up it only has a set number of categories of medical conditions and if yours doesnt fit you cant pick one

Also even if you want a medication review you have to put in which doctor has told you to book one, if you havent been told to book one you cant have one

Tbf to my surgery, they’ve had their issues, but I got my son an appointment for 3 days time for a non urgent (but needed) appointment.

Ooh that's really hard, I'm so sorry. I'm suprised they don't want to see your son for impetigo as its highly contagious and needs treatment to get better! How old is your son?

Ours has recently moved back to the system thet had during covid where we fill in an online form, are triaged over the phone and then offered an afternoon appointment/phone call with the doctor. It works really well.

Hopefully yours will move to that system soon as the scramble at 8am is awful!!

I can get through on the phone later in the morning and get an appointment for later in the same week.

Had the same problem with econsult. I refuse to use it. Receptionist says it all needs to go through it, so she does it for me. If they do it it seems to work. If I do it doesn’t!

I went in yesterday at 9 to book an appointment, they saw me at 9.20 same day. Two people hadn't shown up.

Have you told them the pharmacy reccomended a GP appointment? I did and got an appointment within an hour just for oral thrush

6 weeks for a routine appointment as a phone call from the doctor. Up to 3 months to be seen face to face.

I don’t know how long it would take for an emergency appointment as I haven’t been able to get one. I ended up in A&E instead. I think they might be classifying “emergency” differently though.

My old GP had a great system for e-consults where you would get actual treatment advice back, or a pre-triaged appointment time. New GP uses the same system but the only thing that comes back from the consult is to phone at 8am for an appointment.

You can just ring 111 and tell them you can't get a GP appointment they have got me one before now also

Your pharmacy are wrong. Impetigo is under pharmacy first. Find a local pharmacy doing pharmacy first. They can prescribe treatment if it reaches the threashold.

You can find the algorithm they use online.

If it doesnt meet the threshold GP wont do much anyway. Our GP tends to follow similar reasoning for prescriptions as pharmacy first.

To answer your question though. Same day always. We have e consult. I can put a request in pretty much anytime up until 11am for anything urgent or not and be seen or spoken to same day, depending on the issue. I have phoned up at 16:00 on a friday before for my daugher and they've seen her within an hour. This is a practice covering a huge area of older and younger people. Huge demands on the service. But they are amazing at managing their resources appropriately and use all clinical staff as they should. I rarely see an actual GP. But I don't generally need a doctor. If they see you and they feel a doctor is needed they find one then and there. GP practices aren't all over stretched. They're just terribly mismanaged!

I don’t know why but DH has the NHS app and can get an appointment same day just by going through it. If I open the NHS app then there’ll be a few weeks to wait.

He literally woke up at 5am and booked an appointment same day for 7.30am a few days ago!

No idea why it’s different for us. Our GP is the same :(

Phoning is pointless

I phoned at 8.30am on Wednesday, was 9th in the queue and was seen at 11.25am. Standard for our surgery. I’ve never not been seen the same day when I needed to be seen.

I gave up after being told by admin staff at the GPs there were no appointments and to take DD to A&E for a minor but troublesome problem. £59 with BUPA, a call from a lovely doctor within an hour, problem sorted in 10 minutes.

Our surgery does appointments by email. You can try to get through by phone but email is infinitely less hassle and seems to be as fast.

An urgent appt is usually the same day, but you might be asked to turn up and wait at 3pm.

A non-urgent appt is usually 3-4 days.

We used to do the e consult thing during Covid where you could just email and it worked really well but they have stopped doing that about 3 months go. They have also stopped doing triage/appointments by email

I don’t know whether it’s because he’s under 5 pharmacy have said GP? It’s has happened before (albeit for something else) when my oldest was under 5..

I can’t make an appointment. I have put in a econsult. If you dare to call the surgery they are horrible. Once they’ve read the econsult you get an email reply. Sometimes you get an appointment sent - which is just set no discussion on times or days.
Or they will say they’ve sent a prescription.
Recently I had a nasty eye infection and they sent me an email giving me a list of opticians. I called all 18 opticians and the only one who could see me that week had one appointment in 6 days time. I called the surgery back and they told me hard luck.
In the end my eye got so bad I paid £129 to see a private GP plus another ££ for the private prescription.

I hate my GP practice.

Feel very fortunate. I can ring ant time of the day and usually get same day/next day appt. The option to have telephone only as well which is great when you know what the problem is but just want advice.
Our ambulance and a&e service is a different story. Hours waiting for either.
We're in a medium size town.
Sorry everyone else has rubbish service.

Count myself very lucky - we fill in a form online (including photos if required) and get a call back or text the same day. Most times we don’t even have to set foot in the surgery.

If we ring at 8 we are in a queue but we we get one that day. Not allowed to book in advance. I was a nurse until recently, and occasionally had to ring a practice at 7am,to book an appointment for a client whose mental health needs meant they would never manage to do this. I didn't start work until 9! Not unusual to be cut off when I got to number 1😐