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'm in NI @HunkMarvin and we don't have the 111 service. You phone the out of hours GP service for your area (also known here as the bell doctor or bell doc😆) and sometimes they will ask to see you (at 3 o'clock in the morning) or they might issue a prescription or advise that you see your GP or send you to A&E. It operates during the night and at weekends. But if you need advice during the day, there ain't any😬 You are supposed to phone your GP surgery, only to be told (in ours anyway) that they are not accepting any more phone calls for ANYTHING because all the appointments are filled for the day.

Have you tried booking an appointment on the NHS Livi app?

You can often get same day appointments, I think they run between 7am - 10pm, and it’s a video call with a registered GP.

They can issue prescriptions.

If I ring at 8am, I'll be in a phone queue but never have to wait more than about ten mins. If I ring at quieter times of day, the call is often picked up immediately.

With my children (aged 10 - so not vulnerable little babies by any means) I'll generally get the duty doctor calling me back within the hour. If it's not something they can easily resolve by phone, they give us an appointment in the surgery - always the same day and usually within an hour or so.

If it's for me and it's not urgent, there can be a wait of up to 10 days to see a GP but I've never had any difficulties getting an appointment.

In short, the service at our surgery (English city centre) is amazing. I read with horror what others have to experience. It feels as though medical care is being rationed - not by need but by how long you can hang on the phone.

What's also worth me mentioning is that all the staff at our practice - receptionists, nurses, practice pharmacist, GPs - genuinely seem to care. I guess they're not rushed off their feet and so they're able to remain true to the parts of themselves that first attracted them to the profession.

I'm at the end of my third week of trying and still no further forward
I have to phone at 8.30 every day there's no option for booking in advance it's only same day appointments. And even then it's if the receptionist deems it worthy or not,

2 weeks, but I get regular texts off them asking if I need to cancel. The thing is when I went yesterday. the waiting room was nearly empty,

I always get an appointment same day. My surgery are great though. I've phoned with an issue I the afternoon a couple of times for my baby and always been told to bring her in by the end of the day.

If we ring bang on 8am I can guarantee to be about 14 or 15 in the queue but they do a call back service which is great so you don't have to hang on the phone.

Our surgery also does an online thing where you request an appointment, explain in as much detail what it is you need it for and they triage it and send you a text with an appropriate appointment which also seems to work well.

I've never been dissatisfied with the service.. it's a bit annoying that you can't just ring and get an appointment there and then but I guess that's how things are now

We actually managed to get a telephone appointment this afternoon and then they called us in to see him. They don’t think it’s impetigo and are doing a referral for something else so really glad I rang now. Stress over for the most part

I’m glad it worked out for you @HunkMarvin

We have two half hour slots in a day (morning and night) to call up to speak to doctor for appointment. Getting through on the call is hard part as everyone phones at the same time

Once through you give details to receptionist and a brief note of why calling and you are then on a triage list and at some point in the day a doctor will call you back.

You discuss with doctor and then they see if the need is to come in or if they can prescribe/refer anything over the phone

Whenever I have needed myself or child seen to I always get seen same day I have phoned.

We can't ring for appointments. The surgery has moved from eConsult to Accurx (I think that's it) which is better than eConsult to fill in.

They 'close' access to the Accurx form when they have reached capacity, which is normally by 8.05 am. They will triage from your form, then you will be sent a text with an appointment if they think it's necessary, which will probably be a telephone appointment. There will be no choice of date or time, normally something like between 2 and 6 pm, which nicely covers the entirety of my commute so I would miss the call. My 'urgent' appointment was made for 10 days after my Accurx form, and my urgent bloods appointment was made for a week later. I now have an 'urgent' appointment to speak about the results (which were a bit concerning) which is a week after the results came back. Not especially quickly, OP, is my answer.

If we ring before 9 about a 50% chance of getting an appointment. Ringing later no chance. They do not allow you to advance book a non-urgent appointment.

Where do you live?

I suppose phone appointments are great for some, but I have no place at work to take a call privately, nor any guarantee that I wouldn't be on a work call when they called or working away from my mobile. I vividly remember discussing my uterus at a busy London bus stop 🙄

I put in an online request at 8am. Have always had a response or ring back by 9. If an in person appointment is needed I’ve always got it same day. I’ve no major ailments so it’s not like I’m getting special treatment due to ongoing condition.

in Manchester - great surgery practice. Massive place. Slick, well run, and never had any issues.

We used to have the horror of having to be ready to press call at precisely 8am, and then could be in the queue for 40mins to get through.
But now we have an online triage type system, so you get seen the same day if they think you need to be - I did one for a DC at 3pm and they were given an appointment 1.5hrs later. It also enables them to request photos of a problem like eczema etc and they can prescribe without seeing you. So much better than the old system. But if you don't have the ability to use it, you'd have to ring reception and they'd fill it in for you.

I took DD14 to the pharmacy on a Sunday to buy treatment for oral thrush. They looked, took our details but explained that they couldn’t sell the treatment to U16’s. They did a referral to our GP and at 08.00 the next morning I had a text from GP that they had reviewed and send a prescription to pharmacy to pick up straight away. It was so efficient and much easier than phoning for an appointment.

LOL

Phone appointments are completely unworkable if you work. You can’t devote the time required to book the appointment and take the appointment if you have to do a job. Getting the appointment is a full time job in itself.

But the entire NHS seems to function like this. The assumption seems to be there is always a full time mum at home and able to devote 4 hours to getting through a switchboard and negotiating all the Byzantine bureaucracy necessary to get a medical appointment.

I know they are insanely overstretched but there seems to be no acknowledgment that this isn’t workable for most families. So your ability to get urgent medical attention depends in part on how much time you can devote to the extreme endurance test of getting through a switchboard.

When did we start to tolerate this?

I rand on Wednesday at about 9:30. I was number 2 in the queue. Answered in less than a minute. I was asked if it was urgent (it isn’t) and was offered 3 or 4 appointment times for Monday coming.

I am so lucky to have a really great practice. I live in a small city in the south east.

I can always get a same day appointment.

Takes about 5 mins to get through.

Triage nurse calls within an hour and either allocates a Gp or nurse appointment or sends a prescription straight to the pharmacy.

I have occasionally called later in the day with something urgent and hit an appointment at the end of the day.

Or called out of hours and got an appointment at the local hospital a few hours later.

I know this is unusual in the UK. It's even unusual in my town.

We used to have a fantastic GP surgery and it was very easy to get an appointment. I used to think we were lucky compared to the tales I heard from others. However, in the last couple of months they have changed their system and it is almost impossible to get an appointment. You now can't call the surgery. You have to submit your problem online (however, if it gets past 10am, a message comes up on the screen to say they have reached capacity for the day). If you are lucky enough to get your request submitted, a GP triages your request and sends you a link to appointments. However, there are never any appointments availablein the link. So you have to physically go to the surgery and speak to a receptionist, who tells you you need to do an online triage. Then you have to argue (politely of course) that you have been through the entire process and there are no appointments available. They will then reluctantly give you an appointment. This happens every time now. It's crazy. It used to work so well.

took over a year to get an appointment for a breast lump... need i say more 😬

I can usually get one the same day or within a week if not urgent. The receptionists are really helpful in my surgery and will try to get you seen. Children are always seen the same day regardless of urgency. My GP is excellent and one of those rare ones who really listens so I never feel fobbed off or rushed. I think my surgery is very rare these days and I’m not unaware of how fortunate I am to have the care that I do.

I walk past my GP surgery on my way home from the station, and the waiting room is always almost empty. This is a big practice with (nominally) 4 partners and a similar number of registrars. The waiting room used to be full of patients coming and going, but now I am willing to bet the few patients you see in there are waiting to see the nurse, because her car is the only one you ever see in the staff car park.

I haven't seen a GP since before the pandemic, and nor has my son - I don't think he can remember ever going to the surgery. They will prescribe whatever you suggest though (it feels like) if you have the persistence to fill in endless online consults and then wait for calls (no time indicated) from: a receptionist, another receptionist (to clarify), a nurse, a clinical pharmacist, the pharmacist again for more information, the pharmacist again after they have spoken to a doctor, and then a receptionist again to confirm. If you haven't worked out what is wrong with you and what you need prescribed before you call the surgery, you will get told to go to A&E if it is urgent, otherwise they cannot help but if it isn't urgent enough for A&E why are you even bothering them?

I've been with my surgery for 5 years, never had to see a doctor until now. They don't take phone calls, you have to go into the triage system on-line, which is only open in morning. I tried it 8 days ago, haven't heard anything back and am wondering if I ever will. I have private health insurance but need to see a GP to actually get referred.

On the other hand tried Pharmacy First last week as well as I couldn't see a doctor. An on-line appointment that morning, antibiotics prescribed which arrived in the post the next day. They only do a limited number of conditions though.