To ask what using your GP is like (trying to work out if mine is typical)

[HealthRobinsonCrusoe]

I can only make an appointment by phoning at 2pm. There's no online booking system. All the appointments are gone by 210pm. When they run out you just have to try again tomorrow.

This includes when they have texted you to tell you to make an appointment (otherwise they might stop repeat prescriptions).

There are no in person appointments except to see a nurse for samples. They call you over the course of a morning or afternoon. So you can't just take a short break from work.

They don't do shared care agreements. They don't recognise private diagnosis for prescribing so you have to go in the nhs waiting list before you can get treatment.

When they register new patients it's Tuesday mornings only. First 25 people only. You have to queue outside to physically collect a form. People go away disappointed.

The prescriptions are quite often wrong. When you try to phone to get them fixed you're cast into the chaos of the appointments system.

So aibu to think they're spectacularly awful jokers getting rich on suffering? Or is this pretty typical? It feels humiliating and scary dealing with them.

I'm in Edinburgh so I'd love to know if England/elsewhere in Scotland is better. Seriously thinking about moving because I feel like I've essentially no one to go to if I get seriously ill.

Sounds dreadful, in fairness to our GP, there’s always the 8am scramble for appointments, but providing you navigate that you will get an appointment with someone, depending on the issue, that day, if they ask you to make an appointment for bloods etc, you can ring anytime and they arrange it within the next two weeks, never had an issue with prescriptions, but GPs definitely vary, our daughter lives a few miles away, she’s been trying for over a month to make an appointment for a repeat prescription, they only have emergency appointments available on a morning, it’s not an emergency and everything else gets an appointment often a month in advance but never after the 5pm she really needs for work purposes as they are harder to get, she’s asked what people who work are supposed to do and just gets told keep trying, now at the point where she apparently has to go to her pharmacy and request an emergency prescription as the GP can’t issue it

,😭 they pretend to care if sickness is "interfering with your ability to work" but it's rubbish - systems are set up to exclude working people until they either get better on their own (often by paying for it) or get really seriously unwell and can't work any more.

I just can't imagine what other business would be allowed to operate this way and they're handed a gold plated monopoly contract.

I guess a good reason to get your kids into medicine - so they can prescribe you things!

I'm also in Scotland and there are similarities.
It is also very difficult to get an appointment - we have recently been told that on the day appointments are for medical emergencies only, everything else needs to be pre-booked with at least a week to wait before you're seen. I did ask where I should go for primary care that wasn't an emergency and they couldn't answer.
Funnily, I did call with ongoing chest pains, NHS online advice said to see a GP immediately with my symptoms. No word of a lie, I was told it wasn't considered urgent, but should it become severe and if I developed numbness or pain in my arm(s), to call 999. I actually laughed and asked if I was being told to wait until I was having a heart attack to be seen, and was told, essentially, yes! Luckily it wasn't that (although I am now undergoing tests with cardiology), but it does seem like many surgeries are just leaving you to suffer until it's life threatening.

We apply using an online form describing our symptoms. We get triaged and a call back. I've recently had a couple of same-day appointments as a result, and a one a month in the future - which was fine as it wasn't urgent.

It works very well for me. I don't know how it works for people who can't use the online form.

We used to have to ring, waiting for ages, and then get called back. The current system is far better.

Mine is nothing like that, can call anytime and the phone is answered, there is an 8am scramble for same day appointments, but there's the option of Livi online appointment which has been brilliant.

The repeat prescription is via NHS app, any prescription issues I can call up the prescription desk to reissue (might take a day to sort if there isn't a GP to sign off there and then).

Have needed to wait a month for a specialist appointment as the was only one nurse who could do pediatric ear syringe - but as DD wasn't in too much pain this was fine.

Overall I'm really really happy!

im in west lothian but it will still come under the same NHS board i believe

i phone at 8am for an appointment and after telling the receptionist a brief summary i will get either a telephone appointment or offered a face to face appointment with the best person suited to my issue so sometimes will be the mental health nurse or someone with knowledge of HRT

a lot can be done on their website like repeat prescriptions, new sicklines, HRT requests etc

I'm England sorry, not Narnia 😁 I know I'm a rare lucky one getting excellent service.

Replying as I am in Edinburgh too and my GP surgery is nothing like yours.

You have to phone at 8am to get a same day appointment, you do have to try over and over again, but it's usually possible to get an appointment. You can choose whether in person or face to face. You can do book ahead appointments, you normally have yo wait about 10 days for these. Haven't had any problem with prescriptions.

Is there not another practice you could move to?

Ours is miles better.

There's an online system where you can log your symptoms. You get called back often really fast, like 10-15 mins later sometimes. If they need to see you they offer and in person appointment same day. Sometimes if its something simple like a child with a ruptured ear drum, or a blood pressure check, they'll have you see the paramedic or nurse.

I’ve never seen my GP. I’ve been diagnosed over the phone and told to collect a prescription from a local chemist. Offered a phone consultation to try and locate my lost Mirena strings (finally got an in person appointment for that, at another surgery five miles away as they were the only ones with availability). Sent to another surgery to have stitches removed (and they left half of them in - DH ended up removing them) as they had no-one available to remove stitches for six weeks.

Our GP surgery has 13 consulting rooms. These days no more than two are ever occupied.

I no longer live in the UK and have a wonderful GP practice. Always get a timely appointment and the receptionist is great. And I have a online GP for out of hours coverage, as DD has a talent for falling ill on a Friday night. But I pay for it, €60 a visit.

My previous English GP had a huge practice with 3 medical centres, but one woman answering the phones. All appointments gone fast, and you could be on hold for an hour. But they'd usually squeeze in a v ill child for an emergency appointment. A 4 week wait to see anyone as an adult was usual. Even if they called to say you needed an urgent appointment, but the person calling didn't do appointments. It was insanely frustrating.

Editing to add that even 6 years ago I was being sent to see pharmacists and paramedics rather than GPs, without being told in advance. Sometimes they were great, but more often it just delayed seeing a GP for 8 week.

I'm in Edinburgh as well, I book a phone appointment online, there are always next day appointments if you don't mind which doctor. Doctor will ask you to come in if it's necessary, always quickly. Can always call to get an appointment within a few days if I know it needs looked at. There's a duty doctor who can take you directly from the pharmacy.

I wonder if yours is known as particularly bad, does it start with B?

I’m in NE Scotland. No online booking or e-Consult. You can do fastest finger first at 8am, and there is a small number of appointments on the day or in 48 hours, everything else is a six to eight week wait. We have access to private care through DP’s work medical insurance, and a few months back I did a video call with a doctor about a dodgy mole. He said it needed to be seen by dermatology, and gave me a letter to take to the GP. GP wouldn’t accept the letter and said I had to see someone there, so I waited seven weeks for an appointment and now waiting to hear from dermatology…

We’re lucky with repeat prescriptions being done very quickly and sent to the pharmacy to collect, usually within 24h depending on when you call it in.

We fill in a form and the issue is always answered within a few hours.
We have had face to face gp appointment, consultations with a pharmacist or physio all the same day.
Can't fault them

You're children won't be allowed to prescribe things for you

Your even

We fill in an on line form at 8am and they always call you same day. mine are very good.

If I’m very unwell and need to see someone urgently I can call and wait about 5 to 15 mins to get through - have always had a same day appt offered (I’m pretty judicious in when I call gp: I definitely need to see a dr if I call!) or I can fill out econsult for less urgent stuff. E consult is brilliant - I get a text either telling me bloods have been ordered or a prescription sent or it tells me that I have an in person or telephone appt at x time on y day.

this is a large London practice with 12,000 patients on the books

your system sounds horrendous OP

It’s how busy it is. The demand on gp appointments has sky rocketed.

how many times on here do you see ‘get a letter from your gp for x,y,z…..’ usually minor issues that have nothing to do with the gp and waste appointments.

it’s the hospital waiting lists that now mean a patients sees the gp 2/3/4 times for help with the same thing whilst they wait - yet the gp can’t do much because they need hospital care.

it’s the epidemic of mental health issues with minimal mental health support available and lowered resilience since covid.

it’s the lack of funding from government and the diversion of gp funding to nonsense schemes, like a pharmacy checking your bp (money spinner) but then you have to see the gp to have it rechecked/treated but we don’t have that funding gift. Looks good on publicity for the government tho.

it’s burnout of staff who will no longer give there health, well being and time for free to ‘go the extra mile’ because frankly it’s shat upon from above, from hospitals and from the public generally.

it’s diversion of secondary care work - how many times have I been asked to ‘share care’ and yet the hospital side doesn’t give the patient the correct appointment/test etc because ‘waiting times’ and a shrug off the shoulders. But I should burden that responsibility if it goes wrong.

just a few reasons.

My GP (London) does have an online booking system but the appointments on there aren’t for at least 3 weeks in advance. We have an 8am Emergency appointment list & it’s murder to try get onto that & when it’s an emergency appointment depending on what category they put you into you’ll either get given a face to face drs appointment or a face to face paramedic appointment, a phone call from the doctor or a phone call from the paramedic. If anything is done via the paramedic you get a text with a plan from the dr. Definitely don’t find them as good as they use to be pre Covid. The same as my hospital health care, was way better pre Covid.

We fill in an e consult from 9 am onwards. If they have too many they close the e consult. Sometimes they get back to you the same day and ask you to come in. Other times they signpost you to another HCP within the practice. Depending on their triage may have to wait a few weeks for an appointment.

I started Mounjaro privately and I have another condition which needs monitoring more closely because of taking Mounjaro. They have agreed to 3 monthly blood tests to make sure my other condition is not affected.

My Mum couldn’t get to see a GP. She was constantly told, on the phone, for over two years, that the pain in her chest was caused by a pulled muscle. She was in her 80s. She ended up in hospital due to a fall, they diagnosed her with terminal lung cancer and she died within a few weeks. It was the same with my Dad. Told the pain was psychological. He died in extreme pain of lung cancer, days after he was finally diagnosed.

Ours are excellent.

If you need a same-day appointment then you can ring or fill in an e-consult. You always get a phone call back at the very least, but they'll give you a F2F appointment if you need it.

Or, you can book routine appointments (including smears) online up to six weeks in advance. You can also cancel or re-arrange appointments online too. Our surgery also does routine x-rays as well as minory surgery (like mole removals) in-house. You can book those online as well as long as your GP has approved it.

I've been quite a few times recently for chronic health conditions and I've never, ever had a problem. It's just a standard NHS practise in a rural town - not in a remotely rich area or anything.

You also get blood results within 24 hours (same day if you go before lunch) and they'll ring and book you a follow-up if you need it. If not, you can get all your results on the NHS app. I've also had three non-urgents referrals recently with no issue - had appointments for two within 12 weeks and just waiting for the third now.

I can't fault them, they're great and the staff are absolutely lovely.

Mine has gone so far downhill that they've started digging for China in there.

They used to be great. You could call up anytime, they'd answer quickly and at least consider booking an appointment for you.

These days, you can book an appointment online between 8am and 8.01am, if you're very lucky. You aren't allowed to book an appointment in advance for any reason. If you have a medical emergency that needs treatment the same day and you couldn't book an appointment at 8am or didn't know about it until after 8am, the receptionists are very well trained in telling you to piss off and try 111.

They have also changed their IVR when you call so you have two minutes of listening to all the reasons why you shouldn't bother them with anything unless it's life or death and if it is life or death then don't bother calling them either. Says it all really.