Can drs have no pre bookable appointments?

[Franklyfranky]

I need some blood tests because I’m pretty such I’m anaemic and low vit d (have history of it symptoms are the same as when I’ve been quite poorly with it)

I cannot get a blood test without a gp appointment. I cannot pre book a GP appointment. I have to call the emergency line everyday. I cannot get through. Ive been told categorically the GP does not have pre bookable appointments. I thought they had to?

is anyone familiar with the guidelines to say if this is correct?

My dad's GP is the exact same, it is woeful! Am trying to help him as he's been so ill since his Moderna booster, had bloods done two years ago which I've discovered are totally out of range and worrying yet nothing was done. I'm being pro-active to try to help him but you have to ring at 8am and I've done that and been on hold for 45 mins then hung up on or all slots are gone. No online webpage whatsoever and we are in Scotland so no app for results or anything. Total and utter disgrace.

You have said you can book nurse appointments and lots of people have suggested you do this but you seem to ignore them ... why don't you book the nurse appointment? They will likely triage you and organise a Dr if needed or the blood tests if required. Many nurses are able to request blood tests without a doctor being directly involved.

It sounds as if they just don't have capacity?

Email the practice manager, mark it urgent, and ask what you are supposed to do.

Not here the nurse cannot do a blood test, in the instance you need one (even if the nurse recommends it) you need to call at 8 again.

this is what I’ve been told by the practice

Primary care is shocking these days. Our surgery often has no appointments. You can only ring as urgent at 8 for urgent same day appointments, and if they assess the issue as not urgent, you will be told to make a routine appointment for which there aren't usually any slots. I recently managed to get one by ringing 3 weeks every day and a routine appointment became finally available.

in our surgery, the nurse would advise to book a GP appointment. The nurse wouldn't organise blood tests by speaking to the GP. I, as the patient, need to speak to the GP. And then I can see the nurse for bloods.

@Franklyfranky GP surgeries are funded and services are commissioned by the integrated care board. This changed in 2022.

I think because it is so highly unusual for there to be no access to online communication within your surgery at all that it may be worth going into reception and asking at the front desk. The practice manager should be available to address this.

GP practices have varying pressures and this maybe whilst you feel you've reached an impasse but you've got options and had some reasonable advice on here. I have worked reception for years. I've worked in two surgeries and have never once told anyone that there are no appointments available. It might not be the first choice but we will always offer something. We always provide options and try to help. If you're not getting that then seeing the practice manager is absolutely reasonable.

You don’t need a GP to take blood. A nurse can.

im in wales and I prebook my nurse appointment. 6 weeks in advance.

@Sheknowsaboutme that is for pre existing conditions. Usually monitoring for chronic illness. The op does need a GP appointment.

Similar to other posters you cannot pick a day and pre book and appointment online at mine. Nor can you call in the morning to request an appointment, unless it is urgent. So you submit an online form explaining the situation and Triage it then call you back, usually to offer a future appointment day/time.

And what if what's wrong with her is thyroid problems? Or early menopause? Or something more serious?

If they don't have capacity then that's even more reason why they should triage all requests rather than rely on fastest finger first.

It's very possible of course that if the OP rang outside the booking window with red flag symptoms (eg unexplained weight loss + blood in stool, or just a raging ear/bladder infection) then an appointment would be found. I'd certainly hope so.

I’ve spoken to reception and have been told management decided to remove the online option, my assumption being it was put in place when the cqc were on them and then taken away after. The practice manager is the lead GPs wife also. Again cited as a problem by the cqc as complaints were not dealt with or looked into. The only option is the 8am phone call.

No they wouldn’t. My son was 2 weeks old and had rsv and needed to be seen, the GP refused. He was blue lighted to hospital later that day.

congratulations. I don’t know why you’re arguing when I’ve specifically been told that I need a GP appointment by the practice

Cannot re-book appointments at my GPS either.
At my last appointment, my doctor told.me.to.come back in 8 weeks. That was 7 months ago as I just can't get a nom-emergency appointment at 8am.

It took me ages to work out how to negotiate our practice, probably because times have changed and because I fortunately haven’t needed much help historically.

so for an “urgent” appointment eg UTI you call at 8am and wait in a queue for up to 45 minutes, ours are pretty good and you are allocated an appropriate HCP so Dr, Advanced Clinical Practioner or Nurse depending on issue. You cannot demand a doctor if you can be treated by a nurse. If all the appointments are gone and it’s still considered urgent you get a phone appointment, the clinician will call you anytime up to 14:00 and then will call you in to the surgery later that day if they can’t resolve over the phone.

for none urgent stuff (I have steroid injections in a joint) you raise a Patches request and it’s picked up by someone and reception will call you back with a non urgent appointment probably three weeks in advance.

Understanding how it works, means everyone’s expectations are met and it’s run really well.

Yes I hate calling and sitting on hold for half an hour, then having to wait five hours for a call back, but I’ve not been let down and no longer get frustrated because I know how it works.

edited to add, I am aware ours is a good practice and is rated as such. I also am aware not all surgeries are good, but it’s very useful to know how they work.

I was prescribed iron supplements by the GP as extremely deficient and discovered that I could buy exactly the same strength otc at half the price in the form of Ferrous Fumerate/Sulphate. They’re ones you have to ask pharmacist for rather than in shelves. Maybe you could try these if you’re not already and see if they help while you’re trying to get an appt. Our local pharmacist can advise on high strength supplements for other things too. sometimes they can offer things you won’t find unless you ask.

I don’t feel I should be self diagnosing and medicating on what I think might be wrong

Have you phoned 111 yet?

They will ask you a million questions then give you either a gp appt somewhere, a gp phone call or advise you to go to urgent care.

Phone 111. In my experience, if you tell them your symptoms and they think you need to see a doctor, and you’ve told them you can’t get an appointment, they will phone the doctor themselves and tell him/her you need to be seen. In my case the surgery phoned back the same day with an appointment for the following day.

They do have messaging systems. It works like this:

- call exactly at 8am.

"Sorry we have too many callers - please try again"
or you get through & answer the one million options to make an appointment - then "You are caller number 23 - please hold, your call is important to us" & hold for an hour or so and then get through and find there are no appointments.

• call at 8.03 am & auto system tells you

"Sorry there are no more appointments today - please call back tomorrow".

My surgery does offer a long list of options - call back, call tomorrow, use econsult (never availability), go to our website (website tells you to call), use NHS Ap (can't make GP appointment on there) etc.

It's all part of the loop of doom and no one is getting an appointment.

End result is health care is very difficult to access and many will not be bothering.

So happy my kids are very rarely unwell - they have not seen a GP since before we moved 7 years ago.

I feel so sad about the 111 system.
I'm happy its there. But we've had to implement a massive new system, and we have to talk to more people, simply to access a GP appointment.

Its a very backwards complicated, not to mention expensive, solution to a very basic problem - how to access a GP.

This may not be relevant to you but I got an appt. for possible peri symptoms through a sexual health clinic last year.

I saw a nurse there for some symptoms - she suggested peri, which hadn't occured to me, and booked me an appointment.