Page 4 | Getting a GP appt

MidlandMary · 2025-04-04T20:41:24+00:00

I was in our local pharmacy today to get help with my kids hayfever issues. I noticed lots of self-service kits on offer, from thyroid to UTI infections and colon function. All fine, this can be done via these services but I wonder, in that my daughter needed antibiotics for an ear infection recently, prescribed by a nurse, what is the role now of a GP? I'd rather a GP but on the NHS this doesn't seem possible now. Have GP's gone private now? I don't blame them if so 😔

ScaryM0nster · 06/04/2025 02:46

MidlandMary · 05/04/2025 23:01

So, I feel the outcome of this discussion is that NHS GPs are dealing with advanced old age issues and other severe community problems. AHC and pharmacies pick up the slack.
Okay sure but there are other healthcare needs that require GP input.
Where do we go other than private for those needs?

If it actually needs a GP then you go to your GP practise and get an appointment with a GP. Either directly, or by being referred on from an appointment with another member of the practise team.

If it’s something that the NHS contract doesn’t class as needing to be done / needing a GP and you still want it anyway then you would need to go private.

doodahdayy · 06/04/2025 02:59

Nurse practitioners can deal with minor illnesses abd ailments that need antibiotics. They do seek advice/second opinions from gps if needed when I’ve seen one.

Concretejungle1 · 06/04/2025 03:17

MidlandMary · 05/04/2025 23:01

So, I feel the outcome of this discussion is that NHS GPs are dealing with advanced old age issues and other severe community problems. AHC and pharmacies pick up the slack.
Okay sure but there are other healthcare needs that require GP input.
Where do we go other than private for those needs?

I have gps, physios, nurse and paramedic and it is a small gp surgery.
My gps do not deal with old age issues, where are you getting this from?
they triage the appointments.
not every appointment needs the gp.
bloods, asthma, contraceptive can be done by the nurse.
hip/back pain etc-physio
paramedic even deals with some medication issues.
i have seen the paramedic once, rest is always the gp, i have been at my practice all my life.

Fizbosshoes · 06/04/2025 03:33

It would likely be easier for me to get Taylor Swift concert tickets than get a GP apt at our surgery.
You call at 8.10, are put in a queue, stay there for about 40 min by which time all appointments are gone, rinse and repeat for several days. I ended up going to an NHS walk in centre the last time DS needed a GP.
(He had had anti biotics for an ear infection, but it hadn't improved after the course of a-b, and they had said to go back....except it was an impossibility)
A colleague has health anxiety, she easily manages to see a GP, just about weekly

doodahdayy · 06/04/2025 03:51

Fizbosshoes · 06/04/2025 03:33

It would likely be easier for me to get Taylor Swift concert tickets than get a GP apt at our surgery.
You call at 8.10, are put in a queue, stay there for about 40 min by which time all appointments are gone, rinse and repeat for several days. I ended up going to an NHS walk in centre the last time DS needed a GP.
(He had had anti biotics for an ear infection, but it hadn't improved after the course of a-b, and they had said to go back....except it was an impossibility)
A colleague has health anxiety, she easily manages to see a GP, just about weekly

Can you change GP?

Thriwit · 06/04/2025 09:54

Fizbosshoes · 06/04/2025 03:33

It would likely be easier for me to get Taylor Swift concert tickets than get a GP apt at our surgery.
You call at 8.10, are put in a queue, stay there for about 40 min by which time all appointments are gone, rinse and repeat for several days. I ended up going to an NHS walk in centre the last time DS needed a GP.
(He had had anti biotics for an ear infection, but it hadn't improved after the course of a-b, and they had said to go back....except it was an impossibility)
A colleague has health anxiety, she easily manages to see a GP, just about weekly

I feel for you, I have the same issue! And I find it frustrating when I see so many people saying they can see a GP with no issues.

Our surgery has no online facility - no e-consult or booking. You have to call at 8am and just keep calling. Sometimes all the appointments are gone & you have to try again the next day. Sometimes they say the doctor will call you back - but they don’t know when, and if you miss the call you have to start again the next day. Occasionally they’ll offer you an appointment, but it has to be the one they offer - I once had to turn one down because it was 8:30am, they offered me an appointment at 9am, but I was at work 45 minutes away. Then it’s either get a callback that I can’t take, then back to the beginning the next day.

The system is completely unusable for many people who work. For example, I start work at 7:30am and work in a controlled environment so am all togged up in PPE & can’t answer the phone - so I inevitably miss any call back.

As for changing surgeries - that’s impossible, this is the only surgery I’m in catchment for.

I’m growing increasingly resentful at the disparity in GP access across the country.