GP would like suggestions on how to improve access to your doctor for your under 5's.

[Apatosaurus]

Hi, my DH has just been made lead Child Health GP at his practice. He is thinking about re-organising the accessability/availability for parents with under 5's to see their GP, and has asked me to canvas MN opinion for him.

Currently the surgery runs the usual 10 min appt system on a phone-in-the-morning, first come, first served basis. He is aware that lots of worried parents with poorly kids are not been seen as quickly as they like (ie given afternoon appts or told call back tomorrow).

He is thinking about starting an open under 5's clinic as an alternative to the usual phone and book system. This would mean that every day you could attend the surgery with your child, at a specific time and would be guarranteed to see a doctor. No appointment necessary. The down side is of course that you may have to wait in a queue if there are lots of sick kids needing to see a doctor that day.

He would like to know if you think that's a good idea (or if people prefer the usual appointment system), and what time of day to run the clinic (I was thinking 10.30am ie pre lunch & nap time). Any comments or suggestions would be really welcome.

TIA.

have only read origional post.
i prefer the triage system where you phone in and th doctor phones you back, then either gives you an appointment same day or dealswith it over the phone.
the thought of sitting i n a room full of sick kids is horrifying.

At our surgery they have appointment times in the evening where you usually have to phone a day ot two in advance to be seen. They also have surgeries every day, from 9-10, where you just turn up between those times and you will be seen, on a first come, first served basis. If it's really busy, you may end up waiting until 11.30.
If you a child of 5 or under, who you want to take to the surgery (to be seen by a doctor, or even just while you are seen by a doctor) then you phone the surgery in the morning at 10 o'clock, and they give you an appointment, for as soon as possible after the morning surgary has finished. On a quiet day, this would be straight away (at 10am) On a busy day it could be as late as 11.30. It is a great service during the week. It's just a shame that it's not available at the weekend.

If you have a child of 5 or under, I mean.

Our surgery have a nurse practioner and I've always been happy to see her. Dr is there and she'll nip in to him if she needs to.

Thank you to all this evenings posters.

DH has just had a read through and passes on his thanks as well (man he reads slowly...how he ever got through all those medical text books is beyond me)!

This has been really useful in terms of suggestions and how alternative appointment systems work in other practices.

Its hard, I think that its good for a child or anyone to see the same GP as far as possible. I like an appointment system and I think it works provided that there are a few spare slots.

We are really lucky in that we nearly always get an appointment on the same day if we need it. Our practice doesnt allow people to book more than two days in advance. There are some appointment slots than can only be booked in the morning and some that can only be booked in the afternoon. It helps reduce the scabble for morning appointments.

Anyone whose child is really so ill desperately that they feel they cannot wait a few hours really needs to go down to A and E rather than a GP. I think that more health visitor clinics could be good. A health visitor would know when to refer to a GP immediately and when to re assure a mum that their child will not come to harm if they wait a few hours for the GP.

I think making sure that elderly people can see their GP should be a great priority than the under 5's. My elderly neighbour lives on her own. She is hard of hearing and has arthritis. I think that her needs are just as important as a baby's.

The most of the time children have the common cold when they go to the GP. Most ear aches, sore throats or fevers are not treated by anti biotics. The best thing to do is to give calpol and lots of tender loving care. The common cold is only dangerous in small babies.

Prehaps there needs to better parent education to stop the emergency appointments being taken up with snotty toddlers.

lol at the 24 times a year, your dh is doing a very good job getting opinions all sounds very good compared to my GP. I think lostin france had some good suggestions a little way down if you do it first thing you will miss all the lo who get sick during the day.

Personally I hate seeing the nurse, just the nhs saving money imho and in our surgery if your child is under 2 or it's eyes or a whole load of other body bits they won't deal with it anyway so a waste of time as well!!! (But I prob go less than once a year-so not looking for reasurance iyswim)

at my surgery every tuesday afternoon anyone with a child under five can just turn up from 12 until 2 and they get to see the doctor, its great

Definitely 2nd the triage-type system where the doctor phones you back, our surgery have introduced it and its fantastic, no more arguing with the bl**dy receptionists! And half the time the GP has sorted the problem out over the phone, in easily less than 5 mins. Ok, it adds on more time if they then make an appt but at least they can judge accurately how urgent it is.

Also think weekend service is being taken away too quickly - maybe adults can do without it but kids shouldn't. Round here there is NO weekend GP service apart from Sunday mornings at the local hospital, which you can only get an appt for by ringing up and explaining why its so urgent. The only other option is to go to the bigger hospital which treats everything like life and death and you're in there for 3 hours with long examinations to be told its just a heat rash.

Thanks to all again for your responses.

Having read through this a few times I think the general consensus is that all the different systems can work well (open clinics, phone and book appointments, phone consultations, triage nurse practitioners) so long as there is someone available to see or speak to the parent of a poorly child PROMPTLY.

I generally lurk on the health threads but time and again I see parents who are really upset and worried about their child but are being refused access to see their GP.

DH is well aware of this and as we have young children ourselves we have first hand experience of how a moderately poorly LO can go down hill very quickly.

Frances5 your point re improving parent information regarding when to call the GP is very relevant. NHS direct is meant to be doing that job now, but again MN experiences here indicate that they are not doing it very effectively all of the time. Will raise that point whith DH when he gets in (from doing out of hours by the way...I know that issue is a different can of worms so wont go into that now)!!

This has been helpful so thanks again