GP telephone appointments - how late?

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I understand GPs don’t have resources to see everyone fair enough. But I have so far waited over an hour for a 10 minute telephone consultation I booked last week.

I can’t take a call at work no privacy and have to work at home today (lucky I can do so). With no meetings or phone calls booked. Don’t dare make a call in case they call when I’m on the phone.

DH waited 3 hours a few weeks ago but that was a same day appointment.

Is this normal? Am I being unreasonable for being pissed off.

NBU at all. What are teachers or bus drivers supposed to do? It’s pathetic.

Yanbu but they should give a window they will call within so at least you can book out some time.

It is normal unfortunately,

You are not unreasonable to be pissed off.

I had a 10 minute window which was over an hour ago. I don’t want to be a pain and ring the surgery and it’s likely the GP is WFH.

The appointment is not marked as ‘finished’ on their system so I guess it’s some people with long unresolved issues in front of me!

I’ve been pricing up private GP services. The state of the NHS is beyond ridiculous

My last one was at a scheduled time , with a proviso that they may run late . Two and a half hours later they called . My next telephone appointment has a four hour slot that I’m to keep free , I guess at least they have realised that they aren’t able to keep the phone appointments running on time .
However it’s in 2 weeks time and they have said I need to keep taking medication I’m having side effects from until I speak to them , which isn’t practical. I have private gp appointments via my employer , but then have to cover private prescription costs when I’ve already paid for an annual NHS prescription.

Is there a reason the private GP can't write you a prescription that you take to be filled by an NHS pharmacy?

Twice now I’ve waited all day and the GP hasn’t called at all. So I have to go right back to the beginning of the tortuous process to get another appointment.
Our practice doesn’t give proper time slots, it’s just “after 1PM” or similar.

That's not how pharmacies work. Pharmacists do contracted NHS work the same as dentists. They reclaim the money from the NHS for NHS prescriptions (even the prescription charge is subsidised by the NHS). They charge the dispensing fee and fee of medication for private prescriptions.

Telephone appointments at our GP only give you a half day window. I always end up paranoid that I'm going to forget to take my phone into another room with me if I go to the loo or to make a cuppa. Even an hour or two hour slot would help!

Having just retired as an NHS GP in a practice who managed to give timed slots for phone calls from early on in the pandemic.( "Your appt is 9.20 you should get a call from shortly before to 20 minutes afterwards") I fail to understand why this is still happening and it drives me mad. My own surgery where I am a patient does this...I am told it is because they call the ones they think they need to see first....my argument is, if you think you might need to see them then you probably do so get the reception staff to tell them to come down and save the phonecall. Before we went back to face to face appointments I used to scan the list and asked reception to call certain people to come at the time they were booked in at. Worked like a dream. Even our GP trainees were taught how to manage.

I do run late occasionally, it can't be helped but usually see people within 10-15 minutes of their time.

Now obviously if I'm duty doctor and these are the urgent extras then it's different. Last year we were getting 30-40 extra urgent calls a morning so it was impossible to give a time.

It's so frustrating. I had a phone call booked, couldn't give me a time or even am or pm!

I had my phone call three days later 😬

I wonder if it's because they're spending so much time liaising with Physician Associates and Nurse Practitioners that they don't have time to consult with actual patients.

Call me cynical but whenever I go to the surgery ( regularly due to my condition) it's always empty. No one ever gets called in. I see a nurse yet there's never anyone before me and I can sit there for over half an hour or more. Hardly anyone comes in or goes out yet when I chat to the nurse she says that they're 'flat out' or ' on their knees.'
All I can see is tumbleweed!

It's like a parallel universe is existing.

DH was on high alert from 12pm for an afternoon telephone appointment. At 5pm he gave up and came to meet me in the pub. The GP phoned at 6.30!

Luckily, he was not working that day, so he could wait for the call, but if you're working or working and commuting, you can't reasonably be expected to keep your line free for 6.5 hours!

It's a three week wait for a telephone appointment at our surgery and I think we all live in fear of somehow missing the call, which does nothing for stress levels.

My practice receptionists won't give any idea at all (even to morning or afternoon) of when a callback might be, but in fact the doctors are almost always very good and call within an hour.

My GP still is not seeing patients face to face. I don't know ow how it's allowed.

For a 'on the day' telephone appointment you have to ring at 8am. Then they won't tell you even a ball park of when you might get a phone call.

Then

You HAVE to answer within three rings!

If you don't you have to call back the next day and start again.

Oh that’s awful savoycabbage but not really surprising. It’s like they don’t understand people have other things in their life. What if you are elderly or disabled. Are you expected to sit poised all day just in case the call comes.

Im currently waiting on a 3.10pm telephone appointment call from the nurse practitioner. Im running out of HRT. The GP was supposed to call me about some results of some blood tests a few weeks back but call never came. I went in and discovered that they were ringing an old number because they were going by the no on the records that were transferred from my previous surgery despite the fact when i filled in the form/paperwork to join this surgery i put my mobile no. (i have two) Last Friday i went in and gave my other mobile number so they now have both. And i have ANOTHER telephone appointment for the 30th August to finally discuss these blood tests which were done in late June!

I never expect them to call on time but, to be fair, I get given plenty of time if I need it, nearly always over the allocated time. Don’t forget that some calls will generate a lot of work on the part of the GP, particularly if someone has something serious that needs an immediate referral for example.

I agree it can be difficult, especially if you are at work. I don’t know why things have got so bad with GPs. Mine is a teaching practice with a vast number of GPs and the message this morning was they don’t have enough routine appointments so they are referring some patients to other services. I was a bit shocked because it is an excellent practice generally and they have always been very responsive. I don’t understand it because they have their patient load they’ve always had. Are people getting sicker? I don’t know.