Emergency doctors appts- does your surgery give priority to babies and little children?

[Evenhope]

I've been really fed up with my GP's appointment system for some time. Can I canvas whether this response is "normal" for surgeries before I complain?

We have to ring at 8.30am on the day to get an appointment. The phone is engaged for 20 mins or so and when you finally get through there are none left. If it's an emergency they will sometimes let you come at 10.30am to wait.

7 mo DD up all night screaming refusing to feed. No appts- come at 10.30 and wait. Had to wake her up to take her.

3 patients already waiting- all adults. Wait 15 minutes before the patient already in with the doctor comes out and the first of these gets to go in (isn't it a 5 minute appt?). Another adult patient arrives to wait 10 minutes after we arrived.

We wait- with a sick baby- for 45 minutes in all, while not only do the 3 who were already there get sent in first but also the man who arrived after us

I have been with the same GP for 22 years. When my other children were little they always gave priority to babies and children and for emergencies fit them in between appointments. When visiting yourself as an adult you would then expect and accept that a child coming in would push your own appointment back.

AIBU to expect to be seen promptly with a baby? What does your surgery do?

I'm sorry but you are being unreasonable
Why should an elderly person or even a middle aged person who has to go back to work wait because of your baby? If it is an emergency I would go to the hospital tbh

My GP keeps emergency appointments every day - none of these are waiting slots, they are specific times.

No priority system here either, but ive never had a problem getting my kids an appointment when ive needed one.

If i couldnt get an appointment but thought they had to be seen, i would take them to the walk in centre and wait there - usually for up to an hour!

My surgery has an open system in the morning, you cant ring up you have to go down there in person and people are queing up at 7.45am, you are then given an appointment from 9am, so you either go home and come back or you sit there for over an hour. My daughter had a chest infection and could hardly talk and was wheezing and I picked her up from scool and took her straight down ther, I walked in and asked for an appointment and I waited for 1.5 hours for her to be seen, if you want an appointment thats non urgent for a walk in you have to wait 2 weeks !!!!

At mine you ring at 8am. They have ringback which is useful. No priority as far as I am aware for babies and children, but they and I have always been seen the same day.

This is my new surgery - have been here 18 months. Was with previous surgery for 32 years (from birth) and had lovely GP, who retired. She, TBH, was the only reason I stayed there.

Ended up leaving after ringing surgery at 8.30 (when it opened), ringing on until call picked up at 9am. Told to hold. Phone put down on me rather than on hold. Rang back, got through after 15 mins to be told all appointments gone.
I cried. the receptionist was vile. Ended up kicking up a stink and being seen later on (or rather ds seen). He had chest infection and was given antibiotics.

Our local surgery is utterly fantastic.

Beacsue of DH they have a priority flag up on all of our medical notes, so that we all get immediate appointments.

The practice manager said to me, 'you have enough on your plate as it is, this will help a little'

Very kind people

We are amazing healthy in our family (obviously because we eat dirt, or something ), so haven't had to go to the doctors' too many times. Anytime we have called up at the start of booking time, we have been offered a proper appointment, and it has always worked out within a minute or two of the allocated time. If we phone later, they give us the standard emergency appt (10.30am if it's in the morning), and you may have to sit there for about 20 minutes. The key thing is to arrive early for the 10.30, to get ahead of anyone else that you share it with.

I don't know how I feel about giving babies priority. Who is to say they are suffering more than an elderly person? They may just have an anxious parent. Toddlers are harder as they can be really miserable, without being able to be plugged onto the boob for comfort.

Oh and my decision to leave the old practice was completely vindicated IMO when I rang up for a non-urgent appointment. The receptionist was very apologetic, and said so sorry but the earliest she could fit me in was in 2 days! Compared with 2 weeks at the old surgery.

Yes they do, if very unwell - high temperature or something.

Anyone can get an emergency appointment, during the week, but you have to sit and wait your turn.
I went with dd once with extreme chickenpox, ended up in hospital. They saw her straight away. Not only because of the contagious issue but because she was soo unwell.

i'm sorry , i know its upsetting when your kids are ill, but you are being unreasonable.

our surgery has "urgent" appointment slots available both morning and afternoon, for which you have to ring at 8am and 1.30 respectively. it often takes a few tries to get through but if the appointments are all taken, they will try to make sure that babies and small children are seen at the end of surgery.

i think if its an "emergency" its expected that children will go to paediatric a&e or a walk in centre.

We don't have a walk-in centre in this town at all. The nearest one is 20 miles away. I have had to go to A&E while pg because I couldn't get an appointment (at all) and got told off for not going through the GP- half the waiting room were there for the same reason.

dooley I always have to wait when I go to the GP myself, having had to have time off from FT work. I wouldn't object to waiting an extra 5 minutes so that a baby could be seen, and have done so on numerous occasions. Just seems that when it's my baby she isn't a priority

yes you are being unreasonable.

dh is a normal looking young man. if he has an emergency appointment it is generally urgent due to his problems before and now because he has had a transplant. if its sit and wait your turn then wait your turn. i tend to arrive earlier than stated time for emergency appointments to cut down waiting time.

only time we have jumped the queue was when dd1 was having an asthma attack and Gp surgery was closer than a+e and i knew they have nebulisers there. they actually interrupted someones appointment to get dd1 seen.

I would hope regardless of who wanted an emergency appt, would get one.

Be it a baby, teenager, middle aged or elderly person.

We wait our turn.
And that's fine by me.
Anybody really urgent gets seen straight away of course, regardless of age.

if you are given an emergency appt then everyone who has one that day needs one as well

Yes, it is annoying if you have to wait, but so does everyone else

Why should babies and small children take priority? an emergency is an emergency end of story, regardless of age.

It's the Duty Doctor at my surgery who decides if you can be added at the end of surgeryn and what time you will be seen. Triaging seems to work well and cuts out those that abuse the system.

It's a pain to wait when you're worried but I always try to keep in mind that I don't know what the person has just been told who's in with the doctor. They could have had devastating news.

its also worth seeing if its soemthing a nurse at the surgery can deal with as well, as often means you can get seen quicker. if its anything related to my kids eczzema then we try and see the nurse as she can deal with that.

At ours children have priority in the sense that they are more likely to get an emergency appointment if it's a real emergency, eg when ds1 had his first ever asthma attack I phoned at 3pm and was given an appointment for 20 minutes later. At other times you may need to speak to the GP over the phone and they will tell you whether or not to come in. However, if you have an appointment slot where you will be seen sometime between 10.30 and 11.30 then it's in order of when you phone in. Our surgery is great and IMHO they do a very good job of trying to be fair to everyone.

Perhaps I asked the wrong question. There is no triage system. Basically the receptionist when you ask for an appointment says "is it urgent?" If you say yes you get an "emergency" slot. If you say no you get to play the telephone lottery tomorrow and the next day and the next day until you hit lucky.

So basically someone with piles could be an emergency. Or someone with a stomach upset. Or someone who has been waiting to discuss I dunno last week's migraine and couldn't get an appointment. Then you ring up with a child who could have meningitis for all you know and the receptionist without asking any other questions says "ring tomorrow".

As a system it sucks. I wondered if it was just our surgery- which never used to be like this- or all surgeries.

I think they all work like that, however I did once ring the GP when dd had a strange rash and high temperature and they asked me to bring her straight away. We were put in a separate room and seen instantly. I guess if it were a mega emergency then you'd go to A&E anyway.

on the whole the system at our surgery works, but it can be frustrating. You basically have to be on hold from 8am until you get through, usually about 20 minutes later. Great, with a sick child to contend with! Usually you get an appointment, mostly with your own doctor, if not another doctor. So thats all good. There have been times when i have not got through until 9 and have had to kick up a stink to get an appointment and sometimes that doesnt work!!

The trouble is, kids sometimes get sick quickly,they might not have been ill at 8 am!! Then it is impossible. I dont expect to jump the queue though, if my child was so ill they needed to jump the queue, id be at A&E. There is a minor injuries clinic at our surgery, that DOES give priority to children.

I think it is making the best of a bad situation to be honest, as demand is obviously outweighing supply as it were. All of our receptionists are fine though, i do feel kind of sorry for them as even i have vented at them from time to time. They really get it in the neck from the doctors if they over book so they lose whichever way.

I'm a bit confused Evenhope. You say that if you tell the Receptionist that it's urgent, you are given an appointment, but go on to say that the Receptionist doesn't ask any further questions when you ring for an appointment and they could have meningitis.

nope - make u wait like everyone else

Our surgery has only a very few appointments, for general things - post-natal check, or possibly if you want to check development of your child etc etc. The rest of the time you just turn up. Which works phenomenally well - we have never had to wait longer than 40mins, and often it is only 10-15 mins. And it eradicates wasted missed appointments, as you just turn up, and the receptionist puts you on a list - either a specific doctor, or the one with the shortest list, whatever you prefer. Don't understand why all practices don't do that tbh. I also don't think children should get priority - in a genuine emergency I imagine they should go to A&E, apart from incidents like LVoC's dd.