How is your GP working now?

[Y0uCann0tBeSer10us]

DH has had a non-urgent but irritating twitch in his face for a little over a year now, and has spoken to a Dr previously about it, but it isn't improving (in fact it seems a little worse). Yesterday he sat on hold for 45 minutes with the GP surgery only to then be told that the non-emergency appointments were gone for the day and to try again tomorrow. He works full time and we have children to get to school, so he really can't afford to spend ages in the mornings trying to get hold of someone on the off chance they'll actually deign to speak to him. They are STILL running an on the day only 'service' after two and a half years, so it's not even possible to make an appointment in a couple of weeks time to speak to someone (in person or otherwise).

This is to me just seems totally unacceptable. There is essentially no non-emergency medical care available to us, which is not only bad for us but also extremely short sighted, as people have no choice but to wait for problems to become emergencies which then need more involved care. Are we just unlucky, or are they all running a similar 'service'? How are things where you are?

We have an on the day service but it takes only 10 mins to get through. Appointments are either face-to-face or telephone but patients can request which one.

Works very well, doctors are lovely, receptionists very courteous and helpful. There’s also pharmacists and nurse practitioners. (Scotland).

Ots all phone appts initially with us. My surgery has 2 doctors, both part time as they spend half of the week doing cosmetic treatments like botox. It's going down like a plate of sick with our community. Minimum 3 weeks for a phone appt. Face to face only happens after that. They even want you to email within specific hours (9 - 4). Like emails can't sit till they can be answered or something.

Exactly the same as yours OP. It’s shocking.

Is there any way you could pay for a private G.P appointment? About £70 here I think.

Oh paying private gets you a fast appt here. With the exact same doctor who is too busy to see you on the NHS. It's a scandal, frankly.

On the day telephone triage phone at 8am. But do seem to be able to get through at least... I think they may have some appointments you can book in advance but never been offered one.
They will slot you in if you phone up about your baby or something genuinely urgent too.
So it's not ideal but not too bad. The 8am thing is annoying.

Similar situation- can phone at 8am to try & get appt, there are routine appt available for some weeks in advance.

But the system is broken. There are not enough GP's - or staff in general.

I work in hospital services & our clinical team feel that this is deliberate. The running down of services so that those who can afford to pay privately will. So that the NHS will run emergency/urgent services only & we'll all be paying for everything else - or have hugely long waits.

It's much easier to blame the staff at GP surgeries than it is to see the bigger picture. The likes of the Daily Mail blaming "lazy GP's". They're all retiring or leaving in droves.

I honestly think this is the end of the NHS.

I've got a great GP (central Scotland) who is back to normal. You fill out the online triage form for a same day appointment and it takes about a fortnight for a routine appointment. They are working face to face and have been for ages.

I would hate the same day system.

Is it possible to write to the practice manager to say their system makes it impossible for you to access medical care?

We have an on the day appointment system but it's run through an app so no hanging about on the phone. I submit my request in the morning and get a message to say that I either have an appointment at the surgery at a set time or that someone will call me either am or pm. It works really well this way I think.

Ours has always been a same-day system for face to face appointments for as long as I can remember! Certainly since before covid anyway.

Currently you phone at 8am, have to tell the receptionist what’s wrong with you, that all gets passed on to the GP who phones for a phone appointment at some point that morning, then if they think they need to see you then they give you a face to face appointment time for the same day.
Or you can fill in an online e-consult form and the GP will call you within 48 hours to discuss and set up an appointment if needed.

We would do an e-consult form for that. Once it had been reviewed will get an email and a call to book an appointment if required.

I'm a GP, and our surgery is mostly on the day appointments, with a limited number of book ahead appointments. Our big limitation with what we can offer is just with the absolutely overwhelming demand relative to staffing. My surgery has been permanently advertising for staff, offering significantly above average pay for years, but there are hardly any GPs to be recruited, our surgery is in a deprived area with big issues with substance misuse which makes the job even more demanding than normal, so staff just go elsewhere. I'm often the only GP in the entire surgery on a given day.
It's very disheartening, because of course patients are angry that we cannot provide the service they expect, and it means every day I have people angrily ranting and shouting at me about something that I have absolutely no control over and that makes my work life miserable too.
Sorry this has turned into a vent. Maybe I should start looking at other careers.

I'm east central belt. We have on the day appointments released at 8.30 (all gone by 9..) and very few book in advance ones. All are by phone initially, and you just get told morning or afternoon, so hopeless for people who have jobs where they might not be able to take a call without a scheduled time.

No email or online functions at all. At the very minimum I'd like to see slots where people can choose face to face if they prefer and actual times for phone appointments (even within an hour would be great)

E-consult first and then they tell you whether you can have a f2f apt with doctor/nurse/paramedic or they are referring you/asking you to come in for bloods. They also tell you whether to book an urgent or non-urgent appointment so my DH had one that week but I had one booked for a few weeks time. I rang up to book my smear test and was booked in for a few weeks time.

We have to book online. This goes to the receptionist who deems how urgent it is. I hate everything about the system. Last year I went through a hard time and having to write down why I wanted to see the GP felt incredibly difficult for me, it was hard enough talking about it therefore I delayed making an appointment online, I also felt uncomfortable about the whole reception team reading it.
I’ve also had two misdiagnoses due to over the phone appointments which delayed treatment, I was repeatedly told I had frozen shoulder when in fact 7 months later is was discovered it was my ribs causing me pain. My teen son has food allergies and his whole body is blistered, bleeding and sore and yet the GP won’t see him face to face instead insisting on phone appointments and then prescribing different medication /antibiotics when one isn’t working. We’re not really in a position to go private due to almost being financially wiped out during the pandemic/lockdowns etc.

I totally sympathise with the lack of staff, and think the blame for this lies squarely with SG who were warned many years ago that this problem was coming but did nothing about it. We could go private and if it gets intolerable probably will, but the costs for that soon rack up and if it's a problem that might need further investigations or any kind of joined up care we don't really want to be outside the system.

It's the on the day thing that frustrates me the most - I'd be perfectly happy to wait 2 or 3 weeks for a non-urgent appointment if I at least knew I'd be seen! Even a phone call is better than nothing! Before COVID they were great, and we could always get in to see someone in a reasonable time scale, but they just don't seem to be willing to move away from the emergency model. It adds a huge amount of stress to everything else to have to phone at this exact time on the dot (which coincides with all the other morning things), and even then not know if they'll see/speak to you that day or not.

East central Scotland.
Had to use the GP for myself recently for 1st time in 2 years.
Was amazed to get through on phone within couple of minutes. Brief outline to receptionist of my issue and she booked me in for f2f appointment 4 days later!

Now my DC1 student health centre in another city is a whole different ball game🤷🏼‍♀️

Write to practice manager. That needs investigating to rule out neurological causes.

My surgery failed a few CQC inspections and their contract to provide services has been terminated. It is now being run on a temporary contract by another local surgery. Neither DS nor I have seen a GP since before the pandemic, as it was impossible to do so, but I hear the situation is improving now.

usually same day appointment after phone triage - unless I say “really not urgent”. Children ALWAYS seem same day.

I even managed to get a dentist last Monday after losing a filling eating the kids’ guising spoils. 😳

Best thing my surgery did during lockdown was introduce econsult so you don't have to phone reception, you log your details online (you can attach photos too if required) and they respond within 48 hours but in my experience it's usually a lot less. Then they either make you a phone consultation appointment, face to face appointment or even just send a prescription to the pharmacist for collection (I had a recurrence of something I'd had before it wasn't on my repeat prescriptions). It's been great but as far as I know you can still make appointments in advance rather than just on the day.

Ours is done online with an askmyGP service. You log your medical concern/issue on the app between 8 and 9.30am and then you get a reply by email or phone or however you have chosen to be contacted. Sometimes you would get an in person appointment but other times it's all done online

On the day appointment. Opens at 8.30 it can take anything from 20-40mins to get through. U hang up and repeat. I time I had called over 80times before I actually got through the on hold waiting queue and waited a further 20mins. Sometimes when u get through they say no appointments try again tomorrow. Often though u have to be quite assertive and say well I've tried x number of days now shall I just call 111 instead or is there a way I cld get an appointment for tomorrow or next week just now etc. Most of the time when I have done this they said they wld put me on a overflow list and someone wld get back to me and they do. Often it isn't a gp but they have staff that can provide prescriptions.

They never want to see u in person unless they have to. They don't want to see ur bad skin condition, sore back, rash etc. send pics for everything! The only time I've been in since covid is to get bloods done but never been seen by a gp. Even when my youngest was only a baby with a rash they just weren't interested during covid to see anyone! Still the same I've heard a lot are wfh! Often it's a locum that is on site.

I've heard that they are also making people travel to the one surgery (they are part of a group) and some folk being asked to travel 7 miles when they have a local surgery but clearly there are no gps on site. It is so bad the nhs is broken and the government just seem oblivious. Probably because they all have private healthcare!

Can you not book online or via an app?

No, there's no option to do this. Ironically before COVID there was some kind of online system but that's been suspended and now you have to phone them for an on the day service. They say this is due to Coronovirus concerns and SG guidance on their website, but judging by the responses here they don't have to do this and are at it a bit, since plenty of other GPs seem to be able to book appointments in advance.

Yours do seem useless @Y0uCann0tBeSer10us - ours has been back doing most things for ages. They still try and do things by phone if they can but that's fine for some things, the e consult thing is working fine too.

The variation in GP surgeries is a significant disincentive to move!