What's your experience when it comes to getting GP appointments? And other questions...

[RowanMumsnet]

Hello

MNHQ have been asked to contribute to panel events at upcoming political party conferences on the topic of the 'access crisis facing general practice' - so, as ever, we've come looking for your views.

Overall, what's your experience of getting GP appointments, whether for yourself or for members of your family? Do you find it easy to book same-day appointments for things that need urgent attention, and/or to book further in advance? Do the mechanics of the booking system drive you up the wall (frantically hitting 'call back' multiple times the moment that appointments are released) or does your local surgery make it fairly pain-free? Have there been times when you've been unable to get an appointment at all?

What do you think politicians should do (if anything) to improve access to GPs, and support GPs in doing their jobs within communities?

Any examples you can give us of things that work well, or ways that things could be improved, would be great.

We should stress this isn't going to be a GP-bashing exercise; the events are being run by the Royal College of General Practitioners, which recently launched a campaign to 'highlight the pressures facing general practice'.

Over to you.

You can also phone up - not sure what that's like as I always use the online booking but I presume a bit of listening to an engaged tone.

Our surgery has recently changed system. It used to be the case that lines opened at 8am to make an emergency appointment for that day. It was impossible to get through and you had to, as your OP suggests, hit call back constantly, while trying to comfort a sick child and get the other one off to school or nursery. I have never failed to get an appointment for a child although often the appointment was in a branch much further away than our normal one, or was "be here in five minutes". ( or both!).

The system has now changed so you don't make an emergency appointment, you just roll up at 8.30 and wait to be seen. I have not tried this yet but I would hope some form of triage is carried out with worse cases and children seen first. And what if you get ill after that time?

We do have in our town an excellent out of hours/ walk in service which I have been pointed toward when I have failed to get emergency appointments for myself. TBH I feel the GPs are over happy to point you towards that service, they have done it before to me and the walk in has said they shouldn't as the walk in doctors were unable to prescribe the repeat prescriptions I needed.

In terms of non emergency appointments I am currently a few months late for a smear test because I can't get through to make an appointment. When it is not an emergency I am not hanging by the phone for an hour to get through, you think I'll try tomorrow but then tomorrow is full of distractions.

I understand that GP practices are under a great deal of pressure but lots of the difficulty in getting appointments is down to poor organisation and an unwillingness in practices to change. I've seen very persuasive research that shows practices with more open access have far fewer DNAs - the thesis being that people book appts in advance "just in case" as it's too hard to get an appt when required, and then DNA.
My surgery is great.
On the day appointments - with a named GP if required - are available from 8am. They've managed to install a phone system that (usually) takes your call and queues it, so you don't have to keep redialling. These appts give you a ten minute morning appt. If you can't get one of these, you can turn up and wait for the duty doctor later in the day. It may be a long wait but if it's urgent you will be seen. I have asthma, so this is essential for me.
Phone appointments that morning are usually available with named GP. Sometimes you have to wait, and book a phone appt for the next day, but not often.
A number of appointments can be booked by phone or on-line up to four weeks in advance. Other appts are released for booking three, two or one day in advance, meaning no doctor is every completely booked up weeks and weeks in advance. And if the doctor thinks you need to come in after a phone appt they can book you into one of their slots.
Their DNA levels are very low and patient satisfaction is very high.

Our surgery is perfect, appointments easily available and telephone consultations at a specified time during the day.

For a regular appointment several weeks. An emergency appointment for an adult usually the same day after waiting on the phone a while. However at all three surgeries I've been registered with in the last eighteen months, they've managed to slot my baby in very quickly, even for things like conjunctivitis.

you have to call at 8am sharp, any earlier they won't answer, any later and it will be busy till 9am by which time there are no appointments left.

My surgery and its GPs are wonderful. They always find a way to fit us in if we are ill, and once or twice I've just turned up with my poorly baby and they've managed to see him.

Online booking is great for less urgent appointments and repeat prescriptions. I can choose my preferred doctor, day and time and have my medicines ready to collect from the pharmacy on my road.

Our surgery is brilliant. It used to be really hard to get in but they really listened to patient feedback and made a lot of changes.

They set up a different phone line for prescription requests to stop the usual phone line getting clogged up.
They also brought in a system where you ring up and the doctor rings back within 30 mins to discuss your problem. If it can be sorted out over the phone that's great, if not you can usually get in for an appointment within an hour.

You can also book in on the website if it's after 6pm. Can order prescriptions etc on there.

I can't praise them enough.

At my surgery the GPs do telephone triage for non-routine appointments. You ring up, give the receptionist a brief description, GP rings back and assesses whether you need to be seen and how urgent it is. I've always had an appointment on the same day within a couple of hours when needed. It's fantastic with a baby when you don't know when to be worried and when not: you can always speak to a doctor and they can assess whether they need to be seen. You can still book routine appointments for vaccines/contraception etc.

They've been using this system about 18 months. My GP said she was very skeptical of the whole idea, but is a complete convert. She says it saves a huge number of appointments, both because some you save on unnecessary appointments and because you don't have the problem of patients missing appointments the way they do when they're forced to book them weeks in advance.

My surgery has 6 doctors and an automated system. Very easy to book a routine appointment day or night by calling the automated service. The appointment will be 1 to 2 weeks ahead. You can book, cancel and change by calling it.

For urgent appointments you need to call at 8am and speak to a receptionist to explain what it's for. I've always managed to get a same day one for my children though, no matter what time of day I've phoned if urgent. I have also used ooh drop in centre at the weekend and had brilliant care for the DCs.

Maybe being Herts and a big town helps? Maybe it's the surgery being big and well run? Very happy here though.

We're with a very large practice, every GP practice in our catchment area is fairly massive, unfortunately. Lots of elderly people and young families, so a heavy demand.

Getting through on the phone is pretty much impossible. The phone rings and rings forever, then there's a pre-recorded message that seems to last hours and has a million options. We've never had to try for a same-day appointment so god knows what that must be like. Actually turning up physically is the best way to get booked in. If you miss out there's a triage system, apparently - a doc rings back and rules whether you're ill enough to be seen.

If you do get through, the usual wait is 2-3 weeks to see the GP you want. There's an online booking system I now use because it's slightly less frustrating, but the quickest appt. I've ever had using that route is 2 weeks - and I was really surprised at such a short (ha!) wait.

I had some hospital tests recently and the doctor there told me to make an appointment with my GP in a week's time to get the results. I laughed hollowly and he was horrified when I told him why.

Friends in adjacent small town (5-ish miles away) have a brilliant small practice where they say you can always be seen on the day or within 2 at the most. We're very envious.

My GP surgery is terrible. You can phone any time of day to make an appointment, but the waiting time is 2-3 weeks. If you feel you need to be seen before then there is no emergency option - you can go to the drop in clinic in town.
They do telephone appointments which is sometimes great if you've a fair idea what's wrong, it's minor, but you want to discuss with doctor / get a prescription. But often they are just used to replace face to face appointments and I have no faith that the doctor is really able to diagnose accurately over the phone.
The GPs are so keen to be on time they turf you out of the room, understandable, but standing on the stairs in tears from antenatal depression that the doctor wasn't interested in because your 10mins is up was an unpleasant experience.
I've needed a lot of medical support for various reasons during my pregnancy and definitely the GP surgery is the weak link in the otherwise outstanding NHS care I've received.

My GP only really does same day appointments to see a doctor. It works quite well except on a Monday. The only problem is that it can take ages to get through on the phone and if you don't get in early you've little chance of getting an appointment. I prefer that to it being impossible to get an appointment for days/weeks.

You can book in advance for nurses appointments though, and you can also get emergency appointments with a practice nurse for straightforward things and she can also write prescriptions.

We too seem to have nothing between scramble for emergency appointment at 8.30, and 3 weeks time. Sometimes, when I need to make an appointment time for out of work hours (after 4, or before 8.30, or between 12.30 and 1.30), I'm told there is nothing available with any doctor at any time.

However, I have recently had a lot of success with "I don't know how quickly I/Child needs to be seen but these are the symptoms" I usually get an appointment that day (so was it an emergency?), or a call back from the GP, which is really useful.

They have been really good with small people, and getting them fitted in with an appropriate person. 30 mins later with DS2 a few months ago, and then we were in for probably another 30 mins - with the nurse initially, who then went to get a GP. So apologies to anyone who was waiting for an appointment after us.

However we have one GP at the surgery who is totally uninterested in little people, and babies in particular. It would be useful if they blocked his appointments for anyone over X yrs of age. He really has no idea, and is dangerously out of date in his knowledge - my baby was apparently starving as I was breastfeeding, and hadn't introduced solids at 5 months.

I book my advance appointments on an app on my phone which is great. Getting a same day appointment involves ringing repeatedly from 8 am but it's usually possible. And the receptionists and the doctors are all nice. However I do often feel rushed and as if I can't talk about more than one problem (I always have multiple).

My surgery is brilliant. Lines open at 8:30am and you are pretty much guaranteed an emergency appointment if you call during morning surgery hours. The afternoon has the same system. There is also the facility to have a gp phone you, and non-emergency appointments can be booked up to four weeks ahead. Huge practice of eight partners plus several more salaried GPs and two trainee GPs, also three practice nurses, a sessional physio, a phlebotomist and one of the GPs is a surgeon so does various bits and bobs. You can also make appointments online (non-emergencies only) and request repeat prescriptions the same way. They even have a queuing system for the phone lines that tells you where in the queue you are.

Very impressive. I luffs my surgery, not that I use it that often, but when I do it isn't a struggle though the parking is awful.

My surgery is great, sit and wait system for urgent stuff. Teen drop in clinic
Pharmacy on site. Appointments from 7am. Lovely gps

At our GP you have to call bang on 8am for morning appt or bang on 3pm for afternoon
8am is when I get in the car for school run, 3pm is when I'm waiting at the gates
No not convenient times is what I'm saying!

Not possible to get an appointment for 2-3 weeks. If you say it's urgent, "someone will call you back" and they don't. No wonder people go to A & E. Actually, if you are ill at the weekend, the service is better, and you can get to see a doctor relatively quickly and easily (although it will often not be anywhere near where you live).

At our GP'S you ring at 8am and 1pm for appointments that day or next morning. Of course like most other GP's the appointments are all gone by time you get through at 10 past.
If you have to make a follow up visit for a weeks time you used to be able to book that in advance but now you have to join the frantic hordes redialling each morning. getting an appointment after school times as ridiculous as well. They want you dying before it is classed as an emergency and seem to think that a routine appointment for a child should be in school time (like the dentists as well who refuse to give children a before or after school appointment)

Frankly it is a piss poor way to run a surgery. It is always full of OAP's who have learnt the knack of getting through first time.

We live fairly rurally (still in a town of 10,000 people though) and there's something of a recruitment crisis for GP's here, there simply aren't enough to cover the population. Ooh is horrendous. It used to be based in town just a few minutes walk from us. Now it's moved to the nearest city 25 miles away and an hour's drive away!

My main observation (living in the South East) is that the NHS is very English. As in: English notions like queuing and social niceties and so on are very prevalent and other approaches frowned upon.

If you're not from an English background and you display non-English responses (eg to stress, where I come from we don't do passive aggressive, we are more direct - this doesn't mean rude) then you can be very badly treated by admin (and sometimes medical) staff, and not have your concerns adequately heard in my experience.

You get written off as rude or a crank very easily unless you play a part as "an English person" (since I started pretending to be English whenever dealing with the nhs I've had much more success at getting good care).

Yes we have the urgent, reasonably easy if you don't mind sitting pressing redial at 8am.

Which is really helpful for getting non ill DCs off to school.

None urgent is awful, no concept at all of sometime this week and the further into the future appointments are like hens teeth.

You ring and are told they are all full, but some more 'might' be released in three days.

I've given up, I use urgent appointments for everything.

Our GPs is good. You can always see someone the same day if you turn up before 9am. If you have a young child you call at 10am and they usually see you by 11am - they do that so under 5s don't have to wait with adults. They also so afternoon appointments available.

Appointments for me or DH can be a bit of a nightmare. The doctors appointments normally have a 7 day wait.

Last time i had to wait 10 days for an appointment to see the nurse for a repeat perscription for my contraceptive pill (i'd changed so was on trail of 3 months and phoned when i realised i was about to run out). By the time i got appoinment & had the perscription filled i was nearly 8 hours late taking my pill

Appointments for DC is normally within a couple of days and i can normally get one after school hours. They didn't transfer DD's immunisation records over properly when we moved to the surgery so i keep getting chased to take her for her 2nd MMR. She's 12