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.

My surgery has an online service for routine appointments. Usually you will need to wait about 2 working days for a planned appointment with any named doctor. If you want a particular doctor then you may need to wait longer because some work part time. For same day emergency appointments you call from 8 for morning surgery and from 1.30 for afternoon appointments. This is not with a named doctor, but they are all good. You can't book emergency appointments online, or appointments with other HCP's eg, practice nurse. This would be useful. Appointments can only be booked one week in advance, so this means that you never have the situation where the next available slot is in three weeks. I'm sure this also reduces forgotten appointments.

Repeat prescriptions can be ordered online and are sent straight to the pharmacy. This is useful.

The receptionists are generally friendly and welcoming. The only thing that could be improved is that it can be difficult to get through on the phone, and not just at the morning rush. As I use online services this doesn't affect me personally, but I think it must be hard on those without computer access.

I know that I am very lucky to have such a well run GP practice. It has about 6 partners and also trains new GP's. My previous practice was very different, it had one GP and nurse. But that was great too, but different and the receptionists there were dragons. That practice had continuity of care, my current one less so. But it's always possible to request a named GP, so this isn't a massive problem. I suspect my current practice has an effective practice manager.

Ours is excellent. If you call before about 11am you'll usually get an appointment that day. In fact, I find it harder to book appointments in advance for routine things like my migraine checks.

We also have an amazing walk-in clinic a mile or so away which is staffed by local GP's and surgery staff on a rota basis. We've visited there often with emergencies and always been seen within an hour and received good treatment. I hear they're planning to close it down which is a real shame.

Online ordering of repeat perscriptions would be great. I have to apply for mine in writing and either post to or drop it into the surgery (15 mins drive away) and then go back to collect 2 days later.

Useless. It is impossible to book a routine or non-urgent appointment much in advance even if you know you need to see doctor (or asthma nurse - there used to be one) regularly for medication review. You can only book three weeks in advance but then there seem to be hardly any appointments so you are advised to phone up on the day on the off chance. Not much good off you work two hours away from home and have a diary of fixed appointments that cannot be moved yourself. Genuine urgent cases like infections that could turn into blood poisoning are dealt with pretty well either by doc or practice nurse who can prescribe at end of practice (5pm). Again not brilliant for workers but okay if genuine emergency. Practice used to have early (7am) appointments on Fridays which was brilliant for workers but they stopped it as apparently there wasn't the demand which I find hard to believe!

Our surgery runs a triage system, you call between 8:30 and 10:30am and ask to be put on the triage list. There is an afternoon triage list too but I think that has a half hour slot.
Then the duty GP calls you back and discusses what ails you and makes a decision based on what you tell them. Then they either make you an appointment for that morning, or write you a prescription or a fit note or book you in with the nurse.

It works really well and I've never not been able to get what I need from the surgery. If I want to book an appointment with a particular doctor then I may have to wait 2 weeks, especially as my preferred GP is part time.

I have a fantastic surgery. Ringing on the day you can usually get same day. Appointments ahead of time are trickier and you can wait three weeks sometimes but if there's any doubt they will get you in the emergency list.

They are particularly brilliant with children or children related issues eg pregnancy or post birth. On one occasion when I realised I was developing mastitis I called and the women said if I could get down there in 20 minutes she would make sure a dr saw me. This was at about 3 pm.

What is interesting is that friends and family in my area do not have the same experiences at their surgeries. Which makes me think it is absolutely down to the management of our surgery. I don't know who is in charge of managing things but whoever does is clearly very effective. I believe the government should really investigate better qualified, non medical management for gp surgeries. I want my gp to be a good dr. I don't expect her to be brilliant at managing staff or appointments systems.

I agree with a poster up thread who commented on having utmost respect for the doctors themselves. They are categorically friendly, helpful and sympathetic. I am also dazzled by the fact that our regular gp seems to genuinely remember us, especially ds, when I know she has a massive patient list and it's not like we go in there for anything particularly memorable.

Our surgery used to be phone in the morning to book an appointment, worked fine. They then added open surgeries, great!

Then they changed it to emergencies on the day only and it was not unusual to wait nearly a month for an appointment.

A month or so back they changed it to phone in the morning for an appointment in the morning, phone at lunch for an appointment in the afternoon. Most days I phoned in the morning and all appointments for the day were gone, no option to book in advance to kept being told to call back the next day.

This morning I phoned, started calling just before they were due to open, it took 26 calls before they answered and the last call was a 15 minute wait while it rang. Was answered and told that they are now only offering phone appointments and a Doctor will phone back and decide if you need to be seen!

Luckily I was called back in a couple of hours and did get an appointment for late afternoon, I was then nearly late to pick the kids up from nursery as it was a 50 minute wait in the surgery.

We have to phone tomorrow to book an appointment for both kids due to a constant cough that has been going on months that we haven't been able to sort.

Really looking forward to it. :(

My current surgery is actually very, very good. They have online appointments and you can usually make one at your leisure for within the next week or so if you're not fussy about which doctor you see.

For a same day appointment you can either try and get through on the phones at 8am, turn up at the door and join the queue, or keep hitting refresh on your PC/phone screen until the slots for the day release at 8am and then jump on one - usually for the first hour if you're quick. The latter being my preferred method and pretty reliable so far!

Children are usually seen within the hour if needed, regardless of when you call. They offer same day telephone consultations with the nurse/doctor. They already have an evening service and a weekend service that they're currently considering extending. They're also considering offering video consultations!

Love my surgery so much. :) Much better than the previous one I was at, where if you worked a 9-5 job and couldn't afford to take an entire day for the chance of getting seen at some point then you had zero chance of an appointment, ever.

It used to be really good.
There were limited emergency appointments that could be booked for the same day (if you could get through) between 8 and 8:30am. There were some appointments later in the day for the next day for emergencies illnesses, plus there was a set of appointments reserved for come down immediately appointments. There there middle term appointments for on going/long term stuff and were released 48hrs before the appointment
And then there were long term appointments - generally for follow ups

Now you ring to make an appointment and then the GP/triage nurse rings you back, finds out the problem and books an appointment if necessary. Appointments for blood tests etc are still booked by the receptionist though.
it is a lot of faff and hanging about. But it has resulted in me seeing a GP with the hour recently. So there may well be good clinical reasoning behind this and as it is a new system I shall hold judgement for now.

Have never tried to book an appointment the same day - but the surgery also does a walk-in service which I could go to if needed. Have only needed a couple of times. Waiting times vary on how busy it is. On a couple of occasions I've gone first thing in the morning, not been able to stay because of work (wanted to be seen fairly quickly as pregnancy issues, but not bad enough to stop me working) and the receptionists have said that if I call before leaving work they can tell me how busy it is and if need be put me on the list before I've arrived (but the only times this has happened it's been empty so they've not needed to).

Booking advance appointments is also easy. As it's a group practice there's not much continuity of care (high gp turnover). But the only time I've had trouble was one year I was unable to get an out of work time appointment for my flu jab. (GP did it - never again...) Booking can be done in person, by phone or online. Prescriptions repeats can't be phoned in but can be ordered online.

The reception staff are brilliant though. In addition to the walk in thing above - when we found out that a recent prescription request hadn't gone through the system correctly when I went to collect it and it wasn't there. The receptionist printed it off and quickly went and got a dr to sign it.

Will quite miss the receptionists when I change surgery in a couple of weeks (it's near where I work, so changing to one nearer home with the start of mat leave).

The small surgery we go to operates a system where people can't usually book more than a week in advance which does make it easier to get an appointment reasonably quickly. It can be frustrating where the doctor has said "come back in (for example) two weeks" as you can't book that while you are there, although sometimes the gp's override the system.

for urgent same day appointments - have never had a problem but have rarely needed one

Spirael that is a good point about clinics. The surgery does sat clinics for flu shots, and are open until 8pm on 3 nights of the week for late appointments. I think they are bringing in online appointment booking too.

The surgery seems to be very good appointment wise, but is it a smallish practice and I know that patients at the other surgery in this area have not been so lucky with their appointment system. It is very hit and miss. Have lived in lots of areas in the past and it seems that it is very dependant on the doctors/management within the practice as to how the appointments system works.

Oh forgot to mention, after all the faff of getting an appointment if you manage to get one, if you need bloods you have to make an appointment with the treatment room, which then takes another 1+ weeks, and that's only if you manage to get an appointment in a time that suits, for example, I'm at college and it's just not possible for me to go during the week within college hours, but the whole place shuts for lunch so can't then either.

I was recently sent to have bloods done but I haven't had them done as I can't make any of the times.

Our surgery used to be great; ring either first thing in the morning or first thing after lunch and get an appointment that day and it wasn't possible to book in advance.

Then they started to introduce a few book in advance appointments, which was a good balance with the above.

Now it seems that pretty much all appointments are bookable in advance so unless you know when you're going to be ill or it is absolutely desperately urgent or you ring in by 8.15 (after constantly getting an engaged tone) you can't get an appointment on the day. I have no problem with being able to book an appointment for things that aren't urgent but the problems arise if it's something urgent or semi-urgent, which are not always apparent at 8am in the morning.

It seems to me that if a GP appointment is not available then the only option is to go to a walk in centre (where you have to wait for ages unless you are there first thing and then you're not going to see someone who has access to your records and I'm not sure if they can prescribe all types of meds).

When you actually get to see a doctor or a nurse they are helpful and kind and generally friendly and they have been great in the past with various issues/illnesses so I have no issue with the staff but with the systems! Am assuming the changes have something to do with money saving measures and more pressure on the GP system but it is fast becoming a frustrating and largely useless system.

My surgery don't let you make advance appointments to see a GP, you have to call at 8am to get an 'on the day' appointment. The line is engaged as soon as you call and all the appointments are gone within 15 minutes. I usually manage to get through in time but I always sit there pressing redial over and over again thinking that my mum, who has early onset Parkinson's, couldn't manage to do that, and I'm sure elderly people would struggle too. You can get an emergency appointment but it has to be a proper emergency (whatever that is.) I also never ever get the same doctor. I laugh at the question you get on forms all the time - who is your child's doctor? When I was a kid we had an amazing doctor who came to the house when we were unwell, and I'm only 34, so a lot has changed since then. On the plus side, nhs 24 is wonderful and I can't praise them enough. They're so nice, even when you call them about mad things #pfb

Pretty much this
" You phone dead on 9am. It is then engaged for the next 45 minutes or so.

If it is 'urgent' you get triaged by a nurse.

If not 'urgent' you make an appointment for about 3 weeks ahead.

There is nothing in between actually really urgent needing treatment now and something that can wait 3 weeks.

Also you can only ask for a triage call back during the morning. If you find a breast lump after lunch or your tonsils turn into pus filled craters in the afternoon you have to wait until the next day to ring."

Plus impossible to book appt with a named /specific GP . Even if you're prepared to wait many weeks . You have to wait until a few appointments are" released " and then ring and try and get one .

Thanks, Rowan. Sent.

My surgery had a phase of having to do redial at 8am to get a same day appointment. To be fair I only ever had to use that for the kids & if there weren't any appointments they did call back & prescribe over the phone or on one occasion squeeze in after hours. They've recently increased same day appointments, using dedicated but locum doctors so you can get seen same day even if you call at 10. This worked well when my son had tonsilitis for eg.
What's rubbish is trying to see named doctor about a non-urgent but important health matter. I've been trying to get an appointment for 2 months but appts are released in 2 week bursts & whenever I call they're full...

I can't register at my local gp as I don't have photographic id or bills in my name. I rent, no book, photo ID is expensive, got some for DS and saving for mine. My previous gp surgery, who were amazing!, had to send my records to the local health authority as gp in my road wouldn't accept me and I had to use the walk in.

DS (17) is registered at gp, got him ID for it. Started calling a few months ago to try to get DS an appt, phone never answered, 2 stars on review site but person who owns it is in control of all the surgeries in the local area, up to 15 miles away! If you contact anyone else they say sorry not our catchment! Kept calling, first thing for appointment then later to pre book.

Surgery does neither over the phone or vis internet as they don't work (NHS website for this surgery says online and 24 hour booking).

I went there to ask for an appointment and they apparently don't make these in advance. The only way to get an appointment is to turn up on the day at 8am and join the queue (I told work I would be late and did so!) I got there at 8 and was 16th in the queue! There were old and disabled people queuing outside (was quite cold that early) waiting for an appt, not even just for that day, any appt! Also was a little girl seemed really poorly but had to wait in the queue.

The doctors surgery doesn't open until 8.30 for Appts and 9.30 to be seem.

When DS finally saw a dr she said make an appt on the way out, I said I don't think I can. Do you want to guess who was right?!

The dr also thinks DS should have counselling, however the practice will not pay for it so would he consider registering at 6th form or college as they do counselling free and would never know.

Policy apparently, as is the 2.5 hrs the surgery is closed for lunchtime everyday.

My GP is fab - can usually get an appointment the same day, especially for children. The receptionist knows everyone by first name and couldn't be more helpful. I think it helps that it is a very small surgery that still does 2 surgeries per day am and pm rather than one of these huge surgeries that serves a massive area.

My surgery are very good, you ring at 8.30am or 1.30pm for a same day appointment, and they don't question your reasons. I do end up pressing redial though.

For non-urgent appointments you can book on-line or over the phone, certain popular Doctors get booked up a couple of weeks in advance, but if you are happy to see any GP you can normally get an appointment in a day or two.

I ring at eight thirty am and generally get an appointment the same morning. It works for me.

I think charging people to see a GP is the worst idea ever.

My surgery is great.
Always get a same day appt if you really need one. Often offered a same day appt for non urgent stuff too tbh. eg i rang for a routine appt once to book in as pregnant and was seen that afternoon despite my protest I could easily wait They also have lots of telephone consultations which I particularly tend to use because I'm an HCP and I usually know what I need and whether or not I need to be seen in person

I have phoned at 945 with terrible UTI at by 11 10 I had a prescription in my hand, can't fault them. The local OOH service is very patchy quality though.

Same day appointments it's call on the day receptionist decide whether to put on on the triage list and you them get a call from the nurse who decides if you get seen or not. I tried ringing just after lunch when my little girl was unwell (she seemed ok in morning as you have to ring at 8) and they were totally unhelpful just said I had to call the next morning.
It does take weeks to get a routine appointment and it doesn't seem to register that People work as I think a lots of patients are on benefits and that I need either an appointment round lunchtime, early morning or late. They used to do late night appointments but stopped them. Had to wait 5 weeks for a smear test and that was while I was on mat leave and could have appointments at any times.
However did get a call from my GP after my child was born and do generally see the same GP who is also my daughters GP.

I rarely bother even trying to get an appointment - I think it is something you inherit, not book. The irony is that my husband (over 60 with asthma) can get an appointment, I can get an appointment for my kids (even for non-urgent things like freezing warts, as there is a clinic for that). But boring old 40-something me does not fit into any sort of priority criteria, and I literally cannot get an appointment at all! I am either told that I have to phone back tomorrow as nothing is left, or offered an appointment 3 weeks hence, which is completely pointless.

As an example, last year I had a wall fall and crush my lower leg. Very hurt, bruised and cut, but not broken or anything critical. GP - no appointments, if you are worried go to A&E. A couple of days later the leg was very swollen still and increasingly painful. GP - no appointments, if you are worried go to A&E. A few more days and I was fairly certain that an infection had set in. GP - no appointments etc. So I went to A&E, only to be told off and turned away as the accident happened a week ago, and it was clearly not an emergency. So I was rejected by both GP and A&E! By this time the swelling was visibly travelling up my leg and my husband insisted I went to a walk in clinic at the train station. They were brilliant and gave me an immediate shot of antibiotics and returned me to the local hospital for urgent IV antibiotics. I had two days on IV antibiotics with my leg raised above my head. I was then discharged and told to follow up with my GP for oral antibiotics - guess what? No appointments. As you can probably tell, I still feel very bitter and let down!

So great for predictable immunisation clinics, asthma clinics etc. but for urgent care and non priority groups - forget it !