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.

Bloody nightmare - they never have appointments available.

Very good with our new GP practice.They have a daily morning walk in service. As long as you get there between 8 and 10 in t the morning, you will be seen. You may have a 2 hour wait on a busy morning but if you are desperate to be seen its good to know that its an option open to you.
Appointments are a little more difficult to get, usually a weeks wait but you can also go on a triage list and the GP will call you for anything urgent and fit you in that afternoon.
They have been fantastic with my Nana who is chronically ill and cannot walk more than a few steps. If I call them and say I think her breathing is going downhill again they will come out to see her without question as they know she cannot get in to them and that she hates going to hospital and will lie to us about her condition before having to be admited for treatment.
They were also fantastic with my DD, caught her CMPA and reflux v early at 4 weeks, treated her with the appropriate prescription formula and acid repressing meds and made the right refferals to Pead and dietician.
I was so grateful I bought them a big box of chocolates and a thank you card.
I cannot rate them highly enough.
We are in Wales so I don't know if that makes a difference?

I don't know how you can please everyone. 8-8.30 not good for some school runs, 8.30-9 wouldn't be good for others on the school run, 9 o'clock onwards for many office workers. I think you can try a dozen different booking systems, the bottom line is there's too much demand and not enough doctors.

Our GP surgery doesn't have on-site phlebotomy. It's walk-in at the local hospital. That should work well as the hospital is only a mile further and you can go when it suits without the stress of being late for your appointment. (I haven't used it, just speculating it's not added inconvenience.)

I've given up on ours unless the DCs are ill.

The GPs themselves are good but the surgery only has appts for very urgent, if you can ever get through at 8.15am when everyone else is ringing, while doing the school run too. The alternative is to wait for about a month.

It puts me off seeing a doctor about things I know I should.

My GP is great for kids. I've never any issue with getting mine in for same day appointments. If they don't have any appointments, the doc rings and if needed, squeezes us in late afternoon.

For me, it's a completely different story. I don't think I've managed to see anyone other then a locum for the last two years and the continuity of care has been appalling. I'm a teacher so ringing up at the times they open appointments, I am unable to pick up the phone to get an appointment. Whenever I say I cannot physically get to a phone to make an appointment, I am treated to a rather unsympathetic receptionist. The times I've needed a doc, I have not been able to get one at my surgery and instead have used a walk in clinic near my workplace - only a few more minutes wait and much more convenient in terms of location. I didn't even have to take off time from work to go as I fitted it in between my lessons.

My husband belongs to a different medical centre which is much further away but he refuses to join the local one for the reasons described above.I don't blame him. I would join his but they won't let us due to where we live now. (DH has been a bit sly as he hasn't changed from his old address nearer the surgery)

I'm rather envious of the online booking systems I see in operation at other places.

You can't please everyone, but clearly some surgeries are managing to please more people than others; not everyone has to go through a mad 8am redial, and some people do manage to book appointments a couple of weeks ahead.

I think the one thing the government should do is review the differing ways of getting appointments and which seem to work best; are they just more flexible, with online as well as phone? Or are they larger practices, which just have more resources to work with? Or do they just have more competent practice managers, who are better at processes and procedures?

And then they should put in recommendations for best practice. But they'll probably still muck it up.

Our surgery is great - you can pre-book non-urgent appointments, ring for on the day ones, or ask for a phone call back if the doctor is busy / you're not sure if you need to be seen.

They have an on-site pharmacy and will send prescriptions through so you can pick them up quickly and easily when you need to.

With my surgery like others you ring between 8.30 and 9am, the Dr rings you back between 9.30 and 10 and has a chat, usually gives you same day appt especially if it's for kids. The same in the afternoon - you ring between 2 and 2.30 to get an appt between 4 and 6pm.

As an aside my dad made an emergency appt on Monday, saw Dr Mon afternoon, referred to Hospital that afternoon. Hospital rang Tue morning to give him an appt for exploratory test in 10 days. They've been brilliant from GP right through to hospital. Made a very scary time easier.

Our surgery is wonderful. You can always get a same day appt with the duty doctor though if you want a specific doc you have to wait sometimes. They have an excellent system where patients considered vulnerable or with a range of needs have a designated doctor who phones once a month if the patient hasn't been in. Our GPs will do home visits (they did when I was having chemotherapy). The chemist has a prescription collection service too.
Here in Shropshire we have an excellent out of hours facility ShropDoc which covers if the GP isn't available. It is more than a phone line as it is attached to the cottage hospitals where you can be seen at any time and there is a 24 hour pharmacy too. No complaints.

When it comes to the dc out surgery always manages to squeeze them into a same day appt.

I do hate the whole, ring and a doctor will ring you back waste of time procedure though. I've tried to walk in when I've had no voice through chest infections/laryngitis/tonsillitis and been told I had to phone.

I don't understand why the system changed. Who knows they're going to be 3 weeks in advance and what happened to the old system of being able to pop in on your way past to ask for an appt?

Our gp's are fabulous though. It's just the system to be able to see them.

I have always managed to get a same day appointment when necessary by phoning up first thing. I have been fitted in late in a day as an extra too when my daughter was ill and there were no official appointments available but I was worried enough she needed to be seen the same day. We now have an online booking system we can use too, though I am yet to need to use that.

What I would say though is that the doctors are under a huge amount of pressure to see the numbers of patients. I find that their time is limited and they rush to get people through and they can miss serious issues - it happened with my daughter. The system is the problem in this circumstance, not the individual doctors who are doing their best to do their job under a lot of pressure. They need more doctors available to ease the pressure at our clinic.

Ours have a good system for urgent appointments; you get a call back from the duty doctor and they will see you if needed. Non-urgent is a nightmare; appointments usually at least 3 weeks away but often there are none for longer. If you know you'll need a review or blood test in 6 weeks time the diary hasn't been 'opened' for that far ahead and so you're asked to call back nearer the time, except when you do all the appointments are gone! Not the practice's fault, it's just an inner city GP that's desperately oversubscribed. It does mean that for someone with long-term health issues it's difficult to get any continuity of care though.

Mine is wonderful - appointments available on the day are released twice a day (am & pm), sometimes you might wait 20 minutes beyond your appointment time but that is because the doctors are very thorough (and it could be you creating the delay one day).

If you wanted to see a particular doctor you might have to book 10-14 days in advance, but again the particular doctor will fit you in at end of surgery if you need to see one them and they are fully booked.

Very well run practice, even if the appointments for the day had gone you would be seen if it was urgent - just asked to pop along at the end of surgery.

Phones answered very quickly, I think we are very lucky indeed.

Our surgery is beyond excellent. Phone answered quickly, lovely receptionists, same day emergency appts if you are sick (as long as you don't mind which GP you see), you can book a normal appointment for any time in the future, clinics every day for bloods etc, no waiting list for the practice counsellor, home visits if needed - I am never moving from this surgery if I can help it, we are so lucky. Oh, and this is in London as well.

I would like it if we could choose a suitable surgery not dependent on location (ie, if I want to move, I can stay with my old GP!) but then I guess everyone would try to register with the good surgeries, and the rubbish ones would be empty.

My GP practice is fab! I couldn't ask for a better GP practice.. you can phone and book appointments within the next few days, I have never had to wait more than 2 days.
Receptionist's are lovely and really helpful.
Drs are professional and listen.

I had a car accident in 2012 which has left me disabled, I joined one surgery to get he Distric nurses to come out and see me over the bank holiday weekend et, phoned the tuesday to get my pain medication prescription and apparently thry had lost my medical notes and never heard of me and just plain rude to my mother and sister, we transfered to my now practice and they couldn't do enough for me, signed me up and got me my prescription ready for that day so I wouldn't go without medication. ( My notes turned up the Dn had them)

My old practice was terrible, really terrible. They had the "ring up between 8.15am and 9am" OR "call to book" system in place.

Which meant that if you rang through at 8.20am (which was logistically a complete nightmare as I had to arrange to be late to work in or call on a mobile phone in the car/on the train, in the tiny hope I may get an appointment at any point that day or over the next few days) ... you probably weren't going to get through to anyone, just be on hold for ages. Or you'd get through after 20 mins of being on hold and told that unless it was an emergency you could arrange a bookable appoinmtment, usually 2 - 3 weeks after. No late opening on a week day night. No online booking system. No flexibility to fit the gap between "total emergency" vs. "can wait weeks to sort out".

TBH I gave up using them, if we lived in a city with walk in centers I'd have gone to them instead.

Then we moved only a few miles away and have had a completely opposite experience. No "call at 8.15am mad scramble" for the morning appointments. They have several female doctors who work good enough hours that there's cover from them 4 week days.

I can usually get an appointment within 2 - 3 days if needed.

They also have a late night (Wednesdays I think) where appointments are available until 6.45pm, which is perfect as then I don't have to keep taking time off work to attend.

What would make the service even better?

Two things that would have made the move to a new GP even better:

1. The ability to register at a GP practice near work. I thought this might be coming in at some point, so maybe that's moved in the right direction since the last time I moved GP practice?

2. Online booking. Why do I have to speak to a receptionist and use up their time for something fairly routine like a smear test?

I love my GP surgery! I've been with them for about 13 years, and now live 2.5 miles away but refuse to change to a more local one (of which there are many). They have an automated booking line where you can book appointments for a specific doctor in advance. They also release the days appointments at midnight so they can be booked on the automated line after midnight (if you can stay up that late). You can ring up from 8am and book a same day appointment through the receptionist (who are all lovely btw). They also phone consultations where you ring up and a doctor will ring you back an hour or 2 later.

They also open on a Saturday morning for those who struggle to take time off for appointmets during the week.

They even contact you just to make sure you're all better after treatment!

The only thing I would add to everything they already do is to add an online booking system and being able to request repeat prescriptions through the website which is very basic atm.

To book appointments in my surgery you can call, onsite or go online. Appointments are sometimes available on the day, more often than not within the week and you can book them weeks in advance. You can see any of the gp's in the surgery although I have my "own" who I see most regularly.

There is a brilliant system online, where you can ask a doctor, book appointments, request repeat prescriptions!

I have unfortunately left this surgery as I have moved and recently had a baby and my child had to be registered locally

Changing this would be the first step, within reason if you have a gp surgery that works for you, you should be able to keep it.

I have moved to a surgery that has one doctor I have been here a week and it seems ok so far!

Some people have GP surgeries open on Saturdays?!

I was impressed with mine staying open an hour an fifteen minutes one night a week to let us that work have a fighting chance to not use our annual leave... but Saturdays?! Where do you live?

Mine is that I have to engage in negotiation to avoid a long wait. Pity all receptionists cannot be identified by anyone they need an appointment with or serving in a shop and kept waiting.

Our surgery is great, really.

If you want to make an appointment in advance, it is usually a week or two before you will see someone.

However, if you want to make an appointment on the day, you do need to ring quite early. The lines open at 8:00, but there is a queuing system, so once you have got through, you just have to wait until someone can speak to you.

I had to make an appointment for DH this morning. I rang at 8:00, got straight through, and he had an appointment at 11:00. A week or so ago, I rang to make an appointment for DD1 at 8:00. I got through, and was second in the queue, and got an appointment at just after 9:00.

You cannot book appointments in advance. You have to ring on the day at 8am. It is always engaged. When you get through at 08:03 all the appointments have gone.

Also the receptionists are horrible and will do anything they can to ensure you DON'T see the GP.

Not read the thread, but

1. I'd imagine that I have the same problem as everyone else with not being able to get appointments other than by cancelling meetings and staying at home to ring at either 8.30 or 1.30 in the hope that I get an appointment for that day, which are generally gone. I went private before the holidays because I just couldn't get an appointment at all, and I'm not on a huge income but I didn't have any other options because the three sessions that they offered me in the next week were either meetings that I couldn't move (I'm self employed) or one was during school pick up time on my daughter's last ever day at her school.

1. I had the swabs done because I wanted a Mirena coil fitted. When I came to trying to book an appointment when my period started to get the coil fitted I was told that there weren't any available, and because "my" GP (who I have never met) doesn't fit them it was complicated to get me booked in with another one who did fit them without asking permission, and in any case the most they could offer me was 15 days in advance, which is outside the Mirena timeframe. They couldn't refer me to anywhere else, family planning in my town is only for young people, and if I wanted to have it fitted I was going to have to have the swabs done again. I gave up.

There are many other issues I have had, especially the unhelpfulness of the reception staff, online booking that never had appointments available. I changed surgeries. I don't know whether the new one is any better. I hate big medical practices. I used to go to one that was mostly one doctor, he knew me, I could always get an appointment or a phone call and he talked to me as if I was an intelligent human being. I miss him!

My surgery has Saturday appts with a GP. Pre-bookable only.