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.

Lasvegas - what if you need a referral, though? Somewhere close to home or close to work?

I've always gone for a GP near home, on the grounds that if I'm really ill, travelling to an appointment won't help me, but if it's something routine like a smear test or similar, I will be able to work out a way to fit it in.

Our GPs have a catchment area of 5 miles.

My has an outgoing message that said 'If it's not an emergency call back later' as part of the wording before you could get though to a human. Which would make it impossible for anyone to phone up for test results, smear test appointments, flu jabs etc.

Lady at the moment with my healthcare insurance Incan choose to see a consultant near home or near to work.

It's almost impossible to get through to my GP on a Monday morning but if you get through you can get a same day emergency appt usually
On other days it is easier to get through on the phone and appts are easy to book either that week or ahead of time
Our surgery is open early and late but they try to keep this info quiet

Same day appointments for pain/fever especially for ds are no problem. Other problems usually within a week.

Mum gets doc visiting at home relatively easily too (she is elderly and chronically ill)

Biggest problem is getting referrals.

My surgery has what can only be described as a Byzantine system. To get an appointment you must ring on the dot of 8:30. If you fail to do this the phone will be engaged until 9am at which point all the emergency appointments will be taken. To 'book' a routine appointment you must ring at 2pm for an appointment that afternoon. Except not every time. Sometimes you can book in advance if the planets are aligned correctly and the receptionist is in a good mood.

What they fail to appreciate is some people are in paid employment. If I need an appointment I must ring precisely at the time I am half way to work and am usually underground. Either I take the day off work and risk not getting an appointment or I take the risk of having to turn back halfway because, by some miracle, I have got through on the phone. The afternoon situation is even worse. At 2pm I am often in a situation where I can't phone as I am in meetings/teaching a class etc. Nor can I just leave work at a moment's notice if by magic an appointment is available. Like many Londoners there is a commute of at least an hour to take into consideration.

I currently have a condition which requires monitoring and medication adjusting at regular intervals. The difficulty in gaining appointments means I often end up taking up emergency appointment slots which would have been unnecessary had I been able to book a routine appointment. On more than one occasion I have ended up in A&E and admitted to hospital as my condition has got out of control, which would not have happened if I had only been able to see a GP earlier. I can't imagine this is a cost effective way of managing things.

For one glorious year the surgery ran a system where you could book online. Alas, no longer. Apparently it was too expensive to run.

Can always make an appointment same day or next day without any problem. In an emergency it is possible to call, turn up and wait and for a quick medication question (eg during pregnancy) they will always call back. Small, rural surgery with two doctors, one nurse, a fortnightly mw visit and surprisingly nice reception staff who don't ask intimate questions.

My surgery is really good.

You can call up at 8.30am for a same day appointment. The receptionist will ask for an indication of the issue but don't push for one. I've said before "It's nothing urgent I just need a chat" and it's no issue.

I've never not been able to get an appointment, although the on the day ones go by midday. You sometimes have to keep hitting redial if you are calling before 9am. They always get young children in even if you call end of day.

You can also book for a few days / weeks in advance too. They do a few evening and weekend appointments as well.

They have about 8 doctors I think but some are part-time.

Another one here with a brilliant surgery: same day for emergencies; they will always see an under 5 on the same day if you want; and a range of appointments for hen it isn't urgent. Doctors will call back to discuss concerns eg if the antibiotics aren't working as hoped so you don't have to take a poorly child back in again. And lovely receptionists! One time I needed a doctor's signature on a form then straight to a third party, and they called me to say it had all been done and sent off, rather than leaving me to wonder what had happened.

The surgery is merging with two others shortly, and I'm really concerned we will lose this brilliant service - which frankly should be the norm, not something special.

Nothing but praise for my surgery.

I can call anytime of the day with no need for redialing as they give you the option to hang up or enter a que if no one is available to speak to you straight away.

I called at 4pm one day this week as I was suddenly very unwell and was seen by a doctor the same day at 5pm. I'm currently pregnant but have had this service even when I'm not so it's not just priority for that.

If I need advice I can usually get a doctor to call me back within an hour.

I've been able to get emergency appointments for my DS too.

You can see emergency doctor if it's urgent but often well over a week otherwise and up to two weeks for the female doctor who works part time.

You do have to ring from 8 a.m. to get an urgent appointment. It is harder at the beginning of the week. I will be very fair on my surgery as I think the partner doctors are all excellent - as I have a long term chronic illness if I request to see a partner "who knows my history" I usually do get an appointment with one. If they can't sometimes they say ring tomorrow and they will then fit me in.

When my mum was seriously ill they would visit at home, and ring in between. If they hadn't got through to her they would ring me to check. When she was in hospital they visited and even organised counselling when she was in hospital.

We had been planning to move house to an area just outside our doctors' surgery for various other reasons. Due to fears over delayed appointments and having to go through triage, it has been a priority in making the decision not to actually move.

Our surgery is great, we are always seen on the day for an emergency, soon after if not.

I work in the NHS and my work experience suggested that the larger the GP practice, the harder it is to get a good service so when we moved here I enrolled the family with a one doctor practice and it is the best NHS practice we have ever known or could ever find.

A while back a friend locally was having a problem with her large surgery (rang to order a prescription for antidepressants which she knew she must not stop suddenly, was told she needed to see GP before prescription, no appointments available for weeks, no prescription till see GP, etc, etc) She changed to my GP who had everything sorted within days. She said our surgery changed her whole view of general practice and delivered more good service for her and her family in one week than the larger one had in years.

Sadly the NHS is intent on creating super-practices which may be good for cost savings and some forms of efficiency but I don't believe it is good for patients. Our GP is in his late 50s and I dread the day he retires as I know our practice will close and we will be directed to one of the bigger local surgeries

My surgery has always been really good in the past, but lately it seems to be harder to get quick apts. this could be to do with the influx of new people to the town as it's being developed really fast, with new surgeries not yet built to accommodate the newer folk, who knows?

I rang them this week hoping to get an apt for Wednesday next (my day off), but they were all booked for the next fortnight.

If I need to see Dr urgently, I phone up in the morning, then nurse phones me back. She's always told me to come in the same day. A non urgent appointment is around 2 weeks.

My GP receptionists are great, but not miracle workers. Since two partners quit, they've had constant trouble keeping enough GPs and thus a nightmare trying to offer appointments.
You can book online, but only once a GP ornurse has confirmed they will work those days, so sometimes there's none listed. Getting through on the phone is a nightmare as Ringback never works and BT keep saying it's not their fault, and 8.15 is the same time as I have to get out of the house to get kids to nursery/school so calling is impossible as TextRelay isn't available on mobiles.

If I do contact them, and say "it's my baby/child" they do try to at least have a doc callwithin the hour and often an appt, and the docs are great at taking time for patients, but 15,000 patients need more than 3 full-time equivalent doctors.

My experience has been the exact opposite of Scousadelic's. I had so much trouble with small GP practices that I deliberately registered with a large practice when I moved house.

With the small practice I struggled to get most of my travel imms and, later, dc's imms done, because - despite making appointments with the nurse - when I turned up the imms could not be done because the GP was not in the premises. Or I could not get a repeat scrip from a locum. Or I could not get a second opinion or talk to a different doctor.

None if these have been a problem with the large surgery. Everything is run more efficiently. I have only once had to see a locum - not that I have anything against them, the locum a at my previous surgery were often better than the GP herself. I can cherry-pick which GP I see, and find one I feel comfortable with, etc.

But I do worry a teeny bit that it might be such a succeed up practice that it will over-reach itself.

At my GP you need to ring in the morning wait on hold for 45mins from 8 o clock. Give a brief description of your problem and if you're deemed worthy the dr will ring back at some point in the day to give advice or make an appointment to see them.

When I was pregnant with DS I was able to get a referal to the hospital without having to take the morning off work, the GP rang back and we done it over the phone and paper work to sign was popped in the post.

With the DC it is hard to get an appointment. The return call is usually missed during the school run. So the whole process has to be started again, usually he following day. I now use a local nurse led walk in centre, or for DS who is under 1 a weekend GP led walk in service.

Hopeless trying to ring for an appointment, they have always gone by the time I get through. The online booking is good but at least 2 weeks in advance and of course you may be dead or better by then. If fact this reminds me, I had better see if I can book an appointment for 3 weeks time.

It's interesting what thegreylady says about ShropDoc, her OOH phone line. We used to have similar, called ThamesDoc, that we could call OOH, get triaged and find out from the triage nurse or doctor if it was worth coming in to the OOH centre. They would then make an appt for you at the OOH centre to so you didn't have to wait for hours. But ThamesDoc has now been dismantled and we're told to call NHS Direct, or 111 as it's now known, instead. Absolutely useless. They take hours to call back, and can't book you an appt at the OOH clinic, so it's easier just to go to the OOH clinic and join the 4-hour queue.

I feel strongly that there needs to be a way for patients to find out about changes to the GP service. When GPs stop doing something, like syringing ears, patients aren't told, but the surgery will get very cross with you for not knowing that a service you've had all your life from them is strictly not on offer. It's outrageous, apparently, to expect them to syringe your ears as they have been doing all your life. How the hell are we supposed to find out about these changes? And in particular there should be transparency about targets/QOFs or whatever incentive schemes for doctors are called these days, so we know when we're annoying our GP by not boosting his income.

My GP Surgery is excellent, i can phone at 8:30 for an on the day appointment if their really busy and can't give me an appointment they get a Dr to phone back later. All none urgent appointments are within a week. It is a very small practice though and i get the feeling the GP whom set it up went for having a smaller number of patients whom he could give quality care too.

Our surgery has a drop in clinic every morning, it starts at 7.30am and ends at 10.30am. If you arrive before 10.30am you are guaranteed to be seen. We have had instances of waiting for about an hour to be seen in the winter but recently have been seen very quickly.

There are also bookable appointments in the afternoons but we haven't used this service. Despite the issue of sometimes waiting for a long time in reception with grumpy baby I think this works well as you know you will be seen on the day you want to go and you can get in before work if you go early.