It's impossible to get an appointment with my GP. They supposedly start taking appointment bookings at 8am in the morning but they're gone in minutes. I've even tried getting up 10 minutes beforehand and immediately redialling through all the engaged tone before it finally rings but even then you get a 'you're number 30' in the queue type automatic message. Even if you sit through the hour or so it takes them to get to you all the appointments are gone. It's the same with their 'econsult' forms. Almost before you can pick one up the message comes up 'all appointments gone'. It's been the same the last four or five times I've tried to get an appointment and they refuse to book one any other way. Even if you phone them or turn up in person you get the robotic 'you must book first thing in the morning' response and no matter how much you explain what a waste of time that process is they won't budge. As for A&E, you wouldn't go near it unless you were at death's door... unless you enjoy six-hour waiting times. It almost feels like the NHS is one big padlocked door with a 'sod off' sign pinned on it at the moment.
Anyone else feel like the NHS almost doesn't exist for them any more?
- Thread starter nightowl
- Start date
hash tag
Reaching out
Sadly they all operate on different budgets so doctors, hospitals, social services etc. are effectively competing against each other to save their own budgets. Im sure it would help if they worked together, but hey. Also doctors are self employed and not directly employed by the NHS which does not help.
davesgcr
Reading books
Not in my very recent experience - spoke to GP electronically - (blood in urine - which is always a red flag) - seen that day - antibiotics - no impact - so series of blood tests and more. Seen and scanned in days - then consultant and to cut a very long story short , given an operation and released on Saturday) - all done very quickly with great care and empathy.
When they have to move fast ,they certainly do - so maybe bladder cancer comes a bit of a priority.......(PS - after care very good , even been offered "meals on wheels")
When they have to move fast ,they certainly do - so maybe bladder cancer comes a bit of a priority.......(PS - after care very good , even been offered "meals on wheels")
Maybe at that level it's still working but with ailments stuck in the mid range between 'blood in the urine' and 'grab some Lemsip from the chemist' it seems impossible to get anywhere.
ATOMIC SUPLEX
Member Since: 1985 Post Count: 3
This is not my experience. I believe it is difficult to get an urgent appointment (calling at 8am or 2pm) but I have had no problem booking for later in the week/ next week. If it is urgent I have visited the 8am 'hub' . . . But I have not had to do that since covid. The only time I had to go to A&E I was genuinely at deaths door and it was 4am so quite easy to be seen. Maybe I have been lucky.
Having said all that, I always have to follow up everything myself. I never get a any updates. I had a heart monitor a couple of months ago. They lost the results. If I hadn't asked I would never have found out.
Having said all that, I always have to follow up everything myself. I never get a any updates. I had a heart monitor a couple of months ago. They lost the results. If I hadn't asked I would never have found out.
Bahnhof Strasse
Met up with Hannah Courtoy a week next Tuesday
The 8am thing is annoying, called later and explained I leave home at 8 to walk my child to school where she must be at the gate by 0820, so for parents of primary aged kids it just doesn't work. They now keep some back.
The issue with GPs is that they are all privately run businesses and like all kinds you get some which are great, some which are shite and some which are middling. I am very lucky that mine is generally great, a mate is a GP who runs his own practice and its satisfaction rate is considerably lower than mine, but nowhere near the bottom. Would be good if there could be more consistency.
The issue with GPs is that they are all privately run businesses and like all kinds you get some which are great, some which are shite and some which are middling. I am very lucky that mine is generally great, a mate is a GP who runs his own practice and its satisfaction rate is considerably lower than mine, but nowhere near the bottom. Would be good if there could be more consistency.
furluxor
snake with a claw
Yup, I only engage if it's something serious. Once a year I book myself in for a blood test, tell them what to test for and then check through the results using search engines (they've botched both analysis and diagnosis previously). Seriously considering going private although have so far resisted the idea.
Currently a friend of mine is going through a similar Catch-22 to what you describe, and he's got a very serious case - they've taken him off immunosuppressants and he's deteriorating, also his other medications got mixed up. GPs tell him to call the hospital and leave a voicemail, hospital never responds to the voicemail.
Currently a friend of mine is going through a similar Catch-22 to what you describe, and he's got a very serious case - they've taken him off immunosuppressants and he's deteriorating, also his other medications got mixed up. GPs tell him to call the hospital and leave a voicemail, hospital never responds to the voicemail.
ElizabethofYork
Old Crone
If i get to see my doctor, I get excellent treatment. But it's a big IF. It's incredibly difficult to get an appointment.
UnderOpenSky
baseline neural therapy
Mine did this till recently. I used an auto redial app. Was still a nightmare.
UnderOpenSky
baseline neural therapy
It's nonsense really they can be so hard to access. Then there's frustration with people showing up at A&E who don't need to be there.
Mine you send a message online and they call you back. Not that I go v often but I've been seen the same day when I have contacted them. (They're also pretty on it for repeat prescriptions and regular blood tests etc.) My hospital consultant and appointments to see her are all handled okay too.
Artaxerxes
Look out, he's got a gnu!
If you can register for online services appointments are insanely more easy to get but also still go within like 30 minutes max. I would never phone my surgery unless I was prepared to wait and I was only after results or clarification from the secretaries
Got a letter about an ENT appointment a month or so ago - "don't call us unless we've not contacted you by the 16th August" well they didn't contact me. I called em Monday but the only appointments they had are in three weeks on a Sunday morning at 9am when theres no buses and probably no trains given how often those are under maintenance.
Got a letter about an ENT appointment a month or so ago - "don't call us unless we've not contacted you by the 16th August" well they didn't contact me. I called em Monday but the only appointments they had are in three weeks on a Sunday morning at 9am when theres no buses and probably no trains given how often those are under maintenance.
Mine just has the 'econsults' form online which, like the phone appointments, is booked up almost as soon as it opens.
scifisam
feck! arse! girls! drink!
My GP's got better in some ways, since you can now at least book a phone appt via the app. But I've been waiting for an urgent operation for three years now.
I think some people replying to you don't realise that you're referring to the way you book ALL appointments at your GP, not just urgent last-minute ones, so it's not about you being disorganised, it's the system being shit.
My old GP was like that, and this one was to begin with, and it meant it wasn't actually possible to book an appointment. It partly contributed to much more serious permanent effects from rheumatoid arthritis due to the appointment system causing a delay in diagnosis and treatment.
I think some people replying to you don't realise that you're referring to the way you book ALL appointments at your GP, not just urgent last-minute ones, so it's not about you being disorganised, it's the system being shit.
My old GP was like that, and this one was to begin with, and it meant it wasn't actually possible to book an appointment. It partly contributed to much more serious permanent effects from rheumatoid arthritis due to the appointment system causing a delay in diagnosis and treatment.
newme
Giant in Pastyland now
Mine had that up and it worked, up to a point as it was open before the 8am line, was very convenient but not if you didn't have it, which also required going to the surgery to get some code or other. They cut it after a few months, presumably enough people had the thing now it was wrecking the days appointments.
However I always find I get through in the first few now. Set a clock to surgery time so at least it didn't have 2 of us spamming the number from 5 to. Skipping the doctor going on about covid on the welcome message helps.
scifisam
feck! arse! girls! drink!
Yeah, it might be worth it, especially if you can phone up and find out what their appointment booking system is before changing to them.
(No point looking up reviews though - they're always awful and probably would be even if the GP practice were faultless).
newme
Giant in Pastyland now
All timed and limited stuff goes the same way except we don't as far as I know have bots trying to make appointments yet at local surgeries. I imagine it must really mess with anyone who dared to wake up after 8am and find they are ill.
Artaxerxes
Look out, he's got a gnu!
I think my online bookings start at like 6am which is just brutal.
Always been a problem seeing someone if you phone after 8 though. At least while I’ve had to book things for myself
InArduisFouette
Well-Known Member
almost as though you are ignoring enhanced access to primary care , 111 and the UTCs
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UnderOpenSky
baseline neural therapy
.
FridgeMagnet
Administrator
I just don't bother generally any more tbqh. The primary reason I used to (have to) deal with the GP was for mental health reasons and I've given up on that. I wouldn't even think of calling them if I just felt sick or something.
brogdale
Coming to terms with late onset Anarchism
Reading this thread, I've just realised that I didn't even know how to attempt to get a GP appointment any more. 
Last one I had I just rocked up at the desk and arranged an appt. but now having looked at their crappy website, apparently my practice (doctor business) is "operating a total triage system" which requires me to fill in an online form. I can't this evening even access this "online form" to look at what it involves, because we're "outside of core hours". I mean, really, only doing online communication in "core hours"?
So yeah, for me it looks like/feels like a total breakdown of primary health care. The long term costs/human misery of so many folk just giving up on trying to access PHC will be enormous.
Last one I had I just rocked up at the desk and arranged an appt. but now having looked at their crappy website, apparently my practice (doctor business) is "operating a total triage system" which requires me to fill in an online form. I can't this evening even access this "online form" to look at what it involves, because we're "outside of core hours". I mean, really, only doing online communication in "core hours"?
So yeah, for me it looks like/feels like a total breakdown of primary health care. The long term costs/human misery of so many folk just giving up on trying to access PHC will be enormous.
My local is useless and too small for the community.lt is fully booked at 08.01. I travel 40 miles to where I used to live if I have to. A week or so ago I was admitted to Leicester Royal Infirmary, they took my details within about 30 minutes then I spent 13 hours in reception. The staff were great, doing their best, but the NHS is on its arse.
The system is so knackered at the moment that you worry about what the future holds, as you just can't seen any government chucking enough money at it to fix it.
emanymton
A cat politely sat on the flaming gardener.
I've had the same, it just is not possible to get through on the phone and when you finally do they say all the appointments are gone for that day. I once phoned 37 times in 20 minutes starting from 8 to then be told all the appointments are gone when I finally got through.
What I found worked was to physical walk down and be there for 8, never had any issue when I did that, but that will not be an option for everyone.
Thankfully they have now changed things so you can book for future dates instead of them only doing same day appointments.
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