Getting a GP appointment

mackenzie

Well-Known Member
Joined
22 May 2004
Messages
36,258
I know times are tough, I know the NHS is having to deal with unprecedented times. I get all that.
However, if I want a GP appointment I now have to telephone at 8am and then redial about 60 times (not joking here) before I can get through to someone. I'm then told (if I have found the Golden Ticket or just bloody lucky) that I will receive a telephone appointment "at some time today."
That's not a problem usually, but I then have to go to work where (as a key worker) I also have telephone appointments (scheduled at specific times, 10 minutes each all back to back).
So how does, say, a construction worker up a scaffold cope when they get the phone call??
Is it just my surgery like this or is it all of them?
 
I know times are tough, I know the NHS is having to deal with unprecedented times. I get all that.
However, if I want a GP appointment I now have to telephone at 8am and then redial about 60 times (not joking here) before I can get through to someone. I'm then told (if I have found the Golden Ticket or just bloody lucky) that I will receive a telephone appointment "at some time today."
That's not a problem usually, but I then have to go to work where (as a key worker) I also have telephone appointments (scheduled at specific times, 10 minutes each all back to back).
So how does, say, a construction worker up a scaffold cope when they get the phone call??
Is it just my surgery like this or is it all of them?

same at mine. To do with people working from home and change in the phone system. I know the clinicians are busy and all their appointment slots are taken

you can tell the receptionist if you can/cannot do a certain time for the callback and the clinician should be able to accommodate this
Also, try ringing a few minutes before lines officially open
 
My surgery has had the calling at 8am for a long time,you can book an appt for about three months time
with covid,you can call a ny time of day,a Dr or nurse practitioner calls back and you discuss the problem, if you need to be examined then they make you an appt ,it is running quite well really, you can't get get in the surgery without an appointment

no asthma clinics as that involves you breathing into machines ,smears as normal as are blood tests and wound dressings etc
 
I know times are tough, I know the NHS is having to deal with unprecedented times. I get all that.
However, if I want a GP appointment I now have to telephone at 8am and then redial about 60 times (not joking here) before I can get through to someone. I'm then told (if I have found the Golden Ticket or just bloody lucky) that I will receive a telephone appointment "at some time today."
That's not a problem usually, but I then have to go to work where (as a key worker) I also have telephone appointments (scheduled at specific times, 10 minutes each all back to back).
So how does, say, a construction worker up a scaffold cope when they get the phone call??
Is it just my surgery like this or is it all of them?
Mine has just started booking online for telephone appointments, had my doubts but the doctor did phone me at 8am the following morning as arranged then she arranged an appointment in person the same day.
She did however say that the receptionists are useless
 
When I fell ill, I had a telephone appointment before the doctor booked me in that morning as it was serious.
 
Before Covid the average wait to see my GP was 8 days. Fortunately I haven’t needed to see one during this period but can only imagine what it is now
 
Same at ours, even before covid-19. Have literally stood outside the place before and rang for an appointment, only to see them actually divert it to bloody mastercall. Doctors themselves are great, no complaints, it's getting to see the buggers that is something of a fine art.

They also seen to have different appointments available depending on who is calling. I called for an appointment for my daughter once and was told try again in the afternoon. Five minutes later my wife called and was offered that same morning. Maybe somebody cancelled, maybe somebody doesn't like checking the system.

I also received my 40 years old health check-up letter from them in the post... when I was 42.

Is it an emergency? No, because if it was I'd be down at A&E and not talking to some nosy receptionist on a power trip.
 

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