why is trying to get a doctors appointment

[emmie]

so difficult. I understand how busy they are, but i wish they would answer the phones for one thing, another frustrating 20 minute wait, and still can't book an appointment until the day. Is your GP surgery the same.

[rowanwitch]

yes... and although the system is officially phone at 0815 loads of people jump the queue by waiting outside the surgery...they get their appts first and the phones are left to ring...

[237SJ]

My surgery lets you make an appointment for that day if you phone from 0830 onwards. They don`t open the surgery doors for personal bookings until 0900 so nobody jumps the queue. You can request a particular doctor but there`s no guarantee. If you want to book a particular doctor, you can sometimes wait 2 weeks. They post a monthly total of missed appointments and the numbers are shocking. If everyone turned up for their appointments, or at least had the decency to phone and cancel, it would be a lot easier to see a doctor.

[EvianBaby]

Nope. You can phone up and get an appointment a couple of weeks in advance no problem (obviously for scheduled things). You can ring or pop into the surgery at 8.30 to get a same day appointment.

You don't get to chose which doctor you see but you get to see one. It's a good system.

[emmie]

i get fed up trying to get through, and in the past have gone in to make an appointment, its not a good system really

[emmie]

they have also only just rid of their premium rate phone numbers, and now on patients feedback, moans more like, have reverted to 020 numbers.

[EvianBaby]

What would be a better system?

[emmie]

one where you don't leave the person holding for 20 minutes, racking up the phone bills again.

[EvianBaby]

But how do they do that? They can't really employ a call centre full of people to pick up the phone for an hour can they.

[emmie]

it's like it most of the day, same droning message, your call is important to us, we know you are holding, and so on.

[vulcan]

Your situation sounds similar to mine em, I also wait for up to 20 minutes for an appointment. The annoying thing is there are four people in reception but only one person deals with with appointments, queries and phone calls. This of course leads to incessant phone ringing and queues at the reception desk. I don't understand, if the staff is there, why aren't they used, especially at busy times.

[emmie]

this is on the phone, and as have said before it's hard to keep on ringing, clocking up phone bills along the way.

[islasmum]

I must be lucky then, as I can almost always see my own doctor within 48 hours - but he does run late almost always, but you know that it is because he is being thorough with the previous patient. I used to live in Sutton, Surrey and trying to see any doctor in the practice we were registered with was murder - they had 2 very dragon-like receptionists who were horrible to a lot of people. I was glad to move.

[johnk]

Worse!! It's easier to see the Pope than our doctor!

[Old_Geezer]

Oh for the old days when it was arranged for the patient not the doc. They were all walk in and be seen, in those days.

[emmie]

OG, not any more. Though i have no problem with the doctors, they are professional and quite a friendly bunch.

[Everhelpful]

Never have a problem getting appointments,maybe it is because Receptionists all get a Bottle of Wine at Xmas.

[Eve]

Mine have a great system where you ring and give a brief outline of the problem then they get a doctor or nurse to ring you back as appropriate (I assume they have a separate system for things like smear tests or flu jabs).

They then decide what is best to do and can book you in for appropriate appointments, tests before seeing the doctor, give advice, leave a prescription for you to collect etc... It must save a lot of appointments being taken up which aren't needed.

[Euphemia]

At my surgery it is becoming increasingly common to offer a telephone slot rather than an appointment.

[ladyalex]

I have always been able to get an appointment on the day by ringing at 8:00am and either re-dialling if it is engaged or hanging on in their queue. I don't think I've ever waited longer than 20 minutes, but I do make sure I phone on the dot of 8:00.
I have no choice as to which doctor I see.
I have not managed to book a slot with a specific doctor for over 2 years now. The one I want to see seems to be permanently booked up for the next two weeks and presumably there is some Law or Act of Parliament that forbids the surgeries from making up their appointment books further than 2 weeks in advance.
I can get a telephone consultation pretty easily, which is sometimes perfectly satisfactory. I have never been refused an emergency appointment when I have asked for one later in the day. Fortunately I have only had to do this twice or three times in the last five years or so.
So I guess the service is not too bad.
Before they started with this 'phone at 8:00' system, I was able to phone any time of day and get an appointment if not that day , certainly within a couple of days...which I thought was better, really.
What does puzzle me, though, is that most times when I do go for my appointment, the waiting room seems very empty. (There are 4 full time partners in the practice I go to plus a couple of part time doctors and a GP trainee.) It makes it difficult for me to believe that they are so very busy.

[welshlibranr]

Oh yes!.....it's awful!..........you could die waiting!...............we're all just a number these days!.....no personal service any more!...........