How do all these people get GP appointments? They can’t live in uk!
A friend’s husband has a massive dvt , seen on holiday in Wales. Practice
could only offer two weeks hence appointment. Perhaps there was little to be done as
medication had been started but, don’t they care, aren’t they interested anymore?
Is it any wonder Aand E departments are jammed full?
My surgery offers a same day appointment, as long as you ring between 8.30 am and 10.30 am. It’s not perfect but seems better than others we hear about.
My daughter's doc is same, phone early morning fit appointment same day. When I phone our doc, " we can offer you 3 weeks on Thursday or call back between 9 and 10 (always engaged 😡) tomorrow to speak to Triage nurse for advice" only live 25 mins away and they are in Glasgow. Out in the 'burbs we get worse service
Similar here (small rural practice 1 full & 1 partime GP, 1 Nurse Practitioner) phone first thing for same dayapptment. Generally bookable appointments within a week but sometimes has to be a few days longer
Mine too. Otherwise it’s usually a three week wait for an appointment.
Mine's the same. You can't necessarily get the doctor you want but you can get an appointment
Wondering if we share the same surgery Jane? Same hours.....same city
Hi, I am in the U S and although I can get a same day appt with my GP it sometimes takes a great deal longer to get an appt with a specialist. We do also have a shortage of GPs and sometimes takes some time to get a GP and I live in the major hospital area of Boston, Massachusetts. I think it's becoming a universal problem.
I live on the Vineyard. We have a walk in clinic. Not great but adequate - sometimes! For rheumy I go to Brigham and women’s.
My rheumy is with B&W too.
I’m doing pretty well on 1.5mg after 4 yrs 4mos - they don’t even ask me to come back! I just call for scrips.
Is that as beautiful as it sounds? 😃
It is, SJ, except for August! - very crowded!
I worked for a GP as a nurse, there were simply too many people wanting appointments for the number of GP’s. Even with some of us trained to do minor illness consultations. There was talk of shortening the slots but that didn’t last because there was an outcry and in reality everybody knew the patients would still need the same amount of time whatever. However, the suggestion of employing another GP didn’t go far because it would hit the practice profits. But I do know ours was quite rich when others were struggling. Another problem is that GP’s are managing patients with complex problems that in yesteryear would have been seen in a hospital setting. Longer clinics? When do the home visits takes place and the reams of paperwork? Lack of funding and the way GP’s are remunerated through comissioning contracts makes it easier for some practices than others so it isn’t a level playing field. In my area there are literally thousands of new houses being built on the fringes of the city and you’ve guessed it, no new surgeries.
I’ve been told the wait time for my knee replacement here in Southwest Intario, Canada is 2 years. Only a matter of months if I go to an ortho surgeon in the greater Toronto area.,No shortage of ortho surgeons in our area, rather fewer transfer payments to smaller hospitals with less population. Big cities like Toronto get more surgery $ from provincial government (sigh).
We have a trial her at present 2 GPs practices have joined together to offer emergency appointment that day. 3 days a week and Sat mornings, you dont know what GP you will see only told what practice to attend on Saturday its a 20 min appointment.
Also able to book appointments on line so you chose your time and GP not prefect but better then it was
"Is it any wonder Aand E departments are jammed full?"
Quite! Though it does depend a lot on the practice - my daughter can be seen on demand if she turns up and waits like we did in the old days. That's in Whitby so not big city. They have umpteen doctors - with several couples who job share. Obviously paid too much ...
It is the same here - turn up and wait, every morning and some afternoons. She works alone, no nurse, no receptionist, all paperwork goes straight onto the computer system and she does house calls every day. But the system now limits the no of patients per doctor to 1500 although older practices may have over 2000+ because there weren't enough to go round. The shortages now are more in the specialists in hospital and not helped by the fact that by law they must all be bi-lingual (German and Italian) and the region doesn't have its own medical school. But they know the problems, they are changing the rules to accommodate the shortages.
When I first moved to my current address 8 years ago, my GP practice had 6 full-time doctors and it was always possible to get an appointment within a day or two. Then sadly one of the doctors was knocked off his bike and killed and another moved to a different part of the country. Two of the current four doctors are part-time. They occasionally have a locum, but probably when one of the regulars is on holiday, so it doesn't make much difference. Now, if you ask for an appointment its likely to be a fortnight or three weeks ahead. It is possible to go in as an emergency between 10.30 and 11 a.m., but essentially the receptionist determines whether your problem constitutes an emergency, which means having to explain the symptoms in front of the people in the waiting room to a person who isn't medically qualified.
You must have seen the jokes about that? No receptionist would quiz me in public about why I need an appointment! Not without getting a rather blatant response!
Actually both the usual ladies are fine and very sympathetic, not intimidating and self-important like the traditional caricature of a doctor's receptionist.
We had lovely receptionists too! Even better here - the only barrier to the GP is the patients who got there earlier than you did!!!
I guess I am lucky in a way that here in Japan to see GP on the same day is normal, common practice. They have a simple system, no appointments ( except for annual exams, or minor procedures). People go to the office and get a number and with that an estimate what time to come back, but it is usually in couple of hours.
Even to get appointment with rheumatologist GP's office scheduled it directly for me and it was the following week.
This is how healthcare should be when it is properly funded.
That number system nickm001 reminds me of what we had when I was a child ( 60 odd years ago!)
The male dr in the village has a number system - no times given out though. But it isn't unusual to see people pick the number up and nip to the pizzeria bar next door for a coffee...
Our local hospital used to have a number system for phlebotomy appointments- locals used to delight in telling they came in at 2am for a ticket then went home and back to bed until ‘opening time’. Management got wise and took the machine in at the end of clinic bringing it out at 8am on the dot- there was a queue a mile long long. All changed now no longer a drop in at the hospital.
We have a drop in at the hospital for bloods. Just been there - it was closed for a holiday yesterday so was heaving, when we left at 9.50am nearly 270 patients since 7am before they would close. OH had to go for an INR (warfarin clinic in the UK) and it had to be today and I needed a blood test too - the lovely lady (who now knows us well) gave us a single INR number for us both as they do a fast-track for INR once you are booked in. But there had been 40 ahead of us just to register!
OMG - that’s what it used to be like at ours ..... our hospital drop in is no more except for urgents - they’ve brought them out into community clinics which makes it better for parking. We’re lucky being central to all the clinics we can choose any. That was kind of the lady to give you the same number - I’ve seen the Warfarin clinic and it’s always heaving but they’re so organised and seem get through them like magic.
Our GP surgery has started to do bloods but only from 11 - 2 each day as it’s the practice nurse that does it - she’s new to the surgery and was qualified as a phlebotomist in her former life. Okay to book ahead but not for emergencies that’s a hospital trip. Hope your husband, and you, are ‘okay’.
I call my surgery 4 weeks before I need my appointment, that is when bookable appointments are released. It is supposed to be possible to get a same day appointment, but I haven't tried that for years, the thought of convinsing a receptionist you need to see a doctor!
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