Trying to get through to the doctor....

onomatopoeia99

My GP it's ring in the morning and you can get an appointment afternoon / early evening. Ring in the afternoon and next day, Never had to wait in a queue. I never try and ring them at 8am and don't care what time of day the appointment is, seeing the doctor is time off work for being ill, so comes out of sick leave.

Ames

pogofish wrote: »

Surely you just ask them when you see them?

I can't think of any normal family/relationship where one member has to communicate via a phone queue with another...?

I think Kingfisherblue meant she was trying to find out when the flu clinics are so she can make an appointment for her son, not that an appointment's been made and she wants to know when it is.

IIRC, she's carer for her son who can't manage appointments on his own (apologies if I've got you mixed up with someone else).

At my surgery you can usually get an appointment if you phone up at 8am, at worst I've had to do that two days running. There are online appointments but they're generally for a week or two ahead. For anything else I pop in, I have panic attacks using the phone so try to do stuff in person when I can. It must be really frustrating not to be able to get in touch.

To not get through on an afternoon for forty minutes surely means there's a problem with the phones though, otherwise it's ridiculous.

Loz01

Ours is all done online, you log on at 8am and refresh a few times and it shows you all the available appointments for the day and you click and book in seconds, its so much easier. Used to be a nightmare on the phone. I wake up at 7:58, book it and go back to sleep for a bit :rotfl: (if its my day off work that is, not every day of my life)

consumers_revenge

we got more chance of seeing the wizard of Oz than our doctor.

DomRavioli

Most large GP surgeries will do flu shots on a routine nurse appointment if there's no clinic that week - If you want to make an appointment, I'd advise not calling after 4pm as it can get super busy with prescriptions, urgent referrals and schoolchildren (just for the future).

Robin9

I had my flu jab at Boots.

clint_S

Just realising how bad my GP is. You have between 8:30am and 10am each morning to make emergency appointments, i.e be seen that day, or you have to ring on Thursdays for general appointments. The phones are turned off, you get an automated message giving you time to phone. No online, they also no longer accept walk ins and appointments can only be made through the phone system.


If you do get through during the morning rush you have to leave a message with a machine describing why you need an appointment. If you pass this a Receptionist then calls you and you have to explain to them why you need to see a doctor! Finally if the receptionist agrees you get put on a list and a doctor calls you some time during the day to see if you should come in to the GPs. The whole process usually takes 4 -5 hours and the GP usually says can you come in now.

Indout96

Go to local chemist who can do the flu jab (I always use ASDA) if you are entitled to a free jab then they just get you to sign a form (has doctors details ect on it) and it is still free.
If you pay it is only £5 at Asda.

My Doctors normally do it as a drop in clinic during office hours only, great for us workers, hence why I use Asda.

LKRDN_Morgan

I feel your pain. I was with my surgery for years. It merged with another and suddenly you had more chance or winning the lottery than getting an appointment.

I changed to a different surgery out of town who do appointments through an online system. It's so much easier! You login and every appointment for the day is shown. You still have to login early enough to get one but none of this been kept on hold for a stupid amount of time.

Why all surgery's don't do this I have no idea. Plus you don't have to explain your problem to the wannabe GP receptionist so that's a bonus too!

onomatopoeia99

LKRDN_Morgan wrote: »

Plus you don't have to explain your problem to the wannabe GP receptionist so that's a bonus too!

You don't anyway, just refuse. If they refuse to give you an appointment for that reason then make a written complaint to the practice manager, because they are receptionists, not bouncers.