Difficulty Getting GP Appointments

Jorell00

My Drs will only give appointments 2 weeks in advance..so my Dr quite often tells me to come back and see him in 3 weeks. So you can't book an appointment there and then, so if you ring a week later, you're often told there is no appointments available. And the same if you ring back a couple of days later. So although he has told me to come back in 3 weeks it can often be 5 or 6 weeks before you can actually get an appointment. Seems like madness to me

POPPYOSCAR

Jorell00 wrote: »

My Drs will only give appointments 2 weeks in advance..so my Dr quite often tells me to come back and see him in 3 weeks. So you can't book an appointment there and then, so if you ring a week later, you're often told there is no appointments available. And the same if you ring back a couple of days later. So although he has told me to come back in 3 weeks it can often be 5 or 6 weeks before you can actually get an appointment. Seems like madness to me

We have to ring at 8.00am to get an appt. and of course everyone else is ringing then!!

We cannot book more than a week in advance, so getting an appt. is very difficult.

Last time my OH saw his Dr. he explained how difficult it was to get an appt and asked the Dr to make the next appt for him which he did. Not sure what reception made of that as it was for two weeks later!

DomRavioli

maman wrote: »

Thanks for that sal.
Out of interest, do you know if there are national /statutory rules about how to organise appointments or is it down to each practice to do what suits them? It is down to each practice - some may have local rules but that is down to them.

When you have 4 lines, does that mean 4 separate numbers? How many receptionists to answer the 4 lines? No, it means 4 extensions on the same number usually. And the number of receptionists/admin staff depends on when you call - if a GP needs something such as a chaperone, then they may not have cover for all 4 lines. Same with toilet breaks (yes, we have to pee), translation (if necessary, I am BSL trained so used to take over when needed at reception for that patient).

Do you have just 3 GPs in your practice or just 3 working on any given day? I've often wondered why they don't share the workload so that e.g. the one phoning nursing homes or doing home visits isn't the one doing appointments. Because each appointment is different - one can take 1 minute for something straight forward, one could take 20 minutes if that patient requires intensive acute care and onward transportation.

I'm very pleased with my own practice. They are very patient friendly. Recently started doing Saturday appointments. Same GPs, they just work different 'shifts'.

Had to answer that, hope sal does come back and answer too.

A lot of GPs have part time staff who cover busier periods and out of hours, so staffing can vary day to day, hour to hour on the needs of the practice.

bsms1147

AndyBSG wrote: »

Our GP's salaries are published and the 10 GP's are payed an average of 58K per year.

That may sound great but considering they pretty much work 6 days a week 12 hours a day and had to spend god knows how many years at University first I can completely understand why so many of my surgeries GP's are leaving with most heading abroad to get more money for less work.

...Don't forget the £10,000+ a year a full-time GP has to pay for the insurance simply to be allowed to work!

SallyUK

Thanks for answering Dom - you don't work in our place, do you? lol

Dom is quite right - we have one telephone number and four lines. Usually we have two receptionists answering the phone, and another one manning the front reception desk, if no one is at the desk , then she will answer phones too. The problem is, you just have to get one person on the phone who takes a long time to decide whether they want the appointment that you're offering, or they start to ask you about their medication etc, which then means that people are having to wait on the phone for a longer length of time.

We have a different GP on call each day who does home visits, referrals etc, they all sign their own patient's prescriptions.

Yes, we just have 3 partners and they all work Mon - Fri. As I said, they never know what might happen during a consultation, so if they run late with one, they might be able to make up that time during the next one.

Hope that helps, anything else you want to know, just ask.

Sal
xx

DomRavioli wrote: »

Had to answer that, hope sal does come back and answer too.

A lot of GPs have part time staff who cover busier periods and out of hours, so staffing can vary day to day, hour to hour on the needs of the practice.

System

SallyUK wrote: »

Don't they give you a number for the Crisis Team, in case you need help out of hours?


Sal
xx

Alas no i never got given it. I may have had it once but i thought i had to be under the care of CMHT to access it? Can you clarify if thats the case?

Ames

xXMessedUpXx wrote: »

Alas no i never got given it. I may have had it once but i thought i had to be under the care of CMHT to access it? Can you clarify if thats the case?

Sorry to butt in. I think it depends on area. I tried to access the crisis team when under the care of CMHT and was told I shouldn't have, because I had a CPN who I should have spoken to instead.

But I had a conversation on here with someone the other day and where she lived it was the other way round. She'd been discharged from CMHT which meant she also couldn't access the crisis team. There was another route for her to access emergency help, but I can't remember what it was.

System

Ames wrote: »

Sorry to butt in. I think it depends on area. I tried to access the crisis team when under the care of CMHT and was told I shouldn't have, because I had a CPN who I should have spoken to instead.

But I had a conversation on here with someone the other day and where she lived it was the other way round. She'd been discharged from CMHT which meant she also couldn't access the crisis team. There was another route for her to access emergency help, but I can't remember what it was.

Thank you

I'm not clear on who i can talk to. I'm trying to get referred back to the CMHT so maybe will get answers then.

meer53

I must be lucky, i called my GP yesterday and got an appointment for this afternoon, it wasn't urgent, i just needed a referral to a consultant, i don't seem to have any problems seeing my doctor. It obviously varies hugely according to where you're registered.

SallyUK

Our area's crisis team is available 24-7 for anyone needing help.

Sal
x

xXMessedUpXx wrote: »

Alas no i never got given it. I may have had it once but i thought i had to be under the care of CMHT to access it? Can you clarify if thats the case?