What is it like getting a Doctors appointment for you ?

[presta]

Getting a Dr’s appointment has just got much easier where we live. We can now book an appointment online.

We can request an appointment online, but we can't book online any more.

Our system works the same way whether you go online, phone, or go to the surgery. You join the scrum at 07:30, then answer triage questions, then they'll get back to you later in the day and tell you if and when you have an appointment. Within a few minutes the appointments are all gone, and then the system closes until 07:30 the next day.

 

[Mrs M]

Depends which gp gets your engage form

 

[icowden]

They were very obliging when they thought I was an offcomer, but then refused once they saw my address, and that I was already registered with another practice in town. When I checked with the Health Authority told me that they have a form for applying to change surgeries, but you can't choose which one, and have to accept whichever one they allocate you on a take it or leave it basis. The NHS website says whether surgeries are accepting new patients or not, so that presumably means practices have the freedom to decide not to accept new registrations if they consider they're 'full'. Given the endless complaints from GPs about being overworked, I can't see any of them exactly being ecstatic about taking on more work.

If people were completely free to pick whichever practice they choose, you could reasonably expect that almost the whole town would want to be with whichever one has the best rating, whilst the others are left with almost no punters at all. That's not a workable system, particularly for any resource that's both free at the point of use, and in short supply, which is doubtless why the HA told me you have to take what you're given. It would be no different to the whole audience insisting that they sit in the seat with the best view in the theatre.

But it's *exactly* what is happening where I live.

This is from my surgery:

Register with the surgery​

New patient registrations​

We are delighted that our planning application to increase our patient list size has been approved, meaning we can reopen our patient list. We will continue to do this in a controlled and safe manner, with limited new registrations allowed.
We open our patient list on a Wednesday morning at 9:00am
Once capacity has been reached, we will turn off the form and no more new patients can be accepted for that week.
**Please note the new time of 9:00am for the forms to ‘go live’**

You do have to be living in the catchment area, but as that's most of the town it's not an issue. They have just increased their capacity to 16,500 patients.
You should just be able to go to a practice and fill in the form.

It's not the Health Authority's business who you register with as all GPs operate as private companies. Each Practice has a licensed capacity that they cannot exceed.

 

[icowden]

Addendum: What the Health Authority should be taking note of is GPs with falling numbers of registrations as it suggests that there is a problem with that practice. Patients don't leave good Practices. They leave because their GP is failing or incompetent (or both).

I swapped as my GP wouldn't give holiday jabs, instead referring me to a local pharmacy where the jabs for my family would have cost over £500.
I reported the surgery to the ICB as the jabs in question are always administered by the NHS and are a critical part of managing infection control.

Moved to the new surgery and got the jabs for free. Plus the ICB upheld the complaint an informed my previous practice that they were in breach of the GP Contract and needed to pull their socks up sharpish. It turns out that "our Nurse went on maternity leave and hasn't come back yet, and we haven't booked a replacement" isn't good enough.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

I swapped as my GP wouldn't give holiday jabs, instead referring me to a local pharmacy where the jabs for my family would have cost over £500.
I reported the surgery to the ICB as the jabs in question are always administered by the NHS

Which jabs?

 

[icowden]

Which jabs?

It was for Malaysia so Hep A and Typhoid for all 4 of us.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

It was for Malaysia so Hep A and Typhoid for all 4 of us.

Had Typhoid at GP pre travel. Did not need Hep A as already have lifelong immunity from previous jabs.

 

[icowden]

Had Typhoid at GP pre travel. Did not need Hep A as already have lifelong immunity from previous jabs.

I did *eventually* but not after making a fuss and joining a surgery where they don't try and pretend they have more doctors than they actually have.

My new surgery has a big picture frame with all the staff in, on the wall. The receptionists are happy. There is never a queue - either for the reception in person or for the telephones. Any enquiries from the online form are replied to promptly. There have been occasional prescription slip ups (not enough tablets in the order as the medication review flag was still on) but not as bad as at my old practice (prescribing the wrong form of Insulin 3 times). The Practice building feels clean and well maintained.

Another measure of my former practice is that I am still receiving emails and invites for their patient forum meetings. Haven't managed to attend one yet as they messed the date up and hardly every arrange them, but you'd think that they would have noticed that I left the practice two years ago. No photos on the wall any more. When I was there, the receptionists were always angry and harassed, phone queues were often over an hour and the early morning "I can't get an appointment because you won't answer the phone" queue was always out of the door. The place looks like no-one has spent any money on it for 20 years (largely because they haven't). Touch screens seldom worked.