Waiting time to see a doctor at your surgery...

Soldato
Joined
15 Nov 2003
Posts
14,342
Location
Marlow
...just phoned my local surgery for an appointment... EIGHT DAYS!

What on earth is the point in that?


They've build a brand new purpose built building for our local surgery, spending God knows how much. Maybe they should have put a fraction of a that money towards a couple of extra GPs :rolleyes:
 
Soldato
Joined
24 Nov 2002
Posts
16,378
Location
38.744281°N 104.846806°W
1) It's free. Go private if you want it speedier (I've had to £££).
2) It's a labour government, vote someone else if you actually want a country that works.
3) It's the NHS, bloated funding that's mismanaged, and over-managed by too many managers.

Imagine if you were actually really ill (I'm not saying you're not).
 
Soldato
Joined
14 Apr 2006
Posts
3,699
Location
Nottingham
8 days is terrible
If i am lucky it is the very same morning :D

However, as far as dentists go, i had to go private (nothing worse than tooth ache [sp?])
 

RDM

RDM

Soldato
Joined
1 Feb 2007
Posts
20,612
With our surgery if you ring up first thing in the morning you normally get to see them that day, if they can't fit you in then the Doctor will call you and do a telephone appointment. If it is just a general "Need to chat to the doctor about something unimportant" then it will be anything up to two weeks.

If you need to talk to a Doctor and your own GP is unavailable, give NHS direct a ring, they can be quite good.
 

Dup

Dup

Soldato
Joined
10 Mar 2006
Posts
11,225
Location
East Lancs
My local surgery always answer the phone with "What" and ALWAYS slam the phone down. Doesn't matter how many people work in the reception, they have always done it. I don't have to wait 8 days though.

The excuse is that if you're really ill, go to A&E. It's sad they do not realise all serious illness isn't always aparent on the outside. If you need a blood test it'll take a further 7 days to get results, by which time it couldbe too late. Oh well.
 
Caporegime
Joined
22 Jun 2004
Posts
26,684
Location
Deep England
Never had to wait more than 48 hours to see a GP.

If it's serious you can usually ask for an emergency appointment for the same day, or call NHS Direct to see if your NHS Trust provides for example a GP service at your local hospital. Alternatively, find a new GP - 8 days is too long tbh.
 
Soldato
Joined
17 Jul 2007
Posts
24,529
Location
Solihull-Florida
1) It's free. Go private if you want it speedier (I've had to £££).
2) It's a labour government, vote someone else if you actually want a country that works.
3) It's the NHS, bloated funding that's mismanaged, and over-managed by too many managers.

Imagine if you were actually really ill (I'm not saying you're not).


Thatcher mucked the NHS into her free-market asylum, but achieved only an absurdly cash-starved organisation competing with itself.

And its still trying to get back to how it used to be when I was a lad.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
12 Jul 2005
Posts
20,484
Location
Aberlour, NE Scotland
Same day where i live now but when we lived in Elgin it was rare to get one the same week. That's when you could actually get through before 13.30. After then they would'nt take any appointments until 09.30 the next morning. You then had to keep on trying to get through before 13.30 again. pathetic it was. Much better now i am in the village. We even have a little hospital. :D
 
Don
Joined
21 Oct 2002
Posts
46,744
Location
Parts Unknown
that's mental, i couldn't believe it when my gf said she'd have to book for 'tomorrow'

i can see my local gp within 2 hours, or call out if it's really bad.

do people just visit A&E instead of get a faster service or something?
 
Soldato
Joined
5 Jul 2007
Posts
2,571
Location
NZ
GPs are utterly useless. Mine referred me to a hospital consultant. A month later I had the appointment and they said they would send the notes to my GP with the blood results and biopsies to advise if it was anything more serious than they thought it was.

A month after the hospital appointment I still had no answers so called the hospital. The GP surgery had returned the results to them saying "He isnt our patient" despite THEM referring me in the first place!!!

They resent the notes and even told the GP what prescription I needed. I turned up at the GP a week later to pick it up and they said they couldnt prescribe them to me as the date was 01/12/09 on the letter which they said was at the start of December BEFORE my hospital appointment so did I really go to hospital? I told them to look at the date of the hospital letter again and look at the year. It was, for some reason, in american date format but they failed to notice that :mad:

She couldnt even remember speaking to me earlier in the week about it all on the phone when SHE asked me to come in to pick up the prescription from her personally to get it sorted!! Sigh :(
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
15 Nov 2003
Posts
14,342
Location
Marlow
It depends on what you're going to see them for at the moment tbh they're still trying to cope with all the cold and flu victims that insist they have somthing worse

Oh indeed, one of their questions was, 'is it a serious'. Now, me not having a medical degree, I therefore having no idea if a cough with pain (muscle?) down my side, and a metalic taste (when coughing), which can be caused by blood, is 'serious' or not...

I'm phoning their duty doctor... It's daft! Eight days!
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
15 Nov 2003
Posts
14,342
Location
Marlow
Never had to wait more than 48 hours to see a GP.

If it's serious you can usually ask for an emergency appointment for the same day, or call NHS Direct to see if your NHS Trust provides for example a GP service at your local hospital. Alternatively, find a new GP - 8 days is too long tbh.

I have no idea if it's serious or not... That what the GP needs to do. NHS Direct cannot really diagnose from symptoms, so said to talk/see my GP... :confused:
 
Man of Honour
Joined
17 Nov 2003
Posts
36,743
Location
Southampton, UK
that's mental, i couldn't believe it when my gf said she'd have to book for 'tomorrow'

i can see my local gp within 2 hours, or call out if it's really bad.

do people just visit A&E instead of get a faster service or something?

Mine's not quite that good, I have to usually wait upto 5 hours or so on a working day.
 
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