I can never get an appointment

Just do what I do and don't get sick :p

Haven't seen a medical professional (except the dentist) in nearly 18 years I think - since I was about 14.
 
I kind of felt for the OP until he kept going on about how fantastic SA is.... all sympathy out of the window.
 
I never understood why they dont have a system where people who work are seen by say 2 or 3 doctors ( on a rotation ) and they get priority and an exact appointment time!

I mean you can make an appointment at my docs for lets say 2pm.. turn up at 2.45 well in time and not get seen for an hour became loads of people over run their ten minutes! There are 15 doctors and yet they are all busy ALL day and all overrun by an hour by midday? sounds to me like its just run very badly.

There should be a ruddy great clock in each room, when you sit down *BONG* stopwatch starts.... 10minutes means 10minutes not until you have stopped nattering the poor doctors ear off.
 
AtreuS said:
I never understood why they dont have a system where people who work are seen by say 2 or 3 doctors ( on a rotation ) and they get priority and an exact appointment time!

I mean you can make an appointment at my docs for lets say 2pm.. turn up at 2.45 well in time and not get seen for an hour became loads of people over run their ten minutes! There are 15 doctors and yet they are all busy ALL day and all overrun by an hour by midday? sounds to me like its just run very badly.

There should be a ruddy great clock in each room, when you sit down *BONG* stopwatch starts.... 10minutes means 10minutes not until you have stopped nattering the poor doctors ear off.
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What happens if the GP gives them bad news?

I can only speak from a hospital environment but the bad news factor contributes heavily to delays in waiting times. For instance, there are lists that the consultants will call to, some days will go without hitch, others can be delayed by several hours because they've found traces of cancer in Doris' eyeball.

Doris and her daughter then spend 10 minutes crying as staff try to console them whilst data protection means you cannot tell the waiting patients that they've been delayed due to an excessive amount of bad news, so people get wound up and aggressive.

Add to the fact that if several lists are called simultaneously people will pipe up if they believe they were there before X,Y,Z and you end up with a room of increasingly agitated people. Short of coming out of the consulting room with half a head missing they'd judge you to be a time waster because you're just another patient seen before them.

I'm sure everyone in this thread has felt that their appointment was the quickest in known history, but really, if you're assessed and given treatment in your 10 minute window are you going to sit there chatting? Depends if you have questions or just want to leave.

Not having a go at you, just saying that there's more to the delays than the fact that Dr Jones loves chatting to Bertie about his new pair of slacks or Mrs Phillips new 4x4.
 
To be honest though, it's not just the doctors.
It's like the Post Office. I've managed to avoid going for a few years, but I'm told from friends that it hasn't improved since I last did. I mean no offence to the other people there, but I've just nipped out from my lunch hour at work to tax the car/collect a parcel/post a parcel etc. There's an absolutely massive queue of people doing the most ridiculously complicated things possible and more old people than I even knew existed queuing to get their pensions, and unemployed people getting their benefits.
I'm not saying that these people shouldn't get served at all, but it's just a massive waste of my lunch hour queuing behind all these people that have got the whole day to do whatever it is they're doing. There needs to be a two tier "Net contributor nipped out in lunch hour" and "everyone else got all day" system. Why can't the Post Office queue and GP Appointments recognise BA Executive Club Gold card or something? :p
 
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Never had a problem with this, just call first thing.

Oh and EVH, I have no idea why data protection would mean you couldn't explain delays were due to bad news (no personal data is required for that surely?), sounds like a bogus policy to me.
 
You've gotta love British people.

I have a problem: I can't get an appointment at my GP.

Should I shop around for a GP that has an appointment system that suits me? Nah, I'll just take to the internet and complain about it.

Thumbs up for using words like "disgraceful", because you've heard that's how grown ups describe things they aren't happy about.
 
Westyfield2 said:
There's an absolutely massive queue of people doing the most ridiculously complicated things possible and more old people than I even knew existed queuing to get their pensions
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That struck a chord, I'm nearly always stuck behind someone at the post office or petrol station doing something incredibly complex by the sound of the conversation - can you put five pence on that card and take five sixths of a threpence from that one and put it on that one. Lord only knows what they're doing.
 
Well duh if you go in your lunch hour like the other 90% of people you will be queuing it is the reason I'd rather use a courier for sending stuff though, it is a waste of time. Since they closed a load of post offices this was bound to be the only outcome.

The same to the guy saying old people fill the bus during peak/rush hour. Its simply not true as free bus passes don't kick in before 9am.

Last time I used a uk doc I was told it would be a week for a non urgent appointment
In Sweden I waited an hour and got seen y the first available :-).
 
3-4 weeks here in Reading for my doctor; im usually 'better' by the time my appointment rolls round. Pointless.
 
Efour said:
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Last time I used a uk doc I was told it would be a week for a non urgent appointment
In Sweden I waited an hour and got seen y the first available :-).
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I'm sure if we paid significantly higher taxes and had a total population smaller than that of London you'd be able to see a doctor within an hour over here too ;)
 
pitchfork said:
Guess who funded modern medicine? Their generation.
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Oh dear. And of course no one in the last 10-30 years has paid into the system.


I'm not feeling entitled on their behalf, they are entitled - they earnt the right to see a doctor whenever they damn well please and claim their pensions and not be treated as second class citizens by some jumped up young scroat who has barely started to even pay his dues.
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Heavens above! And various other hyperbolic crap. You do sound like a bitter old man.

They more than paid for these things and the only reason the current government is unwilling to pay for these things is down to their failings, Tories love to pick on old people because they can't fight back. It's ok Mr Cameron, you give your funny handshake pal a tax break, I'm sure granny smith doesn't mind freezing to death for it because your party of scum won't pay her basic living costs.

Christ, no respect for your elders? I'm sure your mother is very proud, as is the milkman or the postman - could be either really.
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I have a lot of respect for old people, you're reading whatever it is you want into my post so that you can stay on your soap box. There is a difference between questioning a sense of entitlement and not respecting someone, I suggest you learn it.

Tories picking on old people? An interesting idea. The politicians are smart enough to know where the bulk of their votes come from, and they sure as hell don't want to **** off the old folk. You only have to spend ten minutes looking to see how a lot of policy is weighted in favour of older folk, rightly or wrongly.

And do grow up chummy, shove your personal insults up your backside.
 
matt1 said:
The entire ethos of the NHS is free at the point of access, so charging doesn't make any sense.

Multiple attenders are admittedly a problem but how can you judge what may be a potentially serious issue without seeing them. I'd rather the elderly seek help from their GP rather than calling 999 and being blue-lighted into hospital.

Many people seem to have no issue getting a same-day appointment if you call first thing in the morning, this is the whole point.
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It obviously depends on the surgery though. I saw a newspaper headline about Ed Miliband promising 48 hour appointments today. Whats the point? Some surgeries will be able to fulfil that, some won't.

Multiple attenders are a problem, my wife regularly sees people who make appointments simply because they want someone to talk too. This might well be all they need - I would have thought that that kind of thing helps them because it might help their mental state, but the issue is if they're tying up the GP for it. Given the state of care in the UK I'm not sure how you'd go about changing it.
 
Efour said:
The same to the guy saying old people fill the bus during peak/rush hour. Its simply not true as free bus passes don't kick in before 9am.
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The OAP / disabled passes are valid at all times in the local area. It's only outside of your constituency that it becomes off-peak. I know this, because I have one myself. Just about to use it now actually and it's 08:21 :p
 
The GP practice I go to does the whole phone at 8am for appointments that day or later if it's non-urgent or you want to see someone in particular. Personally I've seen at least 3 different doctors there over the years and all have been fine so I don't really care who I see.

If it is a real emergency then I'll go to A&E, which has happened once in the last 10 years, and I have used NHS walk in places a couple of times and found them fine too.
 
Jolteh said:
I have a problem: I can't get an appointment at my GP.

Should I shop around for a GP that has an appointment system that suits me? Nah, I'll just take to the internet and complain about it.
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I live in Newham, all of the local surgeries have exactly the same problem as they're all chronically underfunded.

Apparently from October if surgeries sign up you can enrol at a surgery outside of your catchment area, at which point I suspect there'll be a mass flood of people banging down the doors of the neighbouring boroughs!
 
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