[Closed] How Long To Get GP Appt Where You Are?

Probably today or tomorrow as they have online booking and you can snipe a cancellation fairly easily if you are flexible. If it's urgent they should have an emergency call in time to get one that day or a process to do that.

Same day if phone early and prepared to wait in surgery for available duty doc or nurse practitioner.
Same week if not emergency and flexible in availability to attend
Within two weeks if I want to see a particular GP

A year ago it was pretty much next day. No, 5 day wait for a call from the GP, followed by another 4-5 day wait for the actual appointment.
Lots of trying to to get the receptionist to screen calls, and quite worryingly, with seemingly full access to my file....

Can be same day unless it's trivial then a couple of days.

Emergency - normally same day if you are flexible and don't need to see a particular GP
Non emergency - at least a week if not longer
Cancellation - just try every morning and normally a couple of days and you're in.

having said all that, I don't know why they can't force GP's to do weekends and evenings on rotation - they get paid enough

having said all that, I don’t know why they can’t force GP’s to do weekends and evenings on rotation – they get paid enough

Well for one forcing them is the wrong word but the simple truth is there's not enough GPs.

How much do you think a GP earns?

Same day if I'm lucky, just have to play call lottery at 8am and try to get through.
There is an online system but that's a week in advance at very best.

If you know the system and turn up at the correct time about 20min - 2hr wait.

If you try to call them, couple of weeks.

https://www.england.nhs.uk/contact-us/

For out of hours and weekends you have a number of other options from walk in centres to the phone line.

A lot of people don't need to see a specific GP just somebody who can start the process for them or send them away after checking they are OK.

Same day...

2 weeks is the booking limit and they're usually full up to that. Getting a GP slot is like getting weekend uplift tickets for BPW.

Never longer than 3 days.

If emergency same day, If not then normally within the week.

Did you just ask for an appointment or explain you had been bleeding?

depends on the seriousness, if it is serious as in your case i would get an appointment today or tomorrow, otherwise 1-3 weeks.

I've had numerous doctors tell me to ask to speak direct to them, secretarys are their to filter out calls, they can be bypassed

Same day, almost always. Phone at 8.30 when the surgery opens.

Our surgery has now done away with advanced bookings and online bookings completely. The only advanced appointments are now for bloods and routine tests. If you are ill and want to see a doc/duty nurse then you now have to phone on the day and will be given an appointment that day. If you don't get one (assuming non-urgent) then you have to phone again the next day, and the next and so on, until you get an appointment. The last 2 times I have called I have had an appointment within the hour. The system, although counter intuitive, does seem to work quite well.

I rarely need to visit but never waited more than a day or two.

I don’t know why they can’t force GP’s to do weekends and evenings on rotation

A whole host of reasons, the main one being that they offered GP's a new contract to stop working evenings and weekends and then used that money to set up NHS 24 and other Out of Hours services.

Other reasons include:
GP's run their own businesses, it is very hard to force them to do anything
There is already a recruitment crisis in GP world, one of the few attractive things about general practice is the lack of shift work
If you are ill enough to need to see a GP then, by nature, your illness justifies you taking time off work to see a GP. If you are not ill enough to take time off work then, as suggested above, loads of other options for you.
Finally, if you get them to work at weekends then it will just leave gaps in midweek surgeries. Given that these are already fully booked, it is difficult to see how weekend surgeries solve anything other than a bit of convenience for you.

For me 6-8 weeks, if I can get through to get an appointment, I need to physically go in to arrange an appointment - they had brought in an online booking system - but the incumbent practice didn't win the most recent tender so its all gone out of the window. I genuinely don't know what my GP practice is called now or who any of the doctors are.

Two weeks for me, but that's usually because I want one to fit around work.

I did know someone whose GP surgery didn't let you book in advance. She worked the best part of two hours from home (drive to the station, get one train, change trains, walk the last bit from station to work), so couldn't go to the GP surgery and wait because if she didn't get an appointment she'd be late for work. But couldn't just head to work and phone up for an appointment because if she got one she would be unlikely to be able to get back to the surgery in time for a same day appointment.

She needed a referral for a scan for an ongoing problem that the GP was already aware of, but there was no way of getting past the gatekeepers on reception and booking an appointment for a week or so in advance.

EDIT:

If you are ill enough to need to see a GP then, by nature, your illness justifies you taking time off work to see a GP. If you are not ill enough to take time off work then, as suggested above, loads of other options for you

The above example is exactly why that quote is wrong. Sometimes, yes, you need to see a GP with something that means you're not at work. But I couldn't take a day off work because "I hurt my wrist 6 months ago and I still get shooting pains when I lift anything heavy with it". Or to take the NHS' own advice, if you've had a persistent cough for 6 weeks, you're not unfit for work, but you might need to see your GP. And that's not a reason to turn up at A&E or an OOH centre for 'urgent' treatment. If anything it's the 'on the day' appointments that should go to urgent care and the longer term/less urgent/chronic stuff that should go through GPs.

2-3 days, has been immediate in the past when it needed to be.

Same day if you dont mind sitting aŕound waiting, but i am in ireland and its €50 a visit.....

Immediately for urgent. Within a week for routine

It varies from:

"I'd like to talk to the doc about this *thing* or I need some documentation sorting" - 10 days to 2 weeks.

"I'm ill and think I need prescription medication to sort it" - same day, usually within a few hours, but it's a bit of a lottery with getting through.

"My Baby is hot and red and I'm worried" - "It's probably nothing, but come down, we'll be waiting for you" That happened twice and I won't have a bad word said about my GP Surgery.

Very interesting....

Yes, I did explain what the issue was and advised I would happily see any Dr, but still first available slot 08 March. I have been invited to call each morning to ascertain whether there have been any cancellations.

Hopefully nothing serious.....

Same day or the day after here in Perthshire. Was the same for me in Sheffield too.

OP. Go to the docs now. Tell them why you're there and that you're happy to wait until a cancellation occurs or until a doc has a spare five minutes to see you. If you get to closing time without being seen try for an out of hours doctor. If you still have no joy go to A&E with a clear conscience.

And yeah, for anything that *might* be serious I get seen the same day here. (Usually sick baby - they don't take chances with sick babies.) Less serious it can take longer but by chance it's convenient for me to pass by on spec at 7am and when I had a sore knee rocked up at 7am and got seen by a spare doc at 7:03. (Which is how long it took me to limp across the waiting room.)

If you don’t get seen by closing time go to A&E with a clear conscience.

Please don't do that.

Please don’t do that.

EDIT: Sorry just reread the OP and googled the term. My original post in itallics. NHS website tells the OP what to do. Sounds like it isn't an emergency at all.

I have zero medical knowledge, and you know your stuff, so I'll defer to your knowledge.

It might help and reassure the OP if you can explain to STW why this isn't worth a trip to A&E if all else fails? It sounds alarming to me.

It’s not immediately life threatening.

It’s not immediately life threatening.

Yup, I was a dick. I didn't read the OP properly, didn't google the term used and commented on something I know nothing about. Apart from that, my posts were great. 🙁

We’ve all done it.

When I turned up at opening time & said "I've had a tick bite & it's swollen", I had the first appointment that morning.
When It's something more trivial, then a couple of weeks. Also can take much longer if I want continuity of seing the same Doctor for something ongoing.

Short answers from present day Sheffield; same day if emergency or you're lucky in the morning lottery, three or four weeks if booking a routine appointment but you can rarely see your GP.

A few years ago I had a couple months off sick as had burnt out, I always saw the same doctor.

The surgery normally try to get you to see a nurse practitioner, regardless of your ailment.

When my rotator cuffs were bad, the nurse practitioner gave me a web address; I ended up eventually paying for private physio which was a fantastic luxury.

I have been struggling with mental health issues again and had an appointment where I was given antidepressants to take at night that would apparently make me sleepy; they were horrendous and I was drowsy all day, I did a week before coming off them.

I received a call from another doctor a week after the prescription and was told to book an appointment with the doctor to review

I tried at 8:15 and made 80 attempts at getting through before I got into the queue, I was told to have a phone appointment which I missed as was at work.

I don't use the online system, I know I am stupid for not doing so and that many issues with the well meaning gatekeepers can probably be circumnavigated this way.

My partner's back is playing up and she went on the online system last night, the earliest appointment available is 12/03/19.

I don't blame the medical professionals or receptionists for the current situation; my sister's a nurse, I know plenty of nurse and a few doctors working in the system and I've read the Adam Kay book so am under no illussions that they're tossing it off.

If you do the phone lottery and are lucky enough to get through then possible same day.

If I book a phone consultation via the internet then again same day.

Both of the above are for emergency stuff, if I want to book a non emergency appointment anywhere between 7 and 14days to be seen.

Normally same day, but you have to hit the number bang on 08:00, and keep redialling. Ridiculous. Just like buying concert tickets and trying to beat the touts.

Same day, no appointments 8-10am mon-fri at the practice I use,just sit and wait, maybe an hour or so you will be seen, kids and serious cases get seen first.

"the simple truth is there’s not enough GPs"

There's not enough GPs for how the NHS uses them. If they weren't the first point of contact for nearly everything then we would have enough.

Feels like a hangover from the past when nurses were undertrained and undervalued, and before we had nurse practitioners, paramedics and physios.

Usually same day if you ring at 08:00

he surgery normally try to get you to see a nurse practitioner,

This is always my chosen path tbh for a few reasons:

1) My Wife (another Nurse) was lectured by our ANP and she's a bit of a Hero amongst Nurses I think.
2) The amount of training, study and experience you need to be one is staggering, even compared to GPs.
3) Her communication skills are greater than any other medic I've ever met (and I've met far, far to many sadly) not only listening skills, but explaining treatments and causes etc.
4) Appointments aren't as rushed and in the rare occasion she's needed a Dr for something, she can always go and get one then and there, typically it's because some rule or reg says she needs one to sign something off.

he surgery normally try to get you to see a nurse practitioner,

As often that's all that is needed so frees up a GP.

Read it and weep https://www.nhs.uk/Services/gp/ReviewsAndRatings/DefaultView.aspx?id=35944

Three weeks or play the emergency doctor may see if you are well enough to get to the surgery by 8 am as the phones are always jammed stakes.

The Kafka comment was mine.

Dr Bob Gill, an NHS GP, speaks out about the great NHS heist:

Same day for things I really needed to see them about. You phone up first thing say you want an appointment and they tell you when that day. I've phoned them at 11am and been in at 2pm before. They keep a handful of "emergency" appointments clear each day.

Normally within a week for anything non urgent.

In Newcastle there are also a handful of walk in centres as well - Sit somewhere between A+E and a GP. Normally good if there is something wrong but you don't think it'll kill you straight away.

You can move GP surgery if you are not happy with your current one. Quality of service can very much depend on who your GP is. Newcastle seems to have some excellent doctors in my experience so I've always been very fortunate and had good service.

North Yorkshire. I've needed to see a GP twice in three years for totally different things. Both times I called at about lunchtime, got a call back from a doctor within an hour, and was seen the same day.

Neither item was serious.

At our surgery you can usually get an urgent appointment on the same day, if it’s not urgent it’s normally a 3-week wait, sometimes there are no appointments at all.

My wife phoned at 3.15 today for a non urgent appointment and was seen at 4.20...

Same day for emergencies (and in your shoes I'd be after that) or about two weeks for routine.

Getting an emergency appointment is an exercise in hammering the redial button at this time of year. They're usually gone in under ten minutes from opening.

If only we had £350million for GPs...