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Booking a doctors appointmernt

It's not very often I have to visit my Doctor but last week I tried to book and appointment at my GPs surgery. After phoning the receptionist I was told there were no slots at all during the rest of the week and so had to wait a full week for an appointment. Even then there was not a choice with the resident doctors but only with a registrar? who was there temporarily. I was informed at the outset if I considered it urgent I could come to the surgery and wait with many others.
What about the 48 hour max waiting time? Is this a new trend where appointments are being dropped? What is happening?

rov1200 Sat 22/11/08 15:27

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Jenga
Sat 22/11/08
15:54

At my doctor's you have to ring on the day and they can say come at 10.30 and same for evening appointments.

bednobs
Sat 22/11/08
16:57

Rov - you were offered the choice to come in and wait for an appointment, so therefore you were offered a same day appointment which is certainly within 48 hours. there is nothing to say you have to have an appointment within 48 hours with a doctor of your choice.
the gp's have a certain amount of "on the day" appointments and a certain amount of prebookable apintments. Unfortunately the prebookable ones do get pre booked which is why you would have had to wait for a week or so. personally i think its a good enough system meaning that if you can wait, you do but if you have something that cant wait, you dont have to

bednobs
Sat 22/11/08
17:00

also, in a way its not the surgery' s fault its the patient's - you get the people who have always seen their doctor at 10 am on a thursday and alays will. They come out of 1 appt and just make the next. In my surgery they had 20 odd slots in 1 WEEK where people didnt turn up to their appts!!!!

MrXLA
Sat 22/11/08
17:34

Thank you bednobs your answer is succint and accurate and nothing more needs to be said in response to rob1200's question.

Willow Tree
Sat 22/11/08
19:09

I phoned my doctors on Monday for an Appointment. She booked me in for Tuesday. Coming straight from work on the other side of manchester, i phoned and said that i might be a few mins late. then she said i dont have an appointment the cheek of it!!!

firewatch
Sat 22/11/08
19:18

My husband had to see the doctor, the receptionist told him 6:10,so he turned up at the right time to be told it was for the following day, luckily the doctor saw him.
I had bacterial tonsilitis a few weeks ago, and could not get an appointment for love nor money so i sat and waited for an hour at the end of surgery.
Im trained in this field and no shows are a med receptionists nightmare! if they have enough advance notice of a no show they will try and book someone in. It bugs the crap out of me when people where i work say they need an urgent appointment when in fact all they have is a cold!!And its all ways the genuinely ill who suffer because of it.
So you are not alone!

Greedyfly
Sun 23/11/08
22:04

The doctors surgery in the village I live which I might add is in a fairly big city only has one doctor and a village full of elderly people who always seem to be ill. If I want an app I have to know Im going to be ill about 2 weeks in advance. I find it really amusing that there are more receptionists than medical staff. So I changed doctors last week only to be told id have to have an interview before I could join lmao. They accepted me but I found that pretty funny.

rov1200
Mon 24/11/08
20:01

Question Author

The sooner they have internet booking the better for us all. It should also help with the non attendees or cancellations.

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