54 times before I got through to an automated message to tell me they’ve reached capacity. What’s the actual point of paying for a GP WHEN YOU CANT EVEN GET AN APPOINTMENT TO SEE THEM!

by RTM179

32 comments

  1. But remember, the NHS 😍 😍

    Count your blessings you’re not having to suffer through that republican NHS across the border!!! With its better standards, better health outcomes and better life expectancy!!

    **Edit:** for anyone confused. I’m not saying the HSE doesn’t have problems. My point is that the NHS is used as justification for continued union with Britain when it really, really, *really* shouldn’t be. At this point, it doesn’t even make sense for unionism to bring up the NHS in the constitutional debate… but they continue to do so.

    Something like 40%-50% of the southern population access the HSE for free because they are below the wage threshold. The rest have health insurance. It is *nothing* like the American system. Lots of Western European countries have systems similar to Irelands.

  2. It’s not good enough, but there is apparently no money to make it better

  3. I have rang from two phones at the same time over 120 times each, from 8.30.

    To finally get through at 8.50 to the automated line to tell me they are fully booked up.

    When I am lucky and manage to get through for an appointment it’s in 3 weeks time at the earliest….

    Also, the whole surgery is half day Wednesday and closes every lunch between 12.30 and 2.

    Count your blessings where you have them

  5. I phoned for an appointment yesterday, second in the queue asked for an appointment, offered antibiotics instead (thankful for them I did need them).

    Picked up the prescription in the afternoon to a note on the script saying “please book an appointment to see GP” highlighted 😆. I TRIED

  7. What good is “free at the point of use” IF THEY CANT EVEN ANSWER THE FUCKING PHONE AFTER 54 CALLS and are fully booked after 20 FUCKING MINS! Like these guys are TAKING THE ABSOLUTE PISS

  8. Dundonald is worst I rang over 200 times to get through to be told same

  9. It’s a pile of shite I pre booked an appointment for a call back.
    Doctor never called back have rang 3 times now keep getting told doctor will call today and they don’t this been going on 3 weeks.

  10. It is a hateful system a none of the political parties have a solution. Personally, I think there is far too much waste in the public sector and successive governments trying to tax us or print money to improve things is a criminal failure. 

  11. The NHS doesn’t work. NI is worse than elsewhere, but it’s pretty terrible in GB as well. The hybrid public/private insurance-based systems used in the rest of Western Europe have consistently better outcomes.

  12. Happened to me a few weeks ago. 56 calls and told they were full capacity.
    Was able to book an appointment for 8 Weeks time!!

    Paid £20 to bupa for a zoom appointment with a GP.
    So much better.

  13. The NHS isn’t collapsing it has collapsed. We pay for this service!

  15. Called yesterday, 8:30 sharp. Like within 2 seconds of the time changing. Was twelfth in the queue (thankfully my gp uses a queue system for phone calls)… triage full. Like wtf

  16. And then at this time of the year the waiting room is full of people with colds who should’ve just gone to the pharmacist 😍😍😍😍

  17. I often have to call my doctor upwards of 300 times to get through. It’s like winning the lottery any time I get through to them when the phone lines open.
    It’s genuinely madness.

  18. Having private medical insurance through work now is just fantastic given the state of our local NHS. Digital consultations same day. The rare time I need to see a GP in person now I get an appointment, also normally the same day. About £60-70 for a 15-30 min appointment. Best money you could spend. Night & day comparison to your regular GP surgery.

  19. GP practices aren’t paid per appointment or per visit. They’re paid mainly per patient registered. So they have zero incentive to actually see patients. They only care about patients on their books, because they’re paid anyways. A practice with 10,000 patients gets the funding for 10,000 patients whether they see them all or not. It’s called capitation funding. It needs MAJOR reform!

  20. I live in Spain now, where there’s an app to make appointments with your doctor, and if you don’t want to use the app, you turn up in the surgery and ask the receptionist to make you an appointment. It is like magic after so long with the system at home.

  21. I’ve lived in Belfast since 2022 and I still haven’t changed my doctors from Ballymena for this very reason

  22. The NHS isn’t working as intended because the government here and in Westminster is sabotaging it from the inside out.

    More and more services are being siphoned off into the private sector, so when the MPs boast about pouring billions into the NHS its all going towards paying off private contracts and services rather than actually making the system better.

    Then Brexit made it more difficult for talented doctors and nurses overseas to provide us with healthcare and then the government has also deliberately allowed wages to stagnate, cutting off talented physicians from within our own borders. Torys also eliminated grants for student nurses and made life a living hell for junior doctors. And the doctors and nurses who are still in the system have had to fight to get a barely acceptable wage for themselves.

    GPs aren’t supported enough by the government and there isn’t anywhere near enough of them for reasons stated above.

    If it isn’t obvious already, you need to use your fucking vote to get these duplicitous cunts out of our government and get grassroots candidates in that actually care about making peoples lives better

    If it doesn’t change, then we’re just gonna accelerate a United Ireland. And I would welcome that to be honest. Being associated with Britain these days is so fucking gross.

  23. They used Covid as perfect excuse to not do face to face appointments anymore unless ur leg is hanging off and politicians don’t seem willing or bothered enough to make them revert to the way it was pre-2020

  24. Not to play devil’s advocate here but if a GP surgery only has a handful of GPs but cover an area with hundreds of patients how many people do you think they can realistically see in a day? I completely get your frustration, I’ve experienced the calling a million times just to be told there’s no appointments left or when I call up and they say they’ve activated their emergency powers because they don’t have enough GPs that day and they’re only taking emergencies. I just think ultimately the frustration is aimed at the wrong people – GPs only have so much capacity in a day and can’t really do more than they already are. What we need is the government to pull their finger out and properly fund the NHS so we can have more GPs to handle the number of patients there are. Constantly accusing GPs of being lazy when they’re overworked and burnt out is going to cause more damage because they will leave the profession and I think any of us would as well if we were being abused for not being miracle workers.

  25. “Have you considered simply dying instead?”

    The NHS

  26. Things which are free have no value, so the system is completely overrun and abused.

    Mix in the drastic reduction in government funding, which leads to less reception staff, which leads to less phonecalls being answered, increased pressure on GPs and therefore less doctors wanting to work as GPs anymore, which leads to less GP slots available. It’s a vicious cycle of supply and demand with demand far outpacing the supply.

  28. Just remember, everyone. You are not stuck in traffic.

    You ARE traffic.

    I sympathise with anyone that can’t get an appointment, but when a hundred people are trying to book fifteen slots a day, then yeah, not everyone is going to get in.

    I see so many posts on here from people saying “Why wasn’t I seen above the other people?!” when the other people are doing the _exact_ same thing.

    It sucks, but they have a capacity _for a reason_ . GPs have a limit to the number of people they can see each day for safety reasons, unless you want some tired consultant seeing you after they’ve had to diagnose 80 people prior that day.

  29. I love the optimism of not getting through 53 times and thinking “Maybe this is the one”.

    Joking aside, switch GP. We changed recently and I can get through to my doc and be seen that day now.

  30. the GP service here is an absolute mess. The past few year i’ve been having health issues that could have so easily be prevented if i was actually seen by a doctor and treated, instead i was only getting callbacks from the nurse and filled with antibiotics that apparently i didn’t need. I gave in and paid private for treatment, was seen straight away, in surgery within the week and 6 month later i’m thriving. I understand i’m in such a privileged position to go private, but if i was just treated correctly 3-4 years ago maybe i could have avoided the 14 rounds of antibiotics and countless 8:30 GP call wars

  32. Unpopular opinion but the only way to fix this is move the very elderly to a different service that isn’t gp or the mainline nhs

    Freeing up bandwidth for the average person

    I know a few doctors and nurses who can’t say this publicly but a good 60% of staffs time is taken up by 10% of patients who are chronically ill and at the end of life age wise

    Who suck up beds and time that they would much rather be using to help people who have long term futures

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