Lmao. I’m guessing the health secretary has private health care and hasn’t been to a NHS surgery in…. ever?
I’m from NZ and when I was living there I could always get an appointment within 2 or 3 days max. Why does the UK love to pinch pennies on important things like this?
Getting an appointment is easy. Arrive in person and tell them you don’t have a telephone. Tell them you don’t mind waiting there all day for an appointment to become available. You’ll be given the next available appointment slot or allowed to wait and see a doctor on that day.
I can’t wait to see how she plans to conjure thousands of GPs out of thin air, exciting! Hopefully she can do it for nurses too.
GP here: this is hot air. Nothing will change. In the future look forward to only speaking to a GP when the nurses/PAs have run out of ideas…..unless you have money
How is that going to happen when there is a staffing crisis in the NHS?
If I was a young medic wanting to be a GP I’d be looking to GTFO and move to Ireland, Canada, Australia… A friend’s niece spent a year working as a medic in Australia, moved back to the UK for family reasons, bitterly regrets it.
Edit:typo
I guess GPs will have to triple book appointments. Anyone up for a group diagnosis session?.
I’ll probably have recovered or died within a fortnight
I want to wake up next to Margot Robbie every morning, but there are a few issues with that. The first one being reality.
Seeing these ideologues come face to face with reality is going to be interesting, I am expecting tantrum levels on an epic scale.
We’ve had over a decade of this government promising shit and then doing nothing to achieve it. You’d think people would catch on by now…
>Therese Coffey pledges to free up over a million appointments a year by hiring more support staff and installing new phones.
Ah yes, more phones. That’ll free up GP’s
Maybe if the government, media and public attack GPs more and cut their pay then more doctors will become GPs and stay in the profession?
Maybe if we insult them enough it will also make foreign doctors even more excited to be GPs in the UK
Then the new Health Secretary will want to look at GP’s pensions and have a long chat with the HMRC. We are no longer in a position where the U.K. is seen as an attractive destination for many overseas Health Professionals unfortunately.
It’s time to start treating those who are here far more intelligently.
Judging by the Governments idiotic approach to Barristers however I’m not hopeful.
Lol we get appointments next day where I live. Perks of not being in the big city I guess.
Hi USian here Don’t let them tell you that switching to an all private or public/private partnership like our Health Insurance marketplace e will help you. It takes a year of waiting to GET a GP where I live (small Midwestern city) and I don’t know what the wait times to see a GP are because I haven’t had one since 2010 (you had to get a new one every time you change insurance plans)
GP here. On nights this week. 2200-0600 Sunday – Thursday and finishing today 0600 I’m back at 1300-1700 and 2000-0200. I’m lying in bed shattered and have been fully booked all week. I really don’t know how much more I could work even if I wanted to. I would rather quit than increase any more and definitely see why other GPs choose to limit their workload when possible. I don’t think the issue is GPs not wanting to work rather there is not enough of us and the demand is insane. The NHS is in such a bad state that even if I try and refer you for something I get a letter back saying the waiting time is so long I should try and do a better job myself before sending anyone on
If I check and try to book an appointment today, the first one is not for EIGHT WEEKS. This is in a rich Tory heartland.
IMO this is caused by a decade of underinvestment, hand waving ideas from this government isn’t going to change a thing.
more bollocks purely for generating headlines in the express and daily mail.
OK, where are these gp’s going to come from!?
Fantasy plans from a government with less grasp on reality than the average 6 month old…
Fucking hell….
I’d love 2 weeks. Last time I waited a month for a phone call.
Can we do away with same day appointments only while we’re at it please. This doesn’t work for people who work 8-5 and don’t live or work next door to their gp.
Personal I would like one the same day so I know whether to continue onward to A&E or not before what ever bit of me withers up and falls off. Is really that too much to ask?
Our GP does appointments on same day that you call up. But you can only call between 8-10 o’clock if your issue is urgent, otherwise they won’t schedule you in. You can call with anything else ex blood tests, feeling unwell etc after 10 o’clock and if they have anything left they will put you in. But they usually don’t by that point.
It’s been absolutely impossible for the last 2 years for us to get any GP appointments. Had to call 111 a couple of times because of things like ear infections or sinus infections that obviously needed antibiotics because they kept getting worse but the GP just wouldn’t be able to get us in.
It’s just such shambles, honestly. I’m pregnant and due soon and I am so worried that if there’s anything wrong with the baby I won’t be able to get seen by a GP because the receptionists at our practice are just so rude they won’t even hear you out or try to be helpful in any way.
The NHS is completely stretched out and it’s just such a shame because people will miss serious illnesses and they will die because you have to wait until your issue is an emergency and life threatening enough that you get treatment
So not train more doctors to see more people. just up skill some nurses to NPs that can really only do minor ailments and have huge limitations on what they can do.
Not that they can do that as Nurses have their own personal shortages.
Another health minister another recycled bad idea that attempts to put a bandaid of a huge festering wound.
Ruin the system, set goals that can’t be achieved under your ruined system, ruin system some more. Profit.
I just pray I stay fit and in good health.
In the back of my mind, being European, I know that if something serious happens I can always go back home and rely on my own country healthcare system (and private specialists who I trust a lot more than the UK consultants).
I lived here for 20 years, such a bummer to see all my tax money being wasted like this…
18 of the 27 departments at my local hospital are over the 18 week MAXIMUM wait time for 1st referral appointment as per the NHS, that’s 66% of departments in the entire hospital.
26w, 35w, 36w, 35w, 20w, 32w 34w, 35w, 25w, 33w, 25w, 23w, 34w, 39w, 46w, 53w… Fifty three weeks! Over a year to get your FIRST appointment to see a specialist in hospital, then months and months to wait for treatment. This country is fucked.
That’s not how getting an appointment works. you call at 8am sharp listen to the 3min recorded message. Once you are through you tell the receptionist what’s wrong with you then you either get a triage call or get to see the doctor on the day.
I’m not crazy right.like10 years ago you could just walk into your G.Ps and be able to see them.
OOHHH was that the problem?! Who knew the solution was just informing GP’s to arrange appointments within 2 weeks. Bloody genius.
If I call my gp at 8:30 am and 2:30pm I can get a same day appt.
They say that like 2 weeks is some kind of goal. It’s pathetic, and 100% on the government why it’s got that bad.
If you’re ill, it should more like 2 days. And it needs to be funded to the level to achieve that.
I’ve at times times been told to just go to A&E because the GP was full. That mean A&E fills up with non-urgent cases that could be seen by GPs but there’s no space for it.. the genuine urgent cases get treated too late or missed – that’s if the patient can even get there (from here it’s about 3 busses away, or there’s the choice of driving whilst ill.. or putting more strain on the underfunded ambulance service for something that really isn’t that urgent..).
Great. Is the new Health Secretary actually going to do anything to address the structural problems that cause delays?
I’ve given up with the nhs, they’re so unhelpful and the system seems to be designed around not providing help so if your not on deaths door you’ll just forget about the issue
Awesome, so GP surgeries are finally going to get the money they need to operate properly! That is what this announcement means isn’t it?
That’s better than I’m getting at the moment. If you don’t call at exactly 8:00:01, you won’t get an appointment that day, and if you want one in the future, it’ll be a couple of months later.
Any extra funding to be able to do that?
No?
OK, have fun with that target!
If wishes were horses then even beggars would ride…
Read carefully.
You can get the appointment within two weeks.
The date of that appointment is June 2027.
If she means you can meet your GP within two weeks then you’ll either need more GPs or an appointment time of no more than 90 seconds or GPs working 24/7.
I dont really see how having more phones, even if they are in a magic cloud, is going to help. There are only a certain number of slots per day. The plan really seems to be to get people who are not GPs to do some of the work. This is not therefore seeing your GP but seeing a pharmacist or nurse.
The next problem is clearly going to be getting a time to see the pharmacist or nurse.
I think it perfectly reasonable taking two weeks to establish when your next GP appointment might be in months to come. /s
Excellent, does this mean that they are going to adequately fund the NHS to meet this target? No? Oh.
Start charging people £15 for appointments through the NHS App – you get it refunded if you turn up to your appointment. Should stop the time wasters, no shows and hypochondriacs from taking up appointment slots!
So I think this is a really interesting problem and as a GP in quite an odd practice I’ll give my viewpoint
We run a 8000 patient practice. No call at 8am. Call whenever you’ll get an appointment. Telephone triage unless an obvious reason why it should just be face to face. So we basically give unlimited appointments.
We have 5GPs, 1 nurse practioner and 2 GP registrars.
This experiment was started 7 years ago when the senior partner took over a 1200 patient practice and here we are now.
Unlimited appointments – pro’s generally people are happier which makes the job a lot easier and asking people to do symptom diaries and book in for 2 or 3 weeks doesn’t cause hassle as they know they’ll get in. Less pressure on reception as they only ask pts to go to other services if its obvious, otherwise just book into an appointment
Cons: DNA DNA DNA. people ringing for the simplest of thing. Had a mum call me because her 8 year old has a spot on her back which came up 3 hours ago. A gentleman call me because his sore throat started that morning. The workload is a lot, and as a partner you basically take a huge paycut to offer this service.
So they tend to state one GP should be able to handle 2000 patients. Our ratio to support unlimited appointments is around 1 GP to 1333 (ish).
There are of course many other factors that play a part. We have a very deprived and ethnically diverse cohort but generally quite young.
Also the future of primary care, in my humble opinion, is GPs supervising and dealing with the most complex cases. A team of nurse practioners, PAs, pharmacists etc seeing most of the patients. You really don’t need 10 years of training to treat a chest infection. Personally that is the only way I see of meeting demand. I’m sure at some point our practice philosophy will fail because as numbers grow I can’t imagine we will be able to keep up as recruitment is too hard
Anyway just my prospective as a partner in a different style GP meeting patient access
43 comments
Lmao. I’m guessing the health secretary has private health care and hasn’t been to a NHS surgery in…. ever?
I’m from NZ and when I was living there I could always get an appointment within 2 or 3 days max. Why does the UK love to pinch pennies on important things like this?
Getting an appointment is easy. Arrive in person and tell them you don’t have a telephone. Tell them you don’t mind waiting there all day for an appointment to become available. You’ll be given the next available appointment slot or allowed to wait and see a doctor on that day.
I can’t wait to see how she plans to conjure thousands of GPs out of thin air, exciting! Hopefully she can do it for nurses too.
GP here: this is hot air. Nothing will change. In the future look forward to only speaking to a GP when the nurses/PAs have run out of ideas…..unless you have money
How is that going to happen when there is a staffing crisis in the NHS?
If I was a young medic wanting to be a GP I’d be looking to GTFO and move to Ireland, Canada, Australia… A friend’s niece spent a year working as a medic in Australia, moved back to the UK for family reasons, bitterly regrets it.
Edit:typo
I guess GPs will have to triple book appointments. Anyone up for a group diagnosis session?.
I’ll probably have recovered or died within a fortnight
I want to wake up next to Margot Robbie every morning, but there are a few issues with that. The first one being reality.
Seeing these ideologues come face to face with reality is going to be interesting, I am expecting tantrum levels on an epic scale.
We’ve had over a decade of this government promising shit and then doing nothing to achieve it. You’d think people would catch on by now…
>Therese Coffey pledges to free up over a million appointments a year by hiring more support staff and installing new phones.
Ah yes, more phones. That’ll free up GP’s
Maybe if the government, media and public attack GPs more and cut their pay then more doctors will become GPs and stay in the profession?
Maybe if we insult them enough it will also make foreign doctors even more excited to be GPs in the UK
Then the new Health Secretary will want to look at GP’s pensions and have a long chat with the HMRC. We are no longer in a position where the U.K. is seen as an attractive destination for many overseas Health Professionals unfortunately.
It’s time to start treating those who are here far more intelligently.
Judging by the Governments idiotic approach to Barristers however I’m not hopeful.
Lol we get appointments next day where I live. Perks of not being in the big city I guess.
Hi USian here Don’t let them tell you that switching to an all private or public/private partnership like our Health Insurance marketplace e will help you. It takes a year of waiting to GET a GP where I live (small Midwestern city) and I don’t know what the wait times to see a GP are because I haven’t had one since 2010 (you had to get a new one every time you change insurance plans)
GP here. On nights this week. 2200-0600 Sunday – Thursday and finishing today 0600 I’m back at 1300-1700 and 2000-0200. I’m lying in bed shattered and have been fully booked all week. I really don’t know how much more I could work even if I wanted to. I would rather quit than increase any more and definitely see why other GPs choose to limit their workload when possible. I don’t think the issue is GPs not wanting to work rather there is not enough of us and the demand is insane. The NHS is in such a bad state that even if I try and refer you for something I get a letter back saying the waiting time is so long I should try and do a better job myself before sending anyone on
If I check and try to book an appointment today, the first one is not for EIGHT WEEKS. This is in a rich Tory heartland.
IMO this is caused by a decade of underinvestment, hand waving ideas from this government isn’t going to change a thing.
more bollocks purely for generating headlines in the express and daily mail.
OK, where are these gp’s going to come from!?
Fantasy plans from a government with less grasp on reality than the average 6 month old…
Fucking hell….
I’d love 2 weeks. Last time I waited a month for a phone call.
Can we do away with same day appointments only while we’re at it please. This doesn’t work for people who work 8-5 and don’t live or work next door to their gp.
Personal I would like one the same day so I know whether to continue onward to A&E or not before what ever bit of me withers up and falls off. Is really that too much to ask?
Our GP does appointments on same day that you call up. But you can only call between 8-10 o’clock if your issue is urgent, otherwise they won’t schedule you in. You can call with anything else ex blood tests, feeling unwell etc after 10 o’clock and if they have anything left they will put you in. But they usually don’t by that point.
It’s been absolutely impossible for the last 2 years for us to get any GP appointments. Had to call 111 a couple of times because of things like ear infections or sinus infections that obviously needed antibiotics because they kept getting worse but the GP just wouldn’t be able to get us in.
It’s just such shambles, honestly. I’m pregnant and due soon and I am so worried that if there’s anything wrong with the baby I won’t be able to get seen by a GP because the receptionists at our practice are just so rude they won’t even hear you out or try to be helpful in any way.
The NHS is completely stretched out and it’s just such a shame because people will miss serious illnesses and they will die because you have to wait until your issue is an emergency and life threatening enough that you get treatment
So not train more doctors to see more people. just up skill some nurses to NPs that can really only do minor ailments and have huge limitations on what they can do.
Not that they can do that as Nurses have their own personal shortages.
Another health minister another recycled bad idea that attempts to put a bandaid of a huge festering wound.
Ruin the system, set goals that can’t be achieved under your ruined system, ruin system some more. Profit.
I just pray I stay fit and in good health.
In the back of my mind, being European, I know that if something serious happens I can always go back home and rely on my own country healthcare system (and private specialists who I trust a lot more than the UK consultants).
I lived here for 20 years, such a bummer to see all my tax money being wasted like this…
18 of the 27 departments at my local hospital are over the 18 week MAXIMUM wait time for 1st referral appointment as per the NHS, that’s 66% of departments in the entire hospital.
26w, 35w, 36w, 35w, 20w, 32w 34w, 35w, 25w, 33w, 25w, 23w, 34w, 39w, 46w, 53w… Fifty three weeks! Over a year to get your FIRST appointment to see a specialist in hospital, then months and months to wait for treatment. This country is fucked.
That’s not how getting an appointment works. you call at 8am sharp listen to the 3min recorded message. Once you are through you tell the receptionist what’s wrong with you then you either get a triage call or get to see the doctor on the day.
I’m not crazy right.like10 years ago you could just walk into your G.Ps and be able to see them.
OOHHH was that the problem?! Who knew the solution was just informing GP’s to arrange appointments within 2 weeks. Bloody genius.
If I call my gp at 8:30 am and 2:30pm I can get a same day appt.
They say that like 2 weeks is some kind of goal. It’s pathetic, and 100% on the government why it’s got that bad.
If you’re ill, it should more like 2 days. And it needs to be funded to the level to achieve that.
I’ve at times times been told to just go to A&E because the GP was full. That mean A&E fills up with non-urgent cases that could be seen by GPs but there’s no space for it.. the genuine urgent cases get treated too late or missed – that’s if the patient can even get there (from here it’s about 3 busses away, or there’s the choice of driving whilst ill.. or putting more strain on the underfunded ambulance service for something that really isn’t that urgent..).
Great. Is the new Health Secretary actually going to do anything to address the structural problems that cause delays?
I’ve given up with the nhs, they’re so unhelpful and the system seems to be designed around not providing help so if your not on deaths door you’ll just forget about the issue
Awesome, so GP surgeries are finally going to get the money they need to operate properly! That is what this announcement means isn’t it?
That’s better than I’m getting at the moment. If you don’t call at exactly 8:00:01, you won’t get an appointment that day, and if you want one in the future, it’ll be a couple of months later.
Any extra funding to be able to do that?
No?
OK, have fun with that target!
If wishes were horses then even beggars would ride…
Read carefully.
You can get the appointment within two weeks.
The date of that appointment is June 2027.
If she means you can meet your GP within two weeks then you’ll either need more GPs or an appointment time of no more than 90 seconds or GPs working 24/7.
I dont really see how having more phones, even if they are in a magic cloud, is going to help. There are only a certain number of slots per day. The plan really seems to be to get people who are not GPs to do some of the work. This is not therefore seeing your GP but seeing a pharmacist or nurse.
The next problem is clearly going to be getting a time to see the pharmacist or nurse.
I think it perfectly reasonable taking two weeks to establish when your next GP appointment might be in months to come. /s
Excellent, does this mean that they are going to adequately fund the NHS to meet this target? No? Oh.
Start charging people £15 for appointments through the NHS App – you get it refunded if you turn up to your appointment. Should stop the time wasters, no shows and hypochondriacs from taking up appointment slots!
So I think this is a really interesting problem and as a GP in quite an odd practice I’ll give my viewpoint
We run a 8000 patient practice. No call at 8am. Call whenever you’ll get an appointment. Telephone triage unless an obvious reason why it should just be face to face. So we basically give unlimited appointments.
We have 5GPs, 1 nurse practioner and 2 GP registrars.
This experiment was started 7 years ago when the senior partner took over a 1200 patient practice and here we are now.
Unlimited appointments – pro’s generally people are happier which makes the job a lot easier and asking people to do symptom diaries and book in for 2 or 3 weeks doesn’t cause hassle as they know they’ll get in. Less pressure on reception as they only ask pts to go to other services if its obvious, otherwise just book into an appointment
Cons: DNA DNA DNA. people ringing for the simplest of thing. Had a mum call me because her 8 year old has a spot on her back which came up 3 hours ago. A gentleman call me because his sore throat started that morning. The workload is a lot, and as a partner you basically take a huge paycut to offer this service.
So they tend to state one GP should be able to handle 2000 patients. Our ratio to support unlimited appointments is around 1 GP to 1333 (ish).
There are of course many other factors that play a part. We have a very deprived and ethnically diverse cohort but generally quite young.
Also the future of primary care, in my humble opinion, is GPs supervising and dealing with the most complex cases. A team of nurse practioners, PAs, pharmacists etc seeing most of the patients. You really don’t need 10 years of training to treat a chest infection. Personally that is the only way I see of meeting demand. I’m sure at some point our practice philosophy will fail because as numbers grow I can’t imagine we will be able to keep up as recruitment is too hard
Anyway just my prospective as a partner in a different style GP meeting patient access