Just rang up to get an appointment with a doctor.

The woman said she could fit me in at 3 this afternoon. (I car share at work and don't have my car today).

I asked for an appointment for tomorrow but she said I'd have to call back at 8:15 tomorrow morning.

What f*cking good is that for me?! I work from 8:30 till 5 and I leave home at 7:45 ish and get back about 6. The doctor's surgery closes at 5pm.

So now I have to drive in to work tomorrow (even though it's not my car share day) and ring up just in case they can give me an appointment. If they can I have no way of knowing when it will be (what if they give me 9am so I have to get straight back in my car and drive to the doctors) and if they can't I've driven in to work for no reason.

F*cking useless system.

I have been calling my doctors for last couple of weeks trying to get an appointment. I've got one on Tuesday which is 2 weeks after I first phoned them. Just as well I'm not ill or anything.

Thanks.
You've just reminded me to call my dentist.

EDIT

Cool. Got my appointment booked for December.

You didn't say which year tho Lev

This is the kind of crap that happens when you let the Govt set targets in the NHS, one of them being time to see a GP.

The better surgeries where I've worked have say half of the slots as routine appointmets and half for urgent stuff. I've seen people who decide a nonurgent problem requires an urgent appointment. I've seen people with nonurgent problems attending A&E inappropriately either because they can't get an appointment with their GP, or worse, because they haven' bothered going to their GP. Such patients get very short thrift as it's an inappropriate use of resources and yet they're the ones who complain the loudest (not talking about you foggy).

The GP I first registered with from childhood had an open-diary policy. You walk in, let the receptionist know who you are and then you sat and waited until you were called in. This could be an hour or sometimes two. Either way, you got seen the same day.

Foggy, it may be worth asking to speak to one of the GPs if it's a fairly urgent problem. They can, if they choose to, override everything and see you at a better time that suits you.

My GP's surgery seems to be one of the better ones in the area.
Phone up and get a same day appointment or one in up to 4 weeks time for non-urgent stuff. Plus they are open until 9 pm on a Monday which makes seeing my doctor for routine stuff a piece of cake. It's only a pity that the attached pharmacy isn't open till late on a Monday as well.

As far as I understand it, the government has stated that a patient MUST be able to see a GP within 24 hrs of requiring one. However, many practices will NOT allow you to make an appointment the day before as you will breach this target.

As far as the practice is concerned, until you have (successfully) made an appointment, the clock isn't ticking and they can meet the target, even if you have been trying for three days to get one.

The last government was supposed to have addressed this issue, but obviously never did get it sorted.