peterroe wrote:I'm with Decima Street. Turn up and queue early in the morning to get a same day appointment.
Isn't the immediate problem that the surgery will register new patients although they are already "full". Because more patients means more money for the practice.
Gavin Smith wrote:My wife tried to make an appointment for our three-month-old baby to see the GP on 27 April. The earliest appointment was 31 May! Only after making a formal complaint to the surgery was the appointment eventually brought forward to 10 May. The matter for which the appointment was sought wasn't in itself urgent but was a matter of concern for my wife and we didn't feel it was fair or appropriate to insist on an emergency appointment. We're hardly regular attenders - this was the baby's first ever visit to the GP and my wife, older two children and I between us have probably visited the GP five times in the last 15 years.
The surgery concerned - which I won't name, but which may be identifiable by the fact of its "sick queue" as, instead of releasing any appointments, they ask patients to turn up at 8.00 am and to form an orderly line which extends into the road - seems to think it is acceptable for a five-week wait or, put another way, almost half of my baby son's life, citing "NHS cuts". They should be named and shamed I am a PPG member ...you could always join your local branch GP...might help
Is this sort of shocking service commonplace elsewhere? Does anyone have any suggestions of good practices at the Bricklayers' Arms end of TBR?
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