GP Wait Times - your experience please….

Mine tend to vary. Sometimes it’s a couple of days, sometimes it’s later that day. My main issue is they say you’re limited to ten minutes per appointment and one problem per appointment. So if you develop two problems that seem completely unrelated, they may turn you away and say you need another appointment.

They’ve not refused me yet but one of the doctors did get a bit snappy when I went for a prescription renewal and asked could they look at an issue with my arm in the same appointment.

At €70 for an appointment (and an extra €30 for a blood test), I already felt robbed that they wouldn’t just renew the prescription for me. If they had refused to look at my arm because they insisted on a second app, I would have been raging.

If you make a case for an emergency appointment then its same day. If you want a normal appointment with a specific doctor its 5-10 working days. Waterford area.

By how much has the population increased in your area, in that time frame?

My GP quickest is usually a weekly AVG. Is ten days, so if you're sick, forget about it. No emergency appointments. Carlow Town

Used to be able to see my GP within 2 days (pre-Covid). Now, he has bought the practice as the original two GPs both retired, and it is a minimum of 2 weeks for a phone consultation with him, and he now only sees patients after he has had a phone consultation first. Time from phone consultation to face-to-face visit, is another week to ten days. The practice in general has also shortened their office hours by an hour on each end, and have two half days a week, when it used to be one.

Two new GPs in the practice, both will see patients without a prior phone consultation, but it's still ten days to two weeks. I have no confidence in either of the new GPs as I have found them both very unsure of themselves, and seem to need to check everything with the senior GP first, or their answer to everything is "oh I need to refer you to the hospital".

I've mostly given up on my surgery for anything but my repeat prescriptions and diabetes check. Now if Im actually sick I just go straight to TLC-Doc, where at least you will get seen by a doctor within a day.

Its a shame after being a patient at the same surgery for 40 years.

I wonder if this is such a big factor, to be honest.

I know my GP practice tell anyone who enquires that they're not taking on new patients, and it seems like that has been the standard reply for years now. The same with other Practices in the area.

GPs are not obliged to take on new patients, afaik.

Most likely a merger of multiple practices. Particularly if it moved in to a primary care centre at the same time.

The out of hours service was a good idea but it became useless

It was centralised here meaning a long distance to travel and it was simpler to go to a+e after hours

They would refer you on to a+e for minor issues so it was simpler to bypass them anyhow

Next day usually - solo gp in West Dublin. But my gp has had a recorded message saying he's not taking any new patients for nearly 5 years now. There are no gp practices accepting new patients in any of the nearby areas, so I'm very worried about what will happen when he retires in the next 5-10 years. He told me he cannot get a locum to be able go on holidays, paying €1000 a day.

Generally 2-3 days, last time I rang on Wednesday afternoon and had an appointment for the Friday morning. I moved last year but I'm still registered with my previous GP, tried to move locally but I can't even get a response.

This. If I want to see my GP it take two to three weeks, if its an emergency usually the same day or following day depending on the time you call in. But not my GP on the emergency Dungarvan Area

Appointments here over past 2-3 years are running to 2 months and that's paying full price. There are a half dozen GPs on the books. If emergency, can attend by phoning and going down and waiting till someone is free. Twenty years ago a typical appointment was a few days at most. Well populated town and big rural hinterland, lots of people.

I'm laughing at the idea of getting an appointment in just 8 days! That'd be a deluxe service my friend.

Yep, the government needs to force women GPs to get back to working fulltime, at gunpoint if necessary! Tongue in cheek but that's a contributory factor to the GP shortage. Another very significant factor is that there are more people - old and young - with GP cards; and as they don't have to pay to see the Doctor, they tend to avail of the free service more often.

My GP was forced to retire last summer at age 70, but is now working part-time for another busy practice. He used to charge €40, his new practice now charges €60 to see him - and it takes longer. Used to be less than a week, now it's at least a week.

On the good side - for him - he has reduced his golf handicap by two shots!

The receptionist never asks me details. I'd be annoyed if she did.

Work pays for my health insurance and they do "Digital GP" services. Free access to a GP for things like doctors note, colds, flu, etc. There are things they won't see you for but general things are fine.

Used to kill me to wait for an appointment, by which time I'd be back to work having been sick, only to have to take more time and pay €60 to get a doctors note...

lol, I’m wan of those wans with a GP visit card, fairly necessary in my case as I have fairly advanced MS with very unpredictable issues going on throughout. That said, it would otherwise cost me €65 a pop.

Somebody who has several doctors in their family said to me that nowadays most qualifying are women, and women tend to go part-time (gaining less experience too through career) so don’t fill the very real need of more full-time GPs. It is a very real issue.

Yes I agree re effect of GP cards etc. I always knew we had a pretty poor service in terms of waiting but surprised to see typical figures of days and at most 2 weeks above. That said, our GPs are good, know you and follow things up. Part of the issue round here is I think the relatively large number of people on medical cards combined with lack of choice. Those with cards tend to be in the waiting room over the years with kids with minor bugs and they just attend as it's free and they've got the time. Whereas we'd always avoid if at all possible, partly due to waits and partly as paying. Only ever went or go now if quite necessary.

Next day for me.

I've been down this rabbit hole with you before Dav010 and we didn't agree then, and we won't agree now.

As far as I'm concerned the only people qualified to triage patients are medical staff, not admin staff.

I've also heard of a number on incidences in my surgery where people have ended up seriously ill in hospital, having been refused appointments by the GPs reception staff.

I find with reception staff you have to be very specific about symptoms to get an urgent appointment, namely blood appearing where it shouldn’t be, eg, in urine, gets the appointment. Saying you have cystitis won’t get you an urgent appointment; if you have a cough you wont be seen without a Covid test, so always have to make sure I have a kit at home. Then if you have a proven non-Covid chest infection with rusty or purple sputum, and mention these symptoms you might be seen later that day and get your antibiotic for a lung infection.

It even if you can’t get an appointment to see doc, they will usually afford you a phone consultation same day, they send prescription to my local pharmacy. I monitor my own SPO2, peak flow etc during a lung infection so have a good idea if things are getting out of hand.