"Difficulty obtaining an appointment"

I telephoned the practice this morning at 8.30 on the dot. After holding on for 17 minutes I finally spoke to the receptionist. I have been referred by my optician who last week found evidence in my retinal scan of a new anomaly which could be indicative of high blood pressure. I wished to make an appointment to see a specific doctor as he is my GP. I was told this was impossible as his last appointment had just gone. I was given the option of completing an e-consult and asking my GP to deal with it, with the proviso that it might not be him, or getting a phone call from another clinician at some point this morning. There was no other way I could make an appointment to see my own GP. I opted for the phone call but ended up feeling quite despairing. This is a serious matter involving potentially very long term medication with all that implies, side effects, contraindications etc, and I want to see my own GP to dicuss it. Continuity of care is recognised as being fundamental to good medical practice and this is being systematically denied to me. The practice's methods of allocating appointments probably show up administratively as hitting government targets, but as a patient the experience is deeply unsatisfactory. I've been left feeling completely demoralised on top of already feeling anxious about my health. The only positive thing I can say was that knowing I was patient number 23 in the queue at least gave me some hope that I would eventually speak to someone. Overall a very negative experience.