"Appointments are very difficult to get"

I understand that people want to get same day appointments and they’ve done their best to allow for this but they disappear within a minute and then when you try via phone they dismiss you (I was hung up on before I even said thank you, goodbye).

I fainted and hit the floor, I felt okay after a short while - but I have a heart condition so thought I should just get a check up rather than sit in A&E for hours for something unlikely to be urgent. I had alarms set for 8pm so I could log on and book. I’d chosen a time and tried to write a reason before continuing - “this appointment is no longer available”. I don’t think it’s fair that the quicker you are - the less info you give - allows you to secure the appointment first. When you select the time, it shouldn’t be left available for others to select, so that you don’t have to race for healthcare.

Or at least when you phone up because you believe that you may have a more pressing problem but not for A&E, there are some spare slots.

If a GP is there for a full day and appointments are 10mins long, even including prebooked and breaks, there should be more than 15 slots available - all of which get snatched within 30seconds.

There has to be a better way to make appointments available to people, especially considering the fact that someone might’ve got the day off work and had to sacrifice it because they weren’t quick enough to get an appointment.

I don’t want this to be completely negative because the surgery has been a great help to me before. The place itself is clean and easy to navigate. Sometimes a little overheated but mostly a welcoming safe environment. The GP themselves are friendly and helpful as well as the other staff (excluding whoever hung up on me this morning).

I just wish the appointment system wasn’t as ruthless.