"Appointment booking"

I am fortunate enough not to need to access primary care very often so I got a bit of a shock today when I rang my GP practice (Beggarwood Surgery in Basingstoke, Hampshire) to try and book an appointment to see a doctor to discuss a non-urgent health issue.

I was advised by the reception staff that they now only take bookings for appointments on the day and to increase my chances of getting an appointment I should call first thing in the morning, but that appointments are held back for urgent appointments.

As I said my issue is non-urgent so in order to access a GP I now have to be entering some sort of lottery where I need to be first to call the surgery at 8.30am when it opens and hope that I am lucky enough to get through before all the appointments are allocated to the dozens of other patients I'm effectively in competition with to get an appointment.

I refuse to believe that this anything other than a cynical attempt to show a reduction in waiting times to be seen by a GP. It can't possibly be driven by good patient care and improved health outcomes.