GP receptionist advises key phrase to beat 8am doctor appointment scramble
Cuppas have gone cold and breakfasts gone uneaten as we all attempt to time our morning call for an appointment bang on that 8am time slot - but there are secret ways you can beat the system
We've all been there, feeling under the weather or concerned for a loved one and yet you have to contend with clock watching as you attempt to time the second perfectly for calling your GP surgery. Beliefs that the closer you get to the elusive 8am slot the better chance you have of connecting have us all hovering over the call button just as the clock turns from 7:59 to 8am on the dot.
Now though, those in the know - the actual GP receptionists - have revealed a top secret that most don't know, that can help you avoid the early morning scramble and panic. The medical receptionists are often seen as the grim-faced gatekeepers of overstretched NHS appointments, but often they're the ones who bare the brunt of disgruntled and unwell patients calling to secure some time with a doctor or nurse.
Many deem them unhelpful or intrusive, with many patients not keen to give away their health problems to the voice on the phone, and with new official figures suggesting 2.8 million people a month struggle to contact their local GP practice, receptionists are now fighting back, and showing how willing they are to help you find an appointment.
One of the ways they're doing this is with top insider tips that might just help. Instead of calling up to wait through massive virtual queues to discover all appointments for the day are gone, they suggest turning up in person.
61 year old Tracey Jetts, a receptionist at Doncaster GP surgery admits you're far "more likely to get an appointment that way."
"We may still send you to the pharmacy, or make a non-urgent appointment on another day, as we still have to prioritise patients according to need. But you'll have been able to speak to someone and won't have been hanging around on hold," she told the Daily Mail.
Another agreed and said that if you're prepared to wait in person, appointments can free up. She also added that being 'seen' as ill can help. "We're not doctors, but we can tell when someone is struggling."
Another tip from the experts was to all in the afternoon, on a Tuesday. Once the initial 8am rush has calmed, it's easier to get through and occasionally cancellations happen or more appointments are released if the doctor has more time.
A Cardiff-based GP admitted that once they had a patient who rang in the afternoon for blood tests. He secured an appointment straight away because the surgery had just had a cancellation, but the receptionist admitted had he called in the morning "he'd likely be turned away."
Also, avoid Mondays and Fridays if you can - mid-week is much quieter, "especially Tuesdays," said one GP receptionist from Gloucester. And remember, don't raise your voice. Lots of receptionists admitted that some patients believe that pushing harder or more aggressively will help secure an appointment but that simply "won't work."
Explaining why you need a doctor is one of the biggest complaints about receptionists but it's a requirement and can help you be seen more quickly. Aware that they're seen as "being nosey", one Welsh receptionist admitted she needs to know the urgency and it also might require a double slot.
Also, consider explaining how your health issue is affecting you, not just stating the problem itself. "Saying how something is affecting you, rather than just the problem itself, is often a good way of showing us how urgent it is. So if you're not sleeping well and if you say it's affecting your ability to work, or drive, or look after your children, then that needs to be dealt with quickly. If you're bleeding, that's another red flag, or any problem that has got worse since the doctor last saw you," said Mrs Jetts.
Another receptionist recommends the phrase 'this is not normal for me' which highlights a new issue that a GP will want to check out. Children will almost always been seen quickly, but parents should be reminded to make clear things like rashes, fevers not eating or drinking and any sleep issues, and don't be frightened to raise if something feels like an emergency.
Often there are only 'emergency' appointments left and one receptionist revealed that she just "needs to hear you say it's an emergency" and it's yours. Make sure not to underplay your symptoms either, 'not making a fuss' can cost you precious time with your GP and the receptionists warned they often get patients like this who think they're doing them a favour.
Remember that being sent to your pharmacy isn't a cop-out or 'downgrade' either, sometimes you simply don't need to see a GP. Conditions like UTI s, ear problems, sore throats and insect bites can all be effectively cared for at your local pharmacy - and quickly, too.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
39 minutes ago
- BBC News
NI health: Woman was asked to examine husband to confirm he was dead
A grieving woman who was told to examine her husband to confirm he was dead says it remains in her mind every time she closes her Catherine Steele's husband Anthony died from stomach cancer in May she called an ambulance but was told none were was asked to make a video call and check her husband's vital signs to confirm he had Northern Ireland Ambulance Service apologised and said: "We are sorry that she did not experience the level of service that she would rightly expect at this particularly difficult time." Video call Mrs Steele had phoned a 24-hour district nurse helpline, but she said no one picked sister then rang the ambulance Steele's sister was told an ambulance would be sent out but none sister then had to leave to pick up Mrs Steele's son from work, leaving her alone with her Steele later received a call to say an ambulance would not be arriving and was asked to take part in a video call."I had to do his pulse on his wrists, and on his neck and then I had to open his eyes up on the video call so she could see," Mrs Steele told BBC Radio Ulster's Nolan was then the medical professional on the call confirmed Mrs Steele's husband was dead. She was asked to contact a doctor, who sent out the district nurse."It's just my last memory of him and it's just in my mind every time I close my eyes," she said."It's not acceptable, I know the ambulance service and NHS is under stress but I just feel it should never happen again."I don't want this to happen to anybody".Mrs Steele said she had been prescribed sleeping tablets due to suffering from insomnia since the incident."I just close my eyes and see his eyes, and it just replays back and back and back on your mind." In a statement, the NIAS said: "We will contact Mrs Steele to arrange to meet her and apologise to her in person and, more importantly, to listen to her concerns that we might learn from her experience to help ensure that no-one else would have to go through the same."
Times
an hour ago
- Times
I won't be shamed for having an elective c-section — trust me, it wasn't easy
Readers, I have a bone to pick. With myself. In my first dispatch here, written when my son was 12 weeks old, I told you that it was 'fine to take shortcuts' and under that umbrella included 'having a c-section'. Oh dear. Even while still nursing a very sore scar and after months of replying 'because I want one' to NHS midwives and obstetricians who asked 'and why do you want a caesarean?', I had still internalised the message that it's somehow 'cheating'. So let me set the record straight: I had an elective c-section and, given the experiences of other women I know — some of whom still can't talk about their births years later — I'd do the same thing again in a heartbeat. But it really wasn't a shortcut. I don't want to sugarcoat it: this is major surgery and my recovery was slow, painful and reliant on painkillers (I was taking codeine on and off for three weeks, when I'd expected maybe one). I had to inject my stomach with anti-clotting drugs for ten days afterwards. Still no regrets. • I'm not breastfeeding. Why are mothers still pressured into it? That's me. I have no interest in playing different types of birth off against one another. But what I do want to talk about is how we're letting women down by withholding information, conflating facts and scaremongering, where we should be doing everything in our power to inform and reassure. Take the new Nice guidance, published this week and designed to improve care for women having caesareans. One minor problem: it conflates the data for planned c-sections and emergency ones. And, as any woman who's had the latter (often after many hours of excruciating and exhausting labour in the pursuit of a vaginal birth) will tell you, there's a bloody world of difference. Lumping the two together is unfair and skews the statistics — for example that one in 25,000 vaginal deliveries ends in maternal death, compared to one in 4,000 for caesareans. Except that includes emergency caesareans, where the mother or baby is in distress and already at risk. For crying out loud. Nice has explained that it's too difficult to separate the two, but frankly I'd rather it didn't publish any numbers than ones that could confuse women even more. How about properly informing parents-to-be, rather than scaring them? It plays directly into the stigma that still exists around choosing a caesarean — that you're entitled and happy to put your baby at risk. A pal admitted to me that before having her daughter, by emergency c-section, she might have judged other women for actively choosing that type of birth. 'Of course, I feel ridiculous now,' she said. I don't blame her. We're rarely told another story, one that says planned caesareans — while not a walk in the park — are at least, all being well, more predictable. I arrived at the hospital feeling calm, my Spotify playlist prepped, happy in the knowledge that my baby would be lying on my chest about 30 minutes after the anaesthetist said: 'Can you feel that?' After two decades of suffering thanks to undiagnosed endometriosis and adenomyosis, I wanted some control over how I gave birth. Yet even I felt a bit embarrassed and felt I had to explain to anyone who asked. When I was eventually told that, a) it would actually be more sensible to have a caesarean given my health conditions, and b) that the baby was breech, meaning he couldn't come out via the traditional route anyway, I felt a wave of relief. Now I had a proper excuse as to why I needed a caesarean and didn't just want one. Looking back, I find it sad that I felt that way. • My painful battle to have the 'unnatural' birth I wanted Out of eight women in my antenatal class, two of us planned caesareans. We spent most of the sessions eye-rolling at each other across the room as our tutor focused on 'normal' birth (the worst term imaginable if you're not having one), and pretty much ignored us, aside from a few minutes spent playing with tiny plastic dolls to demonstrate how many people would be in the room during our surgery. Translation: heavily medicalised and 'unnatural' birth, which also happens to be more expensive for the NHS. And yet. Out of those eight women, seven ended up having caesareans — five emergencies. No wonder they now feel furious that they weren't better equipped to cope. It might be anecdotal, but it's also not unusual from where I'm sitting. A friend tells me that out of the eight women in her antenatal group, every single one of them ended up having caesareans. Off the top of my head, I can think of four electives among my wider social circle and upwards of 20 emergencies. According to NHS Digital, 46 per cent of all the births in England last September were vaginal and 44 per cent were c-section (the other 10 per cent involved instruments). So what exactly is a 'normal' birth now? Officially, the NHS has moved away from its target-led pushing of vaginal birth over caesarean and most women I know haven't had to fight to get one. But what seems more common is uncertainty around when those c-sections might actually take place — time not really being all that flexible at the end of a pregnancy. The NHS says you'll get a date two weeks in advance, with the surgery planned from your 39th week onwards. Hmm. One pal was told the hospital could call her the day before — would that be OK? Another currently has hers scheduled for the end of the week and is terrified by the prospect that she'll be pushed down the list and have to wait until the following Monday. Me? I got a call from the birthing unit to book mine when I was already 38 weeks and three days (having not been booked in, I'd moved my care elsewhere at the last minute). • Natural birth v caesarean — what the latest statistics tell us I know the NHS is stretched but, as one friend put it, it's like they're delaying in the hopes you go into labour and they don't have to pay. For any woman who's been trying to book in for the best part of nine months, it's a nervy prospect, a bit like relying on the Glastonbury resale to get a ticket. Look, I don't want to scare anyone. I hope I haven't. The biggest problem we have is how petrified we make mothers-to-be, or those who haven't yet made up their minds about starting a family. But we're letting women down if we don't tell them the truth: that whatever birth you want is the right birth for you — just also make a plan A, B or C. After all, babies tend not to behave as you want them to, even before they've been born.
Cambrian News
an hour ago
- Cambrian News
Gobsmacked: The sad state of our NHS dentistry
'I have now got two teeth that need attention,' she says. 'One has a temporary filling done privately at extortionate cost and where I felt they just wanted me to pay for unnecessary treatment. I was very uncomfortable and won't go back. I have now approached another dentist as I have a broken tooth on the other side. They come recommended and I'm waiting for an appointment but dreading the bill. NHS dentistry in Ceredigion is non-existent and the private costs are beyond the reach of the majority. The situation is a disgrace.'
