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Patients clogging up A&E with hiccups, sore throats and niggles
(www.bbc.co.uk)
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this post was submitted on 04 Dec 2025
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Until same-day GP appointments are available and easy to book this won't change.
Same day appointments aren't the issue. I'd settle for an appointment in 3 days time as long as I could make an appointment when I'm not commuting on public transport
No it's a serious need.
Earlier this year I got a fairly serious eye infection, the pharmacy required a prescription in order to give me the eye drops, so I had to call the GP who of course don't have any appointments until the middle of next month so I had to go down there and just wait and see if somebody didn't turn up then I could have their spot. It took all of 15 seconds for the doctor to actually write me the prescription. It took over 2 hours to get that prescription.
It was a colossal waste of everyone's time but the NHS system forced the time wasting to happen. What is the point in a pharmacy qualification if they're not allowed to make judgements about medication. If all they're going to do is hand out medication based on a prescription then they might as well just hire from the Jobcentre.
My GP no longer handles eye care. We have to phone an 'urgent eye service' on the other side of the country, send phone pics and so on. They then send the prescription to the pharmacy online. If you need to be seen in person, either you go to a hospital clinic within 24h if it's urgent, or get a GP appointment weeks later when it's irrelevant, in my experience. Guess I got treated sooner and didn't have to deal with as much transport while I couldn't see properly, but it all felt a bit inefficient and impersonal.
My previous GP surgery, only did this. Which was awful. My current one usually booked appointments within the same week now which is way better.
In my previous one I would have to battle it out in the early morning phone queue hopping I get seen too before the window closes or what was more common, no more time was free that day so I just wasted my time in a phone queue.