Doctors' appointments

[Veem]

Yesterday I rang to make an appointment for my husband with our MT. The call was answered (as has become the norm during the past 2 years) by a secretary covering several practices and medical professions. He really would have liked to see our lovely doctor yesterday, so I almost fainted when I was given June 4th at 10.30; a wait of 7 and a half weeks!

So off he went to a drop-in health centre, manned by a couple of generalistes. The wait is often long but the treatment is good, and we're lucky to have such a facility 20 minutes away. And he would have preferred to see our lovely MT.

Does anyone else have this type of trouble?

[Veem]

Yesterday I rang to make an appointment for my husband with our MT. The call was answered (as has become the norm during the past 2 years) by a secretary covering several practices and medical professions. He really would have liked to see our lovely doctor yesterday, so I almost fainted when I was given June 4th at 10.30; a wait of 7 and a half weeks! So, off he went to a medical drop in centre
where, though the wait might be long, the treatment is good. We're lucky to have that facility 20 minutes away, but we miss seeing our own lovely doctor.

Does anyone else have this kind of trouble?

[Veem]

Yesterday I rang to make an appointment for my husband with our MT. The call was answered (as has become the norm during the past 2 years) by a secretary covering several practices and medical professions. He really would have liked to see our lovely doctor yesterday, so I almost fainted when I was given June 4th at 10.30; a wait of 7 and a half weeks!
Does anyone else have this kind of trouble?

Yesterday I rang to make an appointment for my husband with our MT. The call was answered (as has become the norm during the past 2 years) by a secretary covering several practices and medical professions. He really would have liked to see our lovely doctor yesterday, so I almost fainted when I was given June 4th at 10.30; a wait of 7 and a half weeks! So, off he went to a medical drop in centre where, though the wait might be long, the treatment is good. We're lucky to have that facility 20 minutes away, but we miss seeing our own lovely doctor.

Does anyone else have this kind of trouble?

[Bayleaf]

We still don't have an MT in our village. I recently used the in-house "Medadom" machine in our local pharmacy. "Saw" a Dr from Paris! It worked fine, if you have a smart 'phone and are pretty savvy with tapping away on the screen. OH has to physically see a Dr for his renewals - closest we found was 50 minutes away, just to renew the prescription. 5 minutes with the Doc - nothing checked or weighed, just prints out another Ordnance. Madness. Then a 50 minute trip home.

[exile]

When we first signed up with our MT, you could get a next day appointment. She had recently arrived and at that stage did not even have a secretary - relying heavily on on-line appointments. This was an attraction to me given at that stage my reticence in try to explain to a third party why I wanted an appointment.

There were then 7 MTs all independent.

There are now 4 still independent and instead of next day appointments we are looking at end of next week if you are lucky, although the secretary is very good at triaging urgent cases for same day or next day attention.

Your case does sound extreme though @Veem. Is it possible that your MT is unavailable due to some special reason?
Illness, maternity, training course, family emergency etc..

[Hotrodder]

I have been very lucky. Almost from day one (2001 actually) I had a great GP. I'm convinced he possibly saved my friend's life. by diagnosing an intermittent heart problem. She would black out without warning, not the best situation while driving. It had gone through several opinions in UK before coming here. Turns out she needed a pacemaker. Job done.
He was a gift. Spoke English perfectly, and had a sense of humour even when he had been working all night at the local hospital. For several years I didn't even need to make an appointment, just turning up at his office and almost always getting straight in. All was well until just a couple of years ago when there was no answer to his phone. Went to the office and it was nearly derelict. No note on the window, nothing. The local pharmacy couldn't (or wouldn't) explain what had happened but they recommended another doctor not too far away. Another good one. Always available within about three days.

I don't think I ever saw the GP twice in a row back in UK.

[Lori]

We were very fortunate to be accepted by an excellent MT about 8kms from us. The wait for an appointment is normally from 2 to 5 days.

[Veem]

Firstly, my apologies for the mess I made of posting my original post! I've given up trying to rectify whatever it was that I got wrong.
Our doctor has been resisting retirement for almost 2 years because a replacement for her has not be found. She's a lady of retirement age, who knows her patients well and is more like the caring family doctors of years ago in the UK. She's certainly beyond child bearing age, and finished training long ago. I hope it's not illness and with such a precise date for her next appointments, I think it more likely that she and her husband are taking time off for a long vacation.I need a repeat prescription in just over a week so shall have to factor in a trip to the drop-in surgery.