GP | Patient Talk

How long to you have to wait to see a doctor?

One of the features of getting older is that you develop the feeling that the whole country has gone to the dogs. Also the kinds of music your children listen puts your teeth on edge. But that is a different matter.

Another is the feeling that it takes longer and longer to get an appointment to see your family doctor. (Or GP or Primary care physician). Indeed according to the UK’s Daily Mail one can often wait two to there weeks for an appointment. But according to official guidelines we should be aiming at a 2 day wait.

So something seems to be going wrong. But what and where?

To help answer this question we would love your help.

Firstly it would be super if you could participate in the poll below which asks if you feel that these days you are waiting too long for a doctors appointment.

Secondly it would be great if you could use the comment box to share some of the reasons behind your answer and also how you think the situation could be improved.

Many thanks in advance.

Hives

About a year and a half ago I attended a workshop run by an advertising agency who wanted people, from the world of healthcare and social media to join them to discuss the launch of a new product which they hoped could help prevent dementia.

The agency got their wires crossed as to when the session should begin so I and another lady arrived an hour or two early. This happens!

It turned out that the lady was both a journalist and a GP so, naturally, the conversation turned to areas of mutual interest. In this case the lives of people with multiple sclerosis. She mentioned that in her experience it was common for people to take treatment holidays. By that what she meant was that a number of people, not just with MS, found that for certain occasions it was preferable to come off treatments because of the side effects. For example vacations and holidays like Christmas and Thanksgiving were common reasons given to stop various treatments.

Since them I’ve wondered home common this actually is. So we have decided to run a brief poll with our readers to find out. The poll is below and it would be great if you could take part.

The comment boxes are also open for you to share any further stories which you think may be of interest to other readers.

Many thanks in advance

Patient Talk

Patient Talk

GP

Waiting times! Do you have to wait too long to get an appointment to see your family doctor?

Would you ever consider a treatment holiday from a medical condition? Please take our poll