The current system of making appointments to meet a GP is coming under fire for inefficiency and the hindering of access to the GP on a regular basis. The system needs to help and better facilitate the process of the patient being able to reach the GP efficiently, rather than use appointments as an end in itself.
Patients now have to make an appointment in advance, which means two things: they must wait for their appointment, sometimes for days or even weeks. And secondly, it is expected that they will exhibit the same symptoms even at the time of the appointment which may take a prolonged period. Thus, the patient must suffer till the appointment arrives, while the doctor must make decisions based on existing conditions, which may be lessened or exacerbated given the elapsed time.
This leads to many issues/points for consideration, such as:
- Non-attendance – Do Not Attend situations of patients cost the NHS around £160 million each year
- The need for telecommunication infrastructure: patients telephoning into make an appointment means that sophisticated telecommunication infrastructure is needed, which cannot be future-proofed.
- Human Resources cost – more personnel are needed to answer such telephone requests, which means a substantial amount must be allocated for them, even if the telephone requests dwindle in any given month.
- At times patients make backup appointments, taking away the chance of a patient more in need of the appointment.
One of the proposed solutions is to trust patients to turn up when they are in absolute need VS making appointments in advance. This will make it more patient-friendly by ensuring they get treated when they need it, rather than making the patients victims of a system
