The government believes everyone gets a GP's appointment within 48 hours -- but we know the truth!
Let's face it... doctors are busy people. But after the Government pledged everyone would get to see their Doctor within 48 hours, the only person shocked that it wasn't happening in reality was the Prime Minister.
Of course there are numerous ways in which people fail to receive an appointment with their Doctor within 48 hours. Some people report being unable to get through on the phone when they ring their surgery as it opens at 8:30am. When and if they do get through they may be told that all the slots for the next 48 hours have already been taken and to call back tomorrow.
These hard-to-measure daily incidents are in effect rationing of the service, but since there's no way for official data to be collected on how many people fail to get through on the phone, it's very difficult to ascertain how many times the 48 hour target is actually missed.
Following a local version of this website, a growing number of patients got in touch to express their concern and so I've decided to launch this website nationwide in order to try and gauge the true extent of the problem. I'll be relying on your reports and using the information (in confidence without your name or address attached) to help your GP surgery know what's going on. In addition we'll also provide updates to your Primary Care Trust and of course to the Government through Parliament.
The Prime Minister believes that we're all receiving GP appointments within 48 Hours -- let's work together to separate the reality from Government fiction.
Yours sincerely,
Grant Shapps MP
Reality and fiction