To see the GP or not to see the GP — at the moment that's not really a question.
While doctors are offering telephone and video consultations, as the Mail's campaign, Let's See GPs Face To Face, has highlighted, the number of face-to-face consultations has plummeted over the past year.
The latest figures suggest that, on average, little over half of appointments in England are in person now, compared to eight in ten before the pandemic.
Previously there were about six million appointments at GP surgeries every week — that number fell to three million in the first lockdown and is now back to six million. But many of these are not in person.
Currently, patients don't have a legal right to 'timely' face-to-face GP appointments, which some campaigners now say is needed.
While doctors are offering telephone and video consultations, as the Mail's campaign, Let's See GPs Face To Face, has highlighted, the number of face-to-face consultations has plummeted over the past year
The Mail is calling for a guarantee that face-to-face appointments are the default (this contrasts with what the then Health Secretary Matt Hancock proposed in July last year, when he suggested that all GP appointments should be done remotely by default — which was quickly shot down by the doctors' groups).
The Royal College of GPs (RCGP) says that face-to-face consulting 'is an essential element' of general practice and remote consulting should be an option but not the 'automatic default' for GP services.
In a statement released earlier this year it said: 'Once we get out of the pandemic and things return to a more normal way of living and working, we don't want to see general practice become a totally, or even mostly, remote service.'
There is a much publicised shortage of GPs, and clearly with fewer in-person appointments available, it is best to leave those slots that are there for those who really need them.
But if you feel your health concern or personal situation warrants it, how do you go about maximising your chance of getting an appointment?
How to get a face-to-face slotThis is what the NHS says currently about getting a GP appointment. You can contact your GP surgery by:
Visiting its website. Using the NHS App. Calling them.If you do call, the general view is that Monday mornings are the busiest part of the week for GPs so are not the best time to call.
But if you have serious concerns about your health, don't delay calling the surgery just because you think it might be busy.
Statistics suggest that Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays are traditionally the quietest days (while Mondays tend to be busy because patients put off problems until after the weekend, Fridays are also busy because people worry they won't get through the weekend). If your call is not urgent, then make it mid-morning when call volumes are reduced.
Previously there were about six million appointments at GP surgeries every week — that number fell to three million in the first lockdown and is now back to six million. But many of these are not in person
Receptionists are the GP gatekeepers, and whatever you might think of the process, they are there to triage patients. The sheer volume of numbers wanting to see a doctor can sometimes make the relationship with patients fraught at the best of times, only exacerbated by the demands of the pandemic.
Be prepared for the fact that you might have to wait some time before your call is answered.
'When people aren't well, it's not the best time for them obviously, but aggression really doesn't help — we are all working under immense pressure,' says Myra Upton, president of the Association of Medical
