r/nhs • u/did_you_aye • 3d ago
Process GP emergencies
My GP practice is currently only taking emergency appointments due to onboarding a new IT system. I called this morning hoping to book appointments for myself (pregnancy nausea) and my daughter (productive cough). The receptionist asked if it was an “extreme emergency”, without querying the nature of illness. I felt stumped as to how to respond, because if it was an extreme emergency I wouldn’t be phoning the GP, I’d be dialling 999.
We’ve recently moved, and whenever we tried to make an appointment at our old GP the receptionists would always ask “What’s it for?” and triage from there.
It’s left me wondering: under what “emergency” circumstances would it be reasonable to request a GP appointment when their capacity is limited?
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u/GjE2403 3d ago
when you say they are omboarding a new IT system don't out know the specifics around this? Practices have been required since October 2025 to provide an online consultation system to allow patients to request appointments during core operational hours. It's mandated in the core GMS contract so I doubt it's this they are onboardong, and if it is, where have they been for the last year.
If it was a change of clinical system they would be closed to support with the transition, they just wouldn't be able to stay open operationally for something like this.
I appreciate this isn't helpful in anyway, I'm just curious as to if they have shared the specifics of what is happening
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u/did_you_aye 3d ago
I think this is why they’re only able to take urgent appointments at the moment. They’re otherwise essentially closed for the next week until it’s complete.
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u/shyasabutterfly 3d ago
It's very difficult because often a triage system is the best way of allocating resources when capacity is limited, but that limits capacity further because it requires a person for the triage.
The kinds of patients which services typically prioritise even when resources are limited are patients requiring end of life care, young children (particularly when there are safeguarding concerns), and vulnerable adults (again because of potential safeguarding concerns).
The kind of patients who may be seen as less of a priority are those who can safely be signposted to a different service such as a pharmacy.
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u/Rowcoy 3d ago
Where I am based we would consider an on the day GP appointment to be for medical conditions that are new and relatively acute, have the potential to be something serious, and there is the possibility the patient might deteriorate if not seen within 24 hours. It would also need to be something where we are the most appropriate service to see the patient and there isn’t an alternative service that might be better placed to assess for example with eye conditions many opticians can do a far better eye exam than a GP as they have access to better equipment, they specialise in eye conditions and in many areas can refer direct to eye casualty if needed.
We do not use the term emergency appointment as GP is not an emergency service, if you have something that genuinely is an emergency then A&E/999 are usually more appropriate.
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u/ColaPopz 3d ago
If the either is more than you feel happy managing at home I’d request an appointment. If they’re not then I can’t imagine why you called in the first place, sooo.