Also UK. Some 'abuse' of A&E happens because people cannot alway get access to a local surgery as opposed to driving to a nearby hospital, especially at weekends.
I had half of my face stop working and had recently moved (and not yet registered with a new GP.)
I went to my previous GP and they turned me away (no longer in the catchment area) so I eventually ended up in A&E.
It doesn't help that the local ones near me at the time seem to live in the past... No call queuing or online scheduling, have to call within a 1 hour slot for appointments (so that's an hour of busy tones, oh well let's try again tomorrow)
Surely you should be allowed to visit any GP anywhere
A GP practice is a private business, usually all the GPs are partners just as lawyers or accountants would be, and the staff such as receptionists are not NHS employees, they work for the practice. If they can't bill the NHS for their services because you're not on their books, they aren't interested. It is surprising perhaps, but many people in the UK are unaware of this, they think the GPs surgery is directly a branch of the main NHS, and get angry about "privatisation" without realising that GPs have always been private.
Right, but why are private practices artificially limited for whom they can bill the NHS? That seems like pointless, unnecessary bureaucracy that comes back to bite them with more A&E visits.
I'm guessing because each one is only set up to bill a particular NHS Trust? But you're right, it should be possible keyed just off an NI number or something.
There is a hospital in my town but it's A&E was closed in 2007 IIRC, so if you can't see a GP you can't even go there, you have to drive a couple of towns over.
If you're inside the catchment area it's very difficult for the GP to not register you. GPs are expected to provide service to almost anyone living in their region.
If you're outside the catchment area the GP can chose to offer full service; offer limited service; or offer no service.
The full service includes things like home visits, so it's not surprising that GPs seek to limit that to patients who live far away.
For people who are travelling there are temporary registrations, but also GP walk in centres and GP out-of-hours services.
I once did an experiment: I tried to get an appointment at a local clinic.
(Note: This anecdote was ~15 years ago. Things seem better now.)
Having failed to get an appointment the normal way, because they didn't have any slots available, I decided to test a theory.
I woke before 8pm and continuously dialled during the time slot from 8am-9am when it was, theoretically, possible to book an appointment. I'd wait for the busy tone, then immediately hang up and dial again. For an hour.
I did not get past the busy tone for the first 2 weeks.
After 9am I'd get through, and they told me there we no bookings available and I would need to call back the next day, and they recommended I call between 8am-9am...
In the end I got an appointment but it took 2 weeks and literally hundreds of call attempts to get one.
Apparently this was because the clinics keep statistics on how long people have to wait between making an appointment and attending.
To keep this number down, they set a limit on how far an advance it's possible to book an appointment.
Unfortunately, it had the side effect of preventing people from making appointments when all slots within the limit were filled.
The _true_ waiting time was therefore grossly hidden from reported statistics. And for many, it was enough to make them give up trying to get an appointment at all, further distorting the reported figures.
It took quite a long time before government, which had set the reporting requirements, learned how they were having the opposite of the intended effect.
I also recall that a lot of local clinics one would normally go to end up closing thanks to lower funding... so, let's fund more walk-in clinics around?
