It takes about 6 months for me to get an appointment with my GP, and then it takes up to a month for their referral to a specialist to be approved, and only then can I make an appointment with my specialist, which is usually booking a few months out, making it about 9 months before I can see someone.

Or I can go into urgent care, and get a referral submited that day, and see someone in only 3 months.

My father in law has a tumor, and was able to start radiation therapy almost 18 months after he first went into a doctor for his symptoms. The specialist scolded him for how long it took saying "there's permanent damage if you don't start treatment within 6 months, you should have come in much sooner" He nearly punched the guy.

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marcusverus 4 days ago | parent [-]

> It takes about 6 months for me to get an appointment with my GP, and then it takes up to a month for their referral to a specialist to be approved, and only then can I make an appointment with my specialist, which is usually booking a few months out, making it about 9 months before I can see someone.

That is radically below par. The nice thing about the American system is that if your GP sucks (as yours clearly does), you can go out and get yourself a new GP! I'm able to get an appointment within a month for a checkup, a couple of days for pressing issues, and have gotten an in-network (non-specialist) referral for a same-day appointment the one time I needed urgent attention. The one time I got a specific referral whose office had a months-long waitlist, I found an in-network alternative, got an updated referral from my GP, and saw someone the following day. My wife regularly gets appointments with her GP or an in-network alternative within a day when she's sick and needs attention. It's worth noting that altering our system wouldn't improve your access to match mine, but would rather would diminish mine to match yours! Surely it's better for both of us if you just find a new GP?

> My father in law has a tumor, and was able to start radiation therapy almost 18 months after he first went into a doctor for his symptoms. The specialist scolded him for how long it took saying "there's permanent damage if you don't start treatment within 6 months, you should have come in much sooner" He nearly punched the guy.

What took so long?

	▲	aidenn0 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		> in-network (non-specialist) referral for a same-day appointment My HMO takes 5-10 business days to approve a non-emergency referral; 3-days for an emergency one doesn't matter what my GP does. Though it's partly moot by the fact that I would have to drive hours to find a specialist that isn't booking many weeks out, it's exacerbated by the fact that no specialists let one schedule an appointment prior to the referral being approved. > Surely it's better for both of us if you just find a new GP? Or I can just go to urgent care if I have an urgent issue?