Doctors Appointments....

Is it my imagination or is it much harder to get a Doctor's appointment these days? The receptionist in my experience, has always been the, sort of, "blocker" when it comes to seeing your family doctor but these days it seems almost impossible. Not that long ago I wanted to see my Doctor about something fairly minor (as it turned out) but it was worrying me alot before I knew that so I deemed it necessary to see him. Now I reckon that I've been to the Doc's, for myself, not counting for children's ailments, maybe six times in the 25 years I've lived in Tonbridge so I'm not exactly a drain on the NHS. So when I was standing at the Doctor's reception ( tact and diplomacy prevents me from naming the practice) asking to see my doctor any Monday in the next month or so I was expecting to just put a date in my diary, perhaps even be seen there and then, or that afternoon maybe. "No." I was told flatly. "Well then, what about next Monday?" I replied. "No we can't do that...." said the receptionist "...we reserve Mondays for appointments made on the day by telephone." By now I'm starting to feel like tearing my hair out whilst calmly explaining that Monday was the day when my shop is closed and that I really didn't mind if the appointment was several weeks hence. "Sorry you'll have to make the appointment by phone, I'm afraid." She was quite adamant. "But I'm standing here now!" Came my last desperate appeal to her sense of reason. All I got was a shrug of the shoulders. Essentially, rather than make the appointment whilst standing right there in front of her, the Doctor's receptionist was telling me I had to go home, and telephone, which, by the way, generally takes ten minutes, minimum, to actually get through to find out if I could get an appointment. There was no online system or email appointments system. I'm not knocking doctors and medical staff but this system just seems farcical. So is it just me? Or a sign of the decline in the NHS?...