How do general practices manage requests from patients for 'same-day' appointments? A questionnaire survey

Same-day appointment requests are common and can be problematic for general practices that run appointment systems. In a questionnaire survey sent to 90 general practices in one health authority area (response rate 88%), a va riety of management systems existed for dealing with same-day appointment r equests. Managing the requests was found to be a significant cause of stres s for many general practitioners. Registrars locums, and practice nurses pl ay only a small part in meeting patient demands and few practices operate t elephone triage to help manage these requests.