"Getting a GP appointment"

I was worried about a health condition, it was potentially life changing but not life threatening. It was the weekend so I waited until the surgery at the Unsworth Group Practice in Westhoughton opened to ring up for an appointment. I spend over 40mins on hold to discover when I got through that there we no appointments left for that day or the next day. I said it isn't critical that I see a GP today or tomorrow, but it does need to be this week can I book one for later in the week, but they said only appointments for the next 48hours can be booked and I would need to ring up again the next day. so I did, same story, and again the next day, by which point I insisted on seeing a practice nurse instead who then bypassed the process and got me a GP appointment. Total waste of my time, the receptionists time and the nurses time. Routine appointments should be able to be booked more than 48hours in advance.