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Unable to arrange a doctors appointment

Story from nhs.uk

"Unable to arrange a doctors appointment "

About: Holland House Surgery

Despite both visiting and calling I am unable to arrange a doctors appointment. I called NHS111 who referred me to a local pharmacy (Windmill). I spoke to the pharmacist who was adamant she would be unable to deal with my enquiry which is MSK. She also advised me they were inundated with NHS 111 enquiries they were unable and unqualified to deal with. A major contributing factor being “there are no available Holland House appointments for the entire month”. Therefore why does this site advise HH has availability for new patients when the current patients are unable to see a doctor?

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Responses

Response from Holland House Surgery last week
Holland House Surgery

Submitted on 22/04/2024 at 14:33
Published on nhs.uk at 14:33

Dear Patient,

I am sorry that you have had difficulty in arranging an appointment at the surgery. Unfortunately, we are very busy (as is every GP surgery hence the comment from NHS 111) and there is a limit to the amount of appointments we can provide each day. We do provide appointments up to 4 weeks ahead but we cannot keep up with the demand for them.

However, you have advised that you have a problem that is possibly a musculo skeletal (MSK) issue. Are you aware that you do not need to see a GP for MSK issues? We have a dedicated MSK specialist working at the practice for 2 days a week and we do normally have appointments available to be seen with the specialist. As with many other practices, we do have a range of clinicians working with us so that you do not have to see a GP for many common ailments any more. This helps to reduce the pressure on GP appointments and also enables patients to be seen by other highly qualified professionals who are specialists in their field. As well as the MSK Practitioner, we have 2 Advanced clinical practitioners, 2 clinical Pharmacists, a Physician’s Associate and a Mental Health Practitioner working with the team as well as access to social prescribers and well being practitioners through our Primary Care Network.

As you have mentioned, Primary Care is also supported by colleagues in NHS 111, Walk in and Same Day Emergency Centres as well as local Community Pharmacies.

Our staff ask questions of patients to try to signpost them to the most appropriate service for the condition that they present with so that they are seen by the most appropriate clinician in the shortest time frame possible. We do see a lot of patients in the practice and most of are seen face to face. However, that does not mean that everyone can be seen at the time and place of their choosing because unfortunately the NHS does not have unlimited resources.

Lastly, you have asked about new patient registrations and why the practice is still taking on patients. Unlike other services such as dental practices, Primary Care is not allowed to close to new patient registrations but we do insist that new patients live within our practice boundary before they register with us.

Judith Milne

Practice Manager

Holland House Surgery

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