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Despair

Story from nhs.uk

"Despair"

About: Shawbury Medical Practice

Staff are so helpful in surgery no complaints there.

However, booking system is crazy.

Ring at 8.30 do so dead on, must listen to call 111/ don’t be abusive strapline every. single. time. Told you are in the queue and receptionist will be with you. After waiting told the queue is too full and cut off! Try again several times. Same occurs. Get through at 10.30 told to do it all again at 1.30 as full and no phone appointments.

Try again 1.30 exactly same happens. Rang as soon as clock strikes 1.30 (at 13.29.6 minutes it said it was closed on answerphone). Listened, queued and waited then surprise surprise cut off!

I only call in emergency as I know what they are like. Failed to get appointment for my child also 2 weeks ago. So called 111. Did the whole 111 answering questions rigmarole. Told to call enhanced pharmacist. Called them. They said 11 should not have directed me to there as it’s not their remit. What a time wasting, energy sapping, inefficient, ineffective joke it all is.

Staff on the ground It is not you. Not at all.

In this day and age I can’t believe this is what we are tolerating and paying for! It is causing much much stress and undue suffering.

I cannot see why it is not possible to get a 5 minute phone call. It’s not a one off. Especially when you ring at 8.30 or 1.30 dead on as they ask.

The system is awful nationally. Not sure what other surgeries are like. They are definitely trying to run the whole thing into the ground so privatisation occurs and we are all sleepwalking into this by not speaking up. Do we really want to take this rubbish for years for our families and then accept a u.s. style system where you have to pay for everything from insulin to inhalers to hospital admissions to verification of death.

So upset with system.

In the meantime can something be done about Shawbury appointment system. Could an email system be set up and then phone for only those who can’t access would be win win, more transparent regarding who is getting the appointments. I realise with limited resources triage must happen but we are not even getting through to triage!

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Responses

Response from Shawbury Medical Practice last week
Shawbury Medical Practice

Submitted on 18/04/2024 at 15:16
Published on nhs.uk at 15:16

Dear Reviewer

Thank you for your comments and for the praise to the staff that you include in your opening - that is very much appreciated and will be shared with our team

As the Practice Manager I 100% feel your frustrations and difficulties and very much appreciate receiving feedback that acknowledges the failings 'in the system' are rooted in the failings across the NHS Primary Care System as a whole.

As a practice team we work our absolute utmost day in day out to prop up a failing Secondary Care Service - not our role but many, many patients across the NHS are experiencing increasing instances where many contacts they try to have with 'hospital systems' are bounced straight back 'to the GP to deal with' and I know I have spoken with many, many patients who have had that experience.

Added to this there is a Funding and Recruitment crisis across Primary Care that is really, really impacting everyone's ability to provide the service we all joined the NHS to provide. We all hate this.

As part of the Management Team, every day I spend 12 hours a day, trying to spread a tiny funding resource as widely and thinly as possible to cover everything we need and want to provide - it is not enough and means I fail our patients and community on a daily basis.

It is not enough to say 'we do our very best with what we have and we cannot get any more' but I would be misleading everyone if I were to say that anyone in Primary Care has the power or influence or ability, to make a change to this national situation.

The need for appointments, the failings in the national and local IT systems and offering, the recruitment crisis, the referral into secondary care crisis and all the painful, upsetting impacts of these, are replicated across Primary Care everywhere.

The issues are bigger than Shawbury MP and my/our ability to spread the little we have , even further.

It would be wrong and immoral to suggest we could offer any answer that would address or solve this crisis.

We continually review what we provide and how we provide it and what we can do to change / expand that - every week.

I thank you for putting this review on the NHS website as these are reviewed by NHS England and our funding bodies and they need to hear these issues from more than just myself and the practice team. They will be contacting me to ask why I haven't addressed this crisis and I will be repeating the above to them and asking how they advise we spread our woefully inadequate resources, any more thinly

I can only apologise that at present this is where Primary Care is at. It upsets, embarrasses and pains me that we cannot do more. I know this is not the answer you are hoping for but I feel now is the time to be completely transparent that nationally these challenges are pushing patients and Primary Care to the brink.

K Akrinstall

Practice Manager

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