"Disgrace to the NHS"

This practice unfortunately is a disgrace to the NHS, showing no thought or care to its patients. Their handling of booking appointments is a total farce, making it impossible to get an appointment when unwell. The reception staff, although initially polite, show no compassion or care about the situation & just state “this is our policy?” They even lie about doctors not being present on site when this is not the case. We followed their instructions to contact 111, who got us an appointment to see the pharmacist. The pharmacist said that my wife definitely needed to see a GP urgently & advised to contact to the GP surgery back explaining his findings & that he recommends my wife to be seen straight away. When this was relayed to the GP surgery they stated that she could book an appointment in 2 weeks or she’d have to phone at 8am tomorrow to join the lottery to try & get an appointment but with no guarantee she would get one. The normal scenario is all appointments get booked in the opening 15-20mins of calls, where you are on the phone at 8am & sit in a queue (often getting cut off) to then be told there are no more appointments. They never seem to take into consideration the severity of what the issue is with the patient, no care just very business like, shameful what our NI contributions go towards. GP surgery’s should be there to care for people in it’s community, not just use them to generate profits from the NHS.

I would never advise someone to join this surgery & I recommend this surgery to be investigated in how it’s run.