"Lacking"

Monday am- suffering from chest infection for 4 days call 8:30 sharp for appointment- I’m caller number 18. When it gets to caller 8 an announcement says no further appointments. I hold the line as unsure of procedure as I use the surgery about once a year. I’m told I can fill an online form out to be triaged within 72 hours!!.

I choose to go to an online GP who sees me in 1 hr and 15 min- then provides penecillin. Thursday- I am still off work and still feel awful so try to book another appointment with Ship St. I get through quickly, receptionist is calm and pleasant as per the previous call. Tells me I’m getting an appointment and a GP will call back with a time and place- apparently though, so I then learnt, although registered with Ship Street it could be at other modality practices. I was called 45 min later and sympathetically told I had “an appointment” at Ship St in 25min. I discovered when she introduced herself that it was with a clinician- not a GP. I wanted to see and expected to see a qualified GP. I was not told it was a ‘clinician’ The clinician did not seem confident dealing with my condition and did not leave me feeling confident I was being well cared for. I believe that a week old chest infection (from which a suffer annually as per my records) should have been seen by a GP. I would refuse a clinician appointment in the future. I am now looking at other non-modality GPs, as modality has changed my surgery beyond recognition- for the worse- I feel I have very poor care from this group.