"Awful"

Hippocratic Oath:- To care for patients

Gone are the days when this did mean something to doctors. Days gone by when a doctor was worth his weight in gold no appointments just go the surgery and wait your turn, when the doctor saw everyone there and made a house call when you weren't well enough to attend the surgery. These doctors were usually a one man band and didn't have receptionist! Before I moved to this area I attended a surgery where you did have to make an appointment and the wait for that was never excessive and you could always see the doctor you were appointed to when signing up to that practice. At Westcourt it has now gone from a straightforward booking to see a doctor to being triaged by someone presumably to say whether it would be in order to have an appointment with a doctor! I went into the surgery a few weeks ago to see if I could book an appointment, the receptionist explained I would need a triage appointment first, but that they were fully booked for that day and I couldn't make an appointment for one as it had to be done on a daily basis. On two occasions I have rung at 8 am on the dot only to be told the surgery was now closed, and after putting the phone down have re-dialled and in a matter of seconds I was on one occasion 22 in the queque and the other 30 how did that happen so quickly? On both occasions I decided not to stay on the line as I guessed all triage appointments would have been swallowed up by then. I rang Friday 21st June being I was 11th in the queue I waited, when the receptionist answered she asked me questions something a non medical person shouldn't be doing as these things are personal! Any way she booked me in and I was phoned that morning on my mobile (having in the past asked reception to make sure I was contacted on the house phone as mobile reception wasn't good) the phone rang precisely twice not giving me time to actually answer so I was left a voicemail more or less saying I wouldn't get a call back. I immediately rang the surgery and when I got to speak to receptionist and explained she told me no I wouldn't get a call back as the list was full for that day I pointed out I was on that list but hadn't actually been spoken to so she said if I was concerned I should go to A and E which I firmly told her was going to happen hospital's must be being pushed to the limit! I questioned why has this triage business happened, her reply was that it cuts time in waiting for an appointment from 1-2 months down to 2-3 weeks. Which if you work it out and you can't get a triage appointment for weeks on end it probably works out the same. I received a text last year to book an appointment for the nurse this was in August and the appointment was made 6th October, reminder text on the 5th cancelled on the 6th, rebooked 22nd December arrived at surgery to be informed I had been sent a text cancelling but on looking at my phone cancelled 20 mins before my appointment so hadn't seen the text.