"poor system"

Dear Anonymous,

I'm sorry to hear that you have had trouble arranging an appointment. We experience a very high number of calls every single day and we are doing the best we can with the resources we have. One morning last month we had nearly 500 calls in the first hour of the day - I'm sure you'll understand that this is an impossible level of demand that no reasonable amount of extra phone lines, PCs, reception staff or doctors could satisfy, even if we had the funding and space for them. We are actively recruiting for new receptionists but we are often chronically short staffed on reception as we have trouble recruiting and retaining them due to the pressures of the job. We aim to have 3-5 receptionists answering calls at peak times but this has not been possible for quite some time. We purposely cap the call queue at 10 callers following feedback from patients that they don't want to be on hold for longer than this.

If your call is urgent please persevere. We have appointments released daily for same day appointments and 7 days' ahead and also have access to overflow appointments with the GP+ service. If your request is routine, you can submit a request via our website and we will respond within 7 days. We also have daily minor illness clinics with a nurse prescriber who can deal with many common issues. Pharmacies are also able to help with several minor complaints.

Unfortunately we do not have enough appointments for every patient who wants one. This is out of the control of the practice so we are recommending that any patient complaints about access or appointment availability write to their MP to direct their frustration there. We hope that in time primary care will be adequately funded and resourced.

Yours sincerely,

Kim Smith - Practice Manager