"Local to me"

We have been with this practice over 40 years, we loved it when we could go along at 8am and get an appointment that day but find it more difficult now. I don't frequent doctors regularly but when I am ill I like to be sure of seeing someone. recently I put up with serious back and leg pain and suffered for over a week without help, then it got so bad I rang for an appointment, I admit it wasn't at 8am as I tried to hold off, when I did ring there were no appointments available but the receptionist advised me to call 111 which I did and they got me an appointment that same day at 3pm. That entailed 3 people to listen to my problem when I felt I could have been given this appointment by the receptionist. She looked at my record and she would have known I hadn't been there for a long time am not on any medication and I needed help. On that appointment I have had excellent treatment , given lots of tests and X-rays , the results of the X-ray came through on Tuesday a doctor rang me very concerned and referred me to the fracture clinic, the next day the fracture clinic rang me with an appointment all this happened in 6 days, thank you NHS. On this occasion you were wonderful.

I must admit I find the system of booking things on the phone, being elderly it's not always straightforward my husband helps me but his health isn't good and his memory is fading so he took gets annoyed with the way things have become. It was so easy to just go around and get an appointment from the receptionist, they took have a difficult job as they can't tell people what they want to hear.

I have to add over the years when I've needed to see a doctor they have always been good so I'm not complaining about the doctors just the system which is very difficult for the elderly. The End.