"The patient experience"

I attended Blofield Surgery recently and sat in the waiting room for a long time in unbearably hot, airless conditions. There was no air conditioning, no fans, no open windows, and no free Wi-Fi. The dispensary was unmanned for extended periods, and patients, including many elderly people, were visibly uncomfortable and waiting far too long.

During my most recent visit I brought a small portable fan due to the unbearable heat in the waiting room. The doctor who saw me told me to turn it off, then refused to turn on the building’s air conditioning. When I asked why, they told me the air con doesn’t work well. This is a brand-new, £2 million facility, and the air conditioning, one of the most basic comfort features, apparently doesn't even function properly. I was left sweating, actively denied both my own fan and any help from the building itself.

Despite being a brand-new facility, there is no free Wi-Fi available for patients, yet the surgery now requires all prescriptions to be requested via the NHS App, and has QR codes displayed throughout the building linking to online services. You can no longer request medication by phone, meaning anyone without mobile data or signal is simply unable to engage with the system. This isn’t just an inconvenience; I feel it’s a digital barrier to care, especially for older or more vulnerable patients. In a building designed for 21st-century healthcare, digital access should not be optional and certainly not absent.