Care Opinion

Text size

Theme

Language

Videos in BSL or ISL
Help with language translation
Help with reading or listening

Frustrating time spent making appointment

Story from nhs.uk

"Frustrating time spent making appointment"

About: Millgate Healthcare Partnership

So today my mum spent the whole of the morning trying to make an appointment . At 1. 30 she phoned me to tell me she could not get through . This has happened so very many times before and I have lost count . I offered to drive round at 1.30 and when I got there the receptionist said that there was nothing they could do to help as all appointments had gone in the morning . The receptionist told me to ring back tomorrow but having gone through this so many times before I told the receptionist I would be in the same situation . So the only option is for me to go first thing in the morning and que as I have done in the past . When I have done this I have seen people old people my mothers age getting out of taxis in all weathers winter months are the worst , and then they stand inline . I have been told that they have 26,000 patients and have only 13 appointments a day to give out ! . Shocking I know, the receptionist told me this unbelievable , how is this practice serving its people ? .

nhs.uk logo
Do you have a similar story to tell? Tell your story & make a difference ››

Responses

Response from Millgate Healthcare Partnership 7 years ago
Millgate Healthcare Partnership

Submitted on 28/12/2017 at 14:45
Published on nhs.uk at 15:31

Dear Patient

At this moment in time my only response to the criticism we are receiving is to offer my sincerest apologies and also to explain why we are experiencing some difficulties.

I do not offer the explanation as a way of dismissing the criticism but simply that you might understand that we are aware of the situation and actively working towards improving things.

We have, as you are all aware merged with our neighbouring practice and this has brought some challenges for both sites as we have had to merge our data bases and also telephone systems and staff.

The telephone systems have not been without problems and have taken a great deal of time and effort to resolve the issues as they have arisen, and to keep some level of service open.

On top of that we have experienced staffing issues due to some serious unexpected sickness/absences of staff.

These things have left us very short staffed and therefore the response of staff to telephone answering we know has not been to the standard it should be.

In order to rectify these issues we have recruited more staff, and hopefully started to streamline the services we offer and the way we work.

We are extremely sorry for any dissatisfaction and would like to assure you that this is not how we want to present our organisation.

We have a wonderful skill mix within the practice and a very caring team of clinicians.

All members of the team really do want to make a difference to patients’ lives and offer an excellent service.

We hope that you will give us a very short time to have all our new staff trained in their respective roles and hopefully you will see a great improvement.

We would like to thank you for your understanding and to thank the patients that have offered us their support during this transition period.

Your kind words when you have come into the surgery have meant a great deal to us and made the job worthwhile.

Kindest regards

Jean Waddington

Practice manager

  • {{helpful}} {{helpful == 1 ? "person thinks" : "people think"}} this response is helpful
Opinions
Next Response j
Previous Response k