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Just another name

Story from nhs.uk

"Just another name"

About: Hillfoot Surgery

I had a telephone appt booked in with my GP for a week regarding some abnormal blood tests (which as you can imagine makes you anxious anyway so to have to wait a week for answers is unacceptable). I had the appt booked before work so I could answer it in my own time, I receive the phone call (25 minutes late may I add), and after 20 seconds the line cut off. I waited a few minutes for the DR to call me back, I received nothing. I called the GP's number about 5 minutes after, to be told by the snottiest of receptionists 'I will have to try and see if they can call you later as they are on another line'. To which I responded I need to be contacted within the next 10 minutes I have work commitments and my appt was booked for this time, and they didn't even try call me back after being cut off so my allocated appt was with someone else. The receptionist then proceeded to say 'all I can do is see if they can try call you back later as they are busy'.

This is completely unacceptable, not only do you wait ages to actually speak to your GP but they can't even be bothered to try call you back after actually speaking to you! The receptionist has the worst attitude I've ever come across, they maybe need a few customer service lessons especially working in the health sector. Don't get me wrong I know GP's re busy, but at least stick to your appt times and care for your patients and call them back!!!!

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Responses

Response from Hillfoot Surgery 6 years ago
Hillfoot Surgery

Submitted on 28/11/2017 at 10:01
Published on nhs.uk on 30/11/2017 at 03:14

I am sorry to read of your experience with your telephone appointment last week. I would like to begin by apologising on behalf of the practice for the upset that this has caused, and would like to offer an explanation for how this may have occured. When a GP reviews blood results, if they need to speak to a patient about the results they ask the reception staff to make a telephone appointment. Although I realise that waiting a week for the results may be stressful, I would like to reassure you that if there was any real cause for concern the GP would not wait a week to speak to a patient - they would call immediately the results had arrived.

As yours would have been a routine call (no clinical indication of any real concern) the gp would have asked the receptionist to make a routine appointment - hence you waiting for a week. When we book telephone appointments, whilst we give a rough indication of the time you will be called, we should always make it clear that the call may be slightly earlier or later. The GP has only 5 min allocated for each call, and as you can imagine some take longer than that - hence the need for flexibility when receiving a call. If you were not informed of this when you made the appointment I do apologise.

As I am not aware of who this comment is from, I am unclear as to what happened on the day when your call was cut off, but I do know that the practice of the GP is to try and call again. From your comment I can summise that the GP who made the original request was on call on the day of your telephone appointment, and therefore was under pressure to deal with on the day clinically urgent patients, hence she passed your ring back on to a colleague who was less under pressure, but had full sight of your notes and was able to discuss your results with you.

I am sorry that you found our receptionists to be unhelpful - they work under great pressure to try and accomodate patients as much as possible. When you spoke to the receptionist she would not have been able to relay your message directly to the GP as they were on a call with another patient - hence then saying that they will see if the GP could call back later.

I hope this goes some way to give some more information as to why this situation occured - but if you need any further information please do not hesitate to contact the surgery and ask to speak to the Practice Manager. I am always happy to discuss concerns directly with patients. Kind regards

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