"Triaged by the receptionist."

The Tiptree Medical Centre has a new way of booking an appointment. You speak to a receptionist who then places you on a list of people who the Doctor is then to contact. The main problem with this is that the receptionist has zero medical experience. So is unable to prioritise who needs to be spoken to first. This is a major problem if you have a suspected DVT. So while you wait over 5 hours for the "emergency" doctor to call you the clot in your blood stream slowly gets worse. Then they can't get you an appointment at the hospital that day as it is too late. So you wait another day before you can be seen. All the time you are in pain and anxious about the outcome.

This is not the first time this has happened either after a severe ear infection forced me into an early morning trip to A&E after being told by the same medical centre that it was due to a build up of wax making an appointment to have my ear syringed in two weeks time. The CT scan I had at the hospital revealed that the swelling was so severe that it was in danger of reducing the blood flow in an artery and could potentially have caused a stroke. Thanks to the quick treatment by the ENT registrar at A&E that night this never came to pass. Cue 4 weeks of very painful treatment and follow ups costing me time off of work.