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Feels like no point even trying

Posted By Annie-nominus

"Feels like no point even trying"

About: St Austell Health Group

(as the patient),

I call our surgery at 8am and ask if I could have an evening appointment because I was not feeling well and I work in a hospital myself so needed an appointment after work. I was told I would need to call back later because the receptionist  could not give evening appointments. Then I called back later that morning/afternoon to be told there was no evening appointments because they had all been taken. Please tell me what someone has to do to actually see a Dr within these practices? I've been told before I've been put on the Call back list and it could take up to 5 days to call back. If I didn't need to see a Dr, I wouldn't have asked to see one, not be called 5 days later when I am progressively worse. I believe this whole system is not working.

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Responses

Response from Anita McMillan, Business Support Manager, St Austell Health Group 4 years ago
Anita McMillan
Business Support Manager,
St Austell Health Group

Submitted on 24/07/2019 at 09:21
Published on Care Opinion at 10:26

Dear Annie-nominus,

Thank you for taking time to give feedback.

We offer an urgent care service for patients that need to be seen on the same day. Patients attending the urgent care clinic are typically not well enough to be at work, and appointments are usually filled from the beginning of the day. We are happy to accommodate those with work commitments and will try to provide a telephone consultation or later appointment time if possible.

If you have an ongoing or non-urgent medical problem you will be added to the list of your usual GP. This ensures continuity of care and allows the GP to triage his list and contact patients with the most urgent medical problems first. Most of our patients receive a call from their doctor within 3 - 5 working days, and are invited to come in for a face to face appointment if needed.

I am sorry to hear that you are not happy with the call back system. In the context of a national GP shortage, where many patients across the country wait for weeks for a GP appointment, this system allows our patients to have much quicker contact with their GP. If your condition worsens we would urge you to contact the surgery again.

Kind regards,

Anita

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