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Annoying telephone system

Story from nhs.uk

"Annoying telephone system"

About: St Lukes Surgery

On the 24 July I contacted the telephone line for at Luke's surgery and was on hold for at least 65 minutes I tried many to ring. But each time the queue was always busy. After 75 minutes.i was no 1 eventuatelly but the phone kept ringing and no one answered them after some rings the phone was picked up and put down I was really annoyed as one I was calling from a mobile . So costed me a fortune in the end I walked to the surgery expecting a queue to find the reception.empty of patients.and no phones ringing I no that the call centre takes the calls and bookings but maybe someone.can tell me what your receptionists do since the system been changed after being s long term patient at at Luke's it's got no better and what amazed me is now how many partners they have at the surgery when the older partners who were at the practice couldn't find anyone to be a partner when they were there . One wonders if the older partners of dt Luke's were pushed out as many people I no have made the same comment .in my zt Luke's will never get better even by hireinh how.many partners they have the trust isn't there anymore and I no I'm not the only one saying this as I overhere conversations in my church and in..shops and by people I no.

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Responses

Response from St Lukes Surgery 5 years ago
St Lukes Surgery

Submitted on 01/08/2019 at 09:13
Published on nhs.uk at 10:06

Please accept our apologies that you experienced problems with contacting the surgery.

Last year we made some initial changes to our telephone system, resulting in all calls for Living Well Partnership now being answered from two central locations (Weston Lane and Ladies Walk Surgeries). This was to enable front desk staff to provide an improved face to face service with incoming calls answered more swiftly, by a dedicated team.

In March this year a new telephone system was also implemented across our sites. The new system provides full call waiting data and informs patients where they are in the queue. This data has enabled us to gain increased insight into our call volumes and better understand how we can further improve our service for patients. It has also enabled us to determine how best to adjust our staffing levels to respond to changes in demand throughout the week. Currently we are continuing to recruit additional reception staff to manage the increased capacity on the lines that the new system has generated.

If you would prefer to contact the surgery online about non urgent matters, we offer an e-consult facility which is available through the practice website. The e-consult service is accessible to patients 24/7 and involves completing a short online form which is reviewed by a GP and to which you will receive a response by the end of the next working day.

In 2017 St Luke’s merged with the Living Well Partnership. LWP consists of 7 sites with a combined Partner team. Partnership working has provided greater resilience to local practices, has enabled shared resources and functions to improve efficiency and has increased services available to patients such as LARC and minor operations. Some of our previous Partners, such as Dr Hill and Dr Birch, still work for LWP.

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