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"Utterly pointless"

About: Clarendon Medical Centre

I am in the process of writing a will. My solicitor stated that I need to clarify some information with my GP, in order to proceed.

I attempted to call the surgery several times, but there was no answer. On the last occasion, the phone was ringing for fifteen minutes.

I emailed the surgery several days ago, but they have not replied.

I called the surgery, and attempted to speak to the person to whom I had emailed. I was told that (although they were in the building) they were too busy to speak to me. I asked to speak to someone else instead, and the receptionist suggested a second person. The receptionist asked the second person to speak to me, but that person also claimed to be "too busy". When I asked the receptionist of the job title of the second person, she gave me four different job titles, and eventually confirmed that she did not know who this other person was.

The receptionist stated that the person who ignored my email, would call me within 48 hours. I explained to the receptionist that I have severe Epilepsy, and that this affects my sleeping, as I often need to turn my phone off and sleep for several hours to avoid seizures. I requested more information about when (roughly) either would be able to phone me, so I could make sure that I was awake at that time - for example, something like"tomorrow afternoon" would have been helpful. The receptionist informed both persons of my disability & request, but both refused to let me know even vaguely when they might be able to speak to me.

(None of this would have been necessary if I had not spent such a long time attempting to speak to the surgery in the first place).

Despite my request that the surgery make reasonable adjustments for me, as they are required to do for disabled people under the Equalities Act 2010, I was told that this would not be possible. It has been left that:

1) Both persons were present in the building at the time of my call. The receptionist spoke, directly, to each while I was on hold.

2) I have been informed that the person who ignored my email will call me within 48 hours. The receptionist asked me to give a requested time slot, but this has since passed with no contact from the surgery.

3) The second person to whom the reception suggested I spoke, despite not knowing what their job title was, will call me at some point in the future - but it could not be assured that it would even be within the next week.

4) All persons, and the receptionist, are aware that I have Epilepsy, and the difficulty this causes me in terms of planning my day; both persons (and the receptionist) have refused to make any reasonable adjustment for me, despite my making the receptionist aware of her legal obligations under the Equalities Act.

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