"Shevington Surgery, What was and now What is."

It is with some reluctance that I write this review, as over more than a quarter of a century, I have had little cause to complain about the services I have received. However in more recent times I regret to conclude that there is a marked deterioration in the standards to which users had been accustomed for many years.Firstly it was customary to refer to:"My Doctor"..whichever one it was. Personally I had regular Doctor for many years and with whom I felt I had a rapport and a relationship within which matters however sensitive or personal could be discussed. In contrast, today it is 'lucky dip!' who you get when asking to see a doctor. Nominally I was assigned another doctor, which was OK for a short while until the present unsatisfactory procedures were installed. In this last year I must have seen four other doctors and one senior nurse instead of a doctor.I believe therefore that there is no real continuity,and a remoteness that is impersonal in contrast to what existed previously that is I use the Patient Access to reorder my prescriptions and this is generally OK BUT trying to book an appointment using this system is a joke. If you're lucky, there will be one perhaps two appointments available with random doctors usually way off and therefore of little value when you need to see a doctor fairly promptly there is no ability to specify a particular doctor who may be familiar with your circumstances. The Emergency Appointment system works quite well in that you can secure a swift appointment but as above, this can be any one of the practice doctors or even now a senior nurse instead. I need to illustrate my dissatisfaction with my personal circumstances. I am 77 years of age and for two years on the run I asked if I could be given the shingles immunisation jab, each occasion being informed that only certain birth years qualified and my year 1941 had not yet come up. Then last August, I got a severe dose of shingles, so bad that I continue to be in daily pain having been unlucky to be afflicted with postherpetic neuralgia. During last year one of the doctors said: "We'll see what we can do about you having the inoculation", since then; nothing.More recently I booked an emergency appointment as my right knee had just gone on me and I was hobbling on a stick. The senior nurse diagnosed;"Housemaid's knee" and said it would ease gradually. It did not and two weeks or so later I booked another appointment and saw a doctor who examined my knee and sent me for X Ray. I then booked an appointment with the same doctor but not until quite a few weeks later before she could see me for the results. I turned up and she was off sick that day. I was telephoned the next day and told to make a fresh appointment but that is not until a couple of weeks off when she will ring me!. Just not good enough. Surely she could have rung me or written or texted or emailed! My knee still troubles me in the night.