"Poor telephone system"

I have no problems with any staff (usually very polite and helpful) just the way the surgery runs the telephones/reception. They have two people on the front desk who have to deal with the phones and people coming in. This is ok in a one or even two dr practice. But in such a large medical centre does not work. This is what infuriates your patients and where most of your complaints come from. Patients get angry for being on hold for so long and then feel they can’t get what they want/need from you and believe it’s because the staff are rude. When really it’s because of how long they have been waiting. You should have 2 dedicated staff on the phones and one on the front. Then this can be swapped throughout the day so staff do a variety of work. This means the calls would not be on hold for so long. Sometimes even a hour. Which is just ridiculous. You are expanding so really should think about changing the way reception is run. Rather than taking on even more patients (just because you get paid for the amount of people you have registered) when the ones you already have can’t even get through to the practice!

This has been a problem for so long but has just got worse recently. This must really affect your staff morale as well. Please think of the patients you already have and how you can ease tension between them and your poor staff!!