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Appointment system and admin staff let down good…

Story from nhs.uk

"Appointment system and admin staff let down good…"

About: The Deepings Practice

Getting an appointment at this practice is one of the most frustrating experiences as you are not able to book anything in advance. This is made worse even when you do call at 8am on the day to try to get an appointment you have a ridiculous wait time and then 9 times out of 10 you can't get an appointment with your own doctor. Furthermore, some of the admin / receptionists are unhelpful at best and rude at worst. Today I received a letter informing me that my appointment with my GP next week is cancelled, this appointment is to get my results for breast cancer and the letter states I can make an appointment for a telecon with the triage nurse. So I called to make the appointment, only to be told that I can't make an appointment and that I should ring on the day at 8am. In an already stressful and upsetting situation I can still not make an appointment. The receptionist didn't even listen to what I said to her. There needs to be a serious review on this practice and how they operate and the receptionists need to be given training in how to deliver a 'service' rather than 'computer says no'. No compassion and completely unhelpful.

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Responses

Response from The Deepings Practice 3 years ago
The Deepings Practice

Submitted on 11/08/2020 at 11:14
Published on nhs.uk at 11:15

Thank you for your comment.

As this comment is anonymous we are unable to look in to this fully. However, at the end of March 2020 the NHS was just embarking in a lock down in readiness to deal with COVID-19. We are advised to cancel all pre-booked appointments and move to a total triage system.

During this time we have often been working on reduced staffing levels due to illness of self-isolation rules. This adds a further challenge for the team when maintaining our core service.

These changes to our service were applied within a matter of days, when usually a significant service change is carried out over many months. Our staff have worked tirelessly over the last 20 weeks to maintain a service for patients following the guidance provided by NHSE.

We are extremely sorry that your expectations of our service were not met and hope that next time you contact the surgery you have an improved experience.

We are currently experiencing unprecedented times and we understand the frustrations and anxiety of our patients.

Thank you

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