"To slow "

Dear Patient

Thank you for your comment. All comments are taken seriously and used to learn where we can make improvements. Apologies if you felt you did not receive the quality of service you would expect to receive.

As you can appreciate 8.30am is the busiest time of the day as a lot of patients are calling at the same time to book an on the day appointment. We have recently discussed and reviewed our service to see how we can improve on it. Currently there are 4 reception team members working in the morning shift and 4 in the afternoon shift when no one is on leave. Recently we have asked 2 receptionists to answer calls from 8.30am till 1pm. We moved to a new telephone provider in Dec 2020 and recently we have introduced within our telephone system something called overflow, when patients wait more than 30 mins, their calls get diverted to the front receptionists to answer the call.

I would request you to call the surgery after 11am if your call is not related to booking an appointment.

We offer 727 GP appointment weekly when no one is on leave: Monday 153, Tuesday 134, Wednesday 153, Thursday 153, Friday 134.

Once all the on the day appointments are fully booked and if your medical condition is urgent, we have few urgent on the day appointment slots with a doctor for emergencies. PM urgent appointment slots are bookable from 3pm on the day.

We also have on the day 2 minutes telephone appointment available with the GP for advice and discuss results.

If you would like to discuss this matter further, please do not hesitate to contact the practice manager.

Kind Regards

Abbey Road Surgery