"Appointments"

Dear Patient, thank you for taking your time to submit your comments. We are terribly sorry you have experienced difficulties in obtaining an appointment. We a large practice and our appointments are in high demand. Since the pandemic, this has been even more so. We have recently reviewed how the pandemic has affected our call volumes; these have increased significantly over last 12 months. We have experienced difficulties managing staff levels during the pandemic due to infection, isolation and shielding. The practice is also allocating staff to contact patients to book their COVID-19 vaccinations, this is further increasing the workload and demand our booking service team.

We are aware of the issue's patients are facing, having listened to patient feedback. We are continuously looking at ways to make our services more accessible to patients and to make patients aware of other services which may be more appropriate. Relevant information has been made available on our website, social media and telephone system. We have also recently introduced e-consultations, which gives our patients an additional route to obtain healthcare advice without having to book an appointment, this is available on our website.

We appreciate this is frustrating for patients, I hope our response outlines some of the work we have put in place to continuously improve our service and access to appointments. If you would like us to investigate your personal experiences further, please submit a formal complaint by emailing robin.lane@nhs.net. We sincerely hope that you have a better, more pleasant experience in the future.

Yours Sincerely,

Joanna Ford

Patient Engagement Manager