"Unhelpful advice & terrible booking system"

I have visited this GP many times: a few times in person before COVID and several times on telephone appts during COVID.

The booking system is absolutely awful. I call in the morning when the telephone lines open, and rather than being placed on hold in a queue, I am met with line is busy and I have to repeatedly keep dialling until I get through to a person. Sometimes this involves me calling over 60 times in the span of 20mins, and even after getting through, I will sometimes be told that all the appts are gone for that day, and that I will need to try the next morning. I struggle to realise how other patients are managing to call in and get an appt, if not just by luck.

GPs seem to vary greatly at this practice and have differing levels of knowledge, which has not been good in my experience because I will hear different things from each of them when going in for the same problem. I understand GPs each have their own way of doing things, but sometimes I will get extremely unhelpful or no advice to my questions from one GP but instead will get super helpful advice from another.

I have had just under 10 episodes of / appts regarding inflamed tonsils for over a year now (started in Feb 2020), and it was only in my Jan 2021 appt that I was asked to send in photos. This was my first time hearing that sending in photos was a possibility. I find it extremely frustrating that no other GPs in my previous telephone appts asked for photos. Similarly, in my March 2021 telephone appt, I was given the advice of asking for a swab test next time I had issues. I really do not understand why I am hearing this now (a year later!) - hearing a GP say that it is hard for them to know the exact problem (bacterial/viral tonsillitis, tonsil stones, etc.) without photos/swab test - but still I have previously been through so many telephone appts where the GP just prescribed me antibiotics or did nothing.

My absolute worst experience was in my March 2021 telephone appt, where the GP kept speaking over me. When I had a question, I had to attempt 2-3 times to fully finish asking my question, due to being interrupted so much. The GP must have had a busy day because I was told my appt would be around 4:10pm but I was called around 5pm instead; the GP also sounded annoyed right from the start, and in a rush. It was a horrible experience talking to this GP but I did take away the useful advice of requesting a swab test next time.