"Shambolic Antiquated Inadequate "

Dear Patient

Thank you for your suggestions regarding a call queuing service, we are pleased to inform you that we have now implemented a notification informing patients their position in the call queue. We apologise for the trouble you have had getting through to the reception team. We have recently upgraded our telephone system moving from analogue to digital which has allowed for all users in the Practice to have their own lines, this has improved the availability of the incoming flow of calls. We did experience one or two teething problems when the system was moved across however these have now all been resolved. During March our Practice received 84,316 telephone calls compared to 42,439 during February, we believe this may have been due to Covid restrictions easing. This is only just now beginning to return to our normal levels of demand.

Across the UK, General Practices are facing record demand for appointments, advice and support as we come out of lockdown and we are also experiencing this. There are a number of reasons for this including many people not presenting with problems during lockdown and now feeling they need to present them; very long waiting times for hospital services; much mental ill-health due to COVID and its effects on people and society. We have struggled to cope with the sudden increase in demand over the last 2 months but have taken on more receptionists and restructured our wider administration team to enable us to have more people answering telephones at busy times of day. We have taken on more GPs, nurses and healthcare assistants and we also now have 2 pharmacists on the team to offer more appointments than ever before.

We encourage patients to use our on-line services to book appointments and order prescriptions. Online access is very convenient for busy working people and is also accurate - reducing the chance of misunderstandings when appointments have been booked; ensuring the correct repeat medication has been requested. E-Consultations are also very popular with patients for review of many conditions and for getting advice. GPs respond to E-Consults within 48 hours but usually much sooner.

In addition to usual Primary Care service we have also set up a Covid Vaccination Centre at our Rawling Road Site. We have not neglected our patients or routine care while doing COVID vaccinations. We have a large bank of GPs, nurses and administrative assistants from outside the practice (many of whom are retired but have come back to work) helping with this work so our GPs and nurses can focus on normal general practice.

Thank you for your kind comments about the doctors. We will address your concerns regarding the reception team. As your comment is anonymous it would be helpful for you to contact us directly with specific concerns or incidents to enable a full investigation on this matter.

Yours sincerely Kristina Langley Operational Services Manager