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Appointment Bookings system dire

Story from nhs.uk

"Appointment Bookings system dire"

About: The Family Practice

Have been trying to get through for days on the phone line. When I did get through today after half an hour on hold I was told that all the appointments for this week had gone. I would have to wait till the following Tuesday to try calling again and sitting again in the same queue. The new appointments are released weekly and the admin can't book more than a week in advance. This system means that people who are sick and people with busy lives find it impossible to book. You'd literally have to be doing nothing else.

I have not received a reply to my email re booking - so I have two questions that I would like answered on this forum.

1) Is this practice going to resume online booking in the near future? I'm presuming they used to use it as their website says this is the best way to book.

2) Is this practice going to start booking appointments more than a week ahead - or is it going to stick with this one week only scrabble for a few appointments?

I'll need to take my family elsewhere if it stays this difficult to book a simple appt.

I'm not sure why they prompted me to sign up Patient Access for all my family members if they're not going to make the online service available... you can't even get repeat prescriptions this way.

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Responses

Response from The Family Practice 2 years ago
The Family Practice

Submitted on 14/05/2021 at 12:11
Published on nhs.uk at 19:28

I am sorry to hear that you are having problems getting through on the phone and getting an appointment. Nationally GP practices are experiencing unprecedented demand for appointments and are delivering more than 20% more appointments than March 2019 - the last comparable year. As a practice we have purchased more telephone lines and have employed extra staff to manage the increased demand for appointments.

On top of our normal workload our staff has been instrumental in the creation and delivery of COVID vaccination clinics that have to-date delivered over 22,000 vaccinations to our local population since the beginning of the year. This work has been vital for the unlocking of society and has been of the highest priority.

Sadly there is a lack of understanding/knowledge of what GP practices have been doing which has been fuelled by misleading media articles and has given the impression that we have been closed and are not working to full capacity. To clarify, we have never not seen patients and many staff are working extra shifts to provide a service to our patient community and this misconception that media fuels does not recognise the efforts that primary care is making to look after its patients. It further demoralises and already exhausted workforce who care very much about their patients.

In answer to your questions we respond to all emails and you can get repeat prescriptions through patient access or by emailing our dedicated prescription email address - bnssg.scripts.thefamily practice@nhs.net . Our website also states quite clearly that the patient booking system is temporarily suspended however you can of course contact us through our contact page and also through eConsult 24hrs a day both of which are on our website. We also release appointments daily.

If however you would prefer, I am very happy to speak to you about all the services we provide if you would like to contact me at the surgery.

Kind Regards,

Kathy Turner

Business Manager

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