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Lovely medical centre- just without any GP’s

Story from nhs.uk

"Lovely medical centre- just without any GP’s"

About: Chapelford Medical Centre

Trying to get an appointment here is just a waste of your valuable time. Causes you stress and makes you feel even iller!

I’ve made over 10,000 attempts to call the practice this week, it’s just constantly engaged. After my 934th attempt to get through I finally did.. i made it to position number 14 in the queue and waited another 1hr to speak to the receptionist to be told “Sorry no appointments left, try again at 8am”

I’ve had a text to call the surgery to make an appointment i said (as I still haven’t had my repeat prescription from 3 weeks ago when I’d put the request in)

“Sorry you’ll have to call again at 8am tomorrow” can i book an app for tomorrow or next week then please? “No prebookable appointments available im afraid”

I’ve called everyday for the last 2 weeks at 7:59am, i then call again at 8am and can’t get through. Why not just have an automated message to advise patients there’s no appointments? instead of wasting our time and energy!

I’m actively now-looking for another GP practice (although I really shouldn’t have to given the fact I live on Chapelford)

Mays well take yourself to a&e and save yourself the time and energy and stress of even trying to get an appointment.

The practice used to be so efficient when it was a shed, now the lovely new practice is built but doesn’t appear to serve any value to it’s patients as it has No Doctors( the irony)

Can anyone recommend another practice thats taking on new patients?

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Responses

Response from Chapelford Medical Centre 2 years ago
Chapelford Medical Centre

Submitted on 13/06/2021 at 19:12
Published on nhs.uk at 21:55

I am very sorry to hear about your experience at our Practice. In recent weeks we have amended how the reception and admin teams operate to support access to the Practice via telephone. Between the hours 08:00 - 09:30 all admin/reception staff members answer the phones for appointments and enquiries. After 09:30 two reception staff members answer the phones. This is due to the need for admin staff members to carry out clinical admin duties. We are currently trying to further improve telephone access for patients to the Practice and we are confident these improvements will have a positive impact on patients over the next six weeks.

Due to staff members absence over the last six months we have had to utilise Locum GP's and Advanced Nurse Practitioners. However, following a review of staffing requirements we are in the process of recruiting both clinical and non-clinical staff members to support improvements in the Practice.

Recently, GP's can now book a limited number of pre-bookable appointments based on their clinical judgement.

Demand for appointments has significantly increased over the last 6 months. We review our staffing levels regularly to ensure we offer patients as much access to appointments as is safe to do so.

Interim Practice Manager

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