"Nearly impossible to get GP appointments"

Dear patient, thank you for your comment and sorry to read your experience. During the pandemic the GP practices have been working under the strict NHS England guidelines of telephone triage only to minimise the risk of COVID 19. After speaking with the patient on the phone, if then clinically needed, GPs have offered and carried out video consults and also where need be, face to face patient appointments have been offered. Majority of the GP practices are currently asking patients to ring in the morning for an appointment for on the day emergency. To avoid waiting on the phone, in future, for non urgent clinical queries, please use our online Econsult service on our website, it is a blue box in the middle on the main page of the website. If you need further information on this, please ring the practice on 01753 542424 and one of our staff will be happy to help you. We have increased our staff capacity to answer calls and we are experiencing that the practice is now generally busy than before. If you need any other information please email us on orchard.surgery1@nhs.net or ring us on 01753 542424, thank you. Always assuring you of our best services. The Orchard Surgery.