"Unreasonable way of making appointments and more…"

In this practice most appointments are now by phone (not zoom, so you do not see who you talk to). These appointment consist of 3 hour slots during which the patient is expected to wait for the 10 minute phone call from the GP. I have many work meetings during the day and I simply do not have a 3 hour time slot that I can keep free to wait for a phone call. I find this policy entirely unreasonable. It should be possible even for phone appointments to give an approximate time, with the same risk of a slight delay that I may experience for in-person appointments.

The rationale given was Covid, but this logically does not make much sense. I am sure that it is a convenient way for GPs to arrange their days, but it is simply very disruptive for patients.

The services at this practice have got worse in several additional ways over the last two years or so. Reception staff are unfriendly and most do not know their own systems well so cannot make amendments to contact details, give access to online services etc. Appointment reminders for my daughter have been sent to me (without mentioning her name) repeatedly, leading me to think I had appointments I did not book. My daughter has had to ask 3 times to have her contact details amended.

Prescriptions given following a doctors appointment then require and additional appointment with the pharmacist, who then promptly says I need a doctors appointment to be able to get a prescriptions. I had to phone another two times until someone finally is able to find out from the system that I already had that appointment.

During in person appointments I have seen people in reception treated so incredibly unfriendly by receptionists, my jaw almost dropped.

I cannot complain to the practice about this, as complaints just go to the practice manager, who seems to be at the center of this new policy of unhelpfulness and convoluted systems.

I will now look for a new practice in the area, which is difficult as many are oversubscribed.