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Depressing lack of service

Story from nhs.uk

"Depressing lack of service"

About: Montpelier Health Centre

In the last couple of weeks as a family we've all needed to see a doctor. We were told to complete the lengthy forms and eventually given dates fro triage calls 2-3 weeks away! I've had to call the surgery 3 times in the last week as we couldn't wait for 2-3 weeks. On the three occasions I tried to call I had to wait almost 2 hours on hold to then speak to a receptionist. On the last occasion I was told she couldn't help and that they weren't making advance telephone bookings and that I'd have to complete the online form! When I said I had and that we couldn't wait 2-3 weeks for a triage call I was then told the soonest I could get to see a doctor face to face would be the 29th December!! It's so depressing. I spent a total of 5 hours on hold across 3 calls to have no way of seeing a doctor! I get it; you're stretched; their aren't enough doctors, etc, but it was never this bad.

When I actually managed to get into the surgery with my daughter I witnessed 2 receptionist on duty. There was only 4 people waiting inside and they weren't having to deal with any calls, but one of them made a comment on how busy they were!! Not sure it looked that busy. Why can't we go back to making appointments? Why do we have to go through the process of having triage calls that seem to take weeks and then further weeks to see a GP? It feels like an ineffective use of everyone's time and a major blocker to being more agile in the approach to patient care.

It feels like the surgery has too many patient per doctor. Looking at the GP profiles, most if not all work part time. There's not a problem working part time, but if you're all doing it then there's not enough hours to cover the demands of the numbers you have on your patient register. This is pretty simple maths. Something needs to give here and it's not just with this surgery. In any other work setting if there isn't enough resource to cover then that poses serious questions around the capability to even open the doors!

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Responses

Response from Montpelier Health Centre 2 years ago
Montpelier Health Centre

Submitted on 30/11/2021 at 14:07
Published on nhs.uk at 19:40

Thank you for your feedback. We would value the opportunity to discuss your individual experience in more depth in order for us to learn from the issues you have raised. Please email the practice on montpelierhealthcentre@nhs.net - for the attention of Caroline Hawkins, Patient Services Manager.

In response to some of your comments:

The practice operates a call centre which is manned from 8am-6.30pm. This is away from the main Reception desk. All incoming calls are received directly into the Call Centre. The front reception desk team do not take patient calls. However, they not only cover the front desk, but also manage patients queuing at the front door, and are very busy going between the front door and desk to help patients.

We have been unable to open the doors to patients to be able to sit in the waiting room due to NHS Guidance on infection control due to the Covid pandemic (which we are still very much in the midst of). This week we have been able to invite more patients into the waiting room than previously and have also installed an intercom system to enable patients to receive a more streamlined service when they are waiting outside.

As of Friday, November 22nd, the next available bookable appointment was 16th December 2021.

Due to infection control measures, telephone triage calls were introduced at the beginning of the pandemic. Many patients value this service as it means they do not need to attend the practice for a face-to-face consultation, as they can receive treatment, advice and medication arranged, over the telephone. If a further appointment is needed, the patients are offered a face-to-face consultation if they wish to have one. Many patients have not wanted to attend the surgery if at all possible, nor sit in the waiting room, due to possible Covid infection when mixing with others.

I hope this information is helpful. We look forward to hearing from you further in order to discuss your individual issues.

We warmly invite our patients to join our Patient Participation Group. This meets every four months at the practice. It gives our patients an opportunity meet some of the clinical and non-clinical team, and to have a say in how the practice operates. If you would like further information then please ask at Reception or email as above.

Caroline Hawkins, Patient Services Manager.

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