"So disappointed "

I was given a phone appointment with a nurse practitioner after submitting a e-consult with a weeks worth of high blood pressure readings. She was great and really useful but said that I needed to speak to a Dr, she arranged a phone appointment. This appointment was for any time between 8.30 and 12.30 : I really don’t understand why appointments can’t be timed as in actual face to face appointments, as with in person ones it would be understandable if they ran a bit late, but 4 hours windows seem unnecessary. Any how a dr rang very close to the end of this window and sounded tired and frankly irritable. I had some questions about the new diagnosis of high blood pressure and she told me that I also had high cholesterol, again I had questions, she was impatient. She said that I needed to do further reading twice daily for 14 days to get an accurate picture of my BP, she said she’d email me a link to send them to her.

16 days later I clicked the link- it’d taken me a couple of extra days to get all the readings as I’d missed a couple- the link had expired. This seems really unnecessarily strict a time frame- the error box told me the I’d have to ring the surgery if I still wanted to submit the information. Well I’ve never got through in less than an hour and it’s so disheartening I haven’t yet rung back. Now my BP is up, it’s in a range that gets medicated but it’s not really dangerous- this will not be the case for some people who will also have been put off from pursuing treatment.

The seem to be too few Drs and far to many patients. Continuity of care is totally impossible as everyone seems to be part time or a locum.

Montpelier used to be a good surgery with good doctors, you could see the same dr and get some continuity, not having to start afresh with every consultation. Most people don’t trouble the dr unless they need to, it’s stressful having to run the gauntlet of endless phone calls and long waits for calls if they come, I know several people who didn’t get promised calls.

I’ve been with this surgery for 30 years but am so disappointed with the almost impossible and certainly daunting task of trying to get some attention that I’ve temporarily given up trying and feel I should look for another surgery, I’m sure I’m not alone in this. I talk to friends registered at other suguries and waiting times on the phone are longer ( but not over an hour) and appointments are reasonably easy to get, what’s gone wrong with Montpelier, can it be fixed?