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“Always short staffed”

Story from nhs.uk

"“Always short staffed”"

About: Hazelmere Medical Centre

On Monday the 15th of August I tried calling numerous times to book an appointment but the phone was engaged for over an hour. Then when I got through I heard a phone message saying that all appointments for today are fully booked. This was around 9am. To be honest this message runs on a daily basis pretty much from 8/9am it sometimes is switched on from 8:01am. How is this even possible ??? When your GP opens from 8am?

I was advised that’s it’s a first come first serve in regards to appointments. I was advised to come in and wait from 8am to get a appointment slot etc for the day

A few days prior to the 15th of august I visited the GP saying I need a emergency appointment. I was told nothing is available till 2 weeks down the line. I was then told to pop down or call from 8am and we can see if we can book you in.

Today the 23rd of August, I arrived to your GP at 7:55am. I went to the door to only see a sign saying “walk-ins are from 8:30-am only”. So I left as I was not gonna wait around for 30 mins. (Your website says open from 8am daily)

I called at 7:59 and the answer phone message started of by saying all routine appointments for today are all taken.

I then tried at 8am to see if it changes. Guess what, phone line was engaged. Your phone line was engaged from 8am till 10:25am.

I then drove to the GP and walked into see that there is no patients waiting in the waiting area.

I asked the lady at the receptionist if there phone lines are working as it’s constantly engaged. She said they are and that they are short staffed and very busy. I have heard this many times at your GP ever since I moved to Blaby in 2017. I said I get the feeling your phone is off the hook? She said it ain’t. She said you should try calling emergency line. I said I have tried that and that’s engaged constantly too.

Again there we’re no free appointments for me until next week Thursday…. Actually a phone call with my GP was the quickest appointee they could get. This is a joke. Your GP was empty and you had 2 receptionist working. The phones were not even ringing when I walked in.

I’m confident your receptionist are taking the phones of the hook. This I find very shocking.

All I have been trying to do is see my GP and arrange for him to refer me for more test following my continuous stomach pains which have been going on for months.

The service provided at the Hazel Mere GP is shocking. If I had walked into a busy receptionist and cues then I would understand todays situation. To say that you are understaffed at reception and busy that’s why you can’t book me in is un acceptable.

Like I said this is not the first time I’ve encountered these excuses. This is a normal thing said every day at Hazelmere GP.

I want to know why this is the case and what will be done about my complaint and the poor service and excuses that I have constantly been given

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Responses

Response from Hazelmere Medical Centre 2 years ago
Hazelmere Medical Centre

Submitted on 24/08/2022 at 13:24
Published on nhs.uk at 17:02

Dear Anonymous

You state that you want feedback about your complaint, but you have submitted this anonymously on a public forum, so we cannot directly respond to you, hence the reply here.

We do however have our own complaints procedure which we ask all patients to follow if they want to submit a complaint, this way it can be dealt with more effectively.

I can assure you that the staff DO NOT take the phone off the hook and are answering calls continuously, especially when the lines are the busiest at 8am in the morning. I have spoken to the reception team who state that they would not advise a patient to come and wait at 8am as we do not open the doors until 8.30am. We open the doors at 8.30am so that we have all the staff available for answering calls for on the day appointments as we do not allow people to queue in the morning to book as this is unfair for people who are unable to queue.

There is no sign on our doors that states ‘walk-ins are from 8.30am Only ‘as we do not do walk-in clinics, all appointments are either prebooked or booked on the day. Any patient with a prebooked appointment before 8 am can access the building via the side door.

If you have been in the medical centre and it has seemed unbusy, this is not the case. Many doctors appointments are telephone calls which is why there was probably a quiet waiting room. Due to covid we have tried to reduce footfall through the practice. I hope that all patients can appreciate there is a lot that goes on in the background that patients are unaware of, this does not mean that we are not doing/working.

I fully understand your frustrations at not being able to get through on the telephone. This situation is not solely an issue here at Hazelmere but is in fact an issue across the whole of the NHS. Covid prevented people from venturing outside and their medical ‘problems’ became less important, once the world started to open up so did peoples’ medical problems, causing a significant demand on NHS services.

Here at Hazelmere, we are trying our best to navigate these issues, but we are also hindered by the fact that we have very few clinical staff due to sickness, short and long term. Despite our best efforts to employ new GPs and locums there are simply none out there to secure.

Unfortunately, due to this, there is little we can do to improve access at present, however our staffing issues seem to be improving from September onwards, so we hope that patients will have greater access going forward.

We can only ask for some understanding in these difficult times as we try to navigate through the pressures we are facing.

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