"Wait time for appointment unacceptable"

Dear patient

Thank you for your feedback, and for letting us know your feelings about the current wait for a routine appointment.

We are so sorry to hear that we didn't have an appointment as soon as you had hoped for one.

Unfortunately Leigh View Medical Practice has faced some GP shortages over the last year, as there have been two full time doctors off work long term due to illness.

To help keep things running as smoothly as possible, the partners have arranged for several locum GPs to come in and cover, they have worked extra sessions themselves and have been working longer hours and seeing more patients per person.

Ultimately however the number of routine appointments has inevitably reduced, but the partners have done as much as they feel that they reasonably can.

Because the priority absolutely has to be for patients who have an urgent medical problem to be seen as soon as possible, the practice has continued to offer an unlimited number of same day morning appointments for anyone who feels that they can't wait for the next routine appointment.

During these urgent morning clinics, the doctors have each been accommodating a greater number of patients, and have been working extremely hard to try and fill this gap.

As well as the unlimited same day appointments available, patients of Leigh View are now able to book appointments at the Morley hub every weekday evening and at the weekends, and these appointments only become available every Monday for the week ahead.

It may be that you called later in the week when these appointments had already been taken, but these appointments are routine appointments available at a couple of days notice and are proving very popular with people who prefer to be seen out of office hours.

The partners have been looking to recruit an additional GP to further help with the increasing population of Tingley, and despite the national recruitment concerns and shortage of GPs nationally, we are delighted that we have recently found an excellent GP to join the team who is joining us in September.

The partners and I are sincerely sorry to hear that you were unable to book a routine appointment any sooner, but I trust that you understand that when GPs become unwell themselves, this is beyond our control and the remaining GPs have been trying very hard to see everyone who needs to be seen.

We are hopeful that our GP who is currently off sick will be well enough to return to work in a few months, Dr Bond is joining our team in September, and we sincerely hope that the wait for a routine appointment is much reduced and back to normal shortly thereafter.

Thank you for bearing with us during this extremely difficult time.

With best wishes

Victoria Allen

Practice Manager

vallen1@nhs.net