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Just frustrating...

Story from nhs.uk

"Just frustrating..."

About: Nems Platform One Practice

It appears as if you have only an 8-10 min window every morning at 8am to make an appointment to see a doctor.

It appears to be a chance of fate as to whether or not you'll get through to the practice in time to be able to book an appointment to see a doctor.

Yesterday I called 45 times from 8am until I got an answer at 8.23am attempting to try and get a doctors appointment when I got through all appointments were taken and the only offer was a nurses triage and a perceived two hour wait from 10am-12pm. This was not something I was prepared to do as I knew exactly what my medical issue was and just needed antibiotics (something I tried explaining to the receptionist to no avail).

Instead I called the practice today at 8am and got through on my first call and had an appointment booked for over lunch the same day.

In conclusion, the doctors and staff seem as good as any others I've dealt with in the past at other practices and the buildings/waiting rooms are clean and tidy etc.. it's just this current system that doesn't appear to be working.

Also for 'non emergency' appointments there's genuinely a 6-7 week wait.... The next available appointment is 2 days before new year and it's the 23rd November today.. Oh and i'm sure they're actively advertising for new patients too, when there's clearly already too much demand as it is (and not enough supply of doctors)... Things are only going to get worse.

This whole 'emergency' appointment thing is stupid, if I had an emergency i'd be at a walk-in centre/A&E... . If I need to speak to to a doctor at a GP practice 99 times out 100 I know exactly what I need (anti-biotics) and I just need a prescription to get them. Surely there has to be an easier way to do this......(Have you guys seen Babylon?)

I know these are systematic problems across the whole NHS, rather than just this practice itself, however it doesn't make it any less frustrating.

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Responses

Response from Nems Platform One Practice 6 years ago
Nems Platform One Practice

Submitted on 24/11/2017 at 09:05
Published on nhs.uk on 25/11/2017 at 03:13

Thank you for taking the time to review our surgery. Feedback is very helpful for our ongoing development of services at the practice. Firstly may I apologise on behalf of the surgery for your dissatisfaction expressed in your review.

We are aware that many patients can have difficulties in accessing our same day appointments by telephone. We currently have no queue system so the phone will just ring until it is answered or cuts off. This may appear that calls are going unanswered but I assure you that we have 3 receptionists answering the phones from 8am and an additional 2 at our branch site from 9am and they are constantly on the phone at our busiest times. As this is an ongoing issue, we are currently looking at implementing a queue system and we hope that this will improve the answering time of the phones and the service we provide to our patients. We do try to make sure that we can accommodate as many patients as we can that need to be seen on any given day but sometimes we are overwhelmed with the demand. We are trying our best to educate patients with regard to taking responsibility for their own health, and teaching every one of the other places they could be seen, for example a pharmacy can help with a cough or cold; rather than book up valuable doctors’ appointments. I am unable to comment about your particular issue as I have no details but for our service to run efficiently we ask our Reception team to signpost patients to the most appropriate clinician. This may mean that our Nurse Led walk in clinic will be more appropriate and on some days there is a longer wait than others to be seen.

You may be aware that there is a national shortage of GP's and as a Practice we have taken steps to recruit Advanced Nurse Practitioners, Mental Health Nurses as well as Practice Pharmacists, Practice Nurses and Health Care Assistants to help us provide a responsive and efficient service with the resources available to us.

We are always seeking to improve the services we offer to our patients and would be happy to discuss these issues with you further. Please do contact the surgery if you would like to do this on 0115 8831900

Susan Taylor Practice Manager

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