"Denied an appointment"

Thank you for posting feedback about your experience which we appreciate and use in a constructive manner to consider changes within the practice. You have quite rightly pointed out that chicken pox is a highly contagious virus and it is common practice to avoid bringing those infected with it to places such as a GP surgery where there are vulnerable patients, to contain it’s spread. Whilst most children recover well from chicken pox without needing medical intervention, we would like to assure you that if you have any concerns about your child being ill we would encourage you to get them seen by a medical professional. When you rang the surgery for an appointment at 3.45pm, due to high demands for appointments that day, we unfortunately had no more appointments available. We already offer a higher number of appointments than what is expected of us from NHS England and regret that we were fully booked and unable to see your child, however, our receptionists are trained to advise patients where to seek help when our capacity is full. Therefore you were advised to attend A&E which was appropriate advice for your child. The A&E department has a primary care section which is staffed by GPs and nurse practitioners who see suitable patients without the risk of them waiting for many hours in sections of the department which have very vulnerable patients so we are confident that your child would have received appropriate care there. However, we are pleased to hear that you were able to secure an appointment at Merlyn Vaz, which also operates in a similar manner as the primary care section at A&E, which is to see patients when GP surgeries have reached their maximum capacity. Thank you again for your feedback.