"First visit to surgery to see Specialist Nurse"

I have recently moved into the area and had made an initial appointment with a GP. I had made several phone calls and every time the receptionist that I spoke to was friendly in a polite and efficient way. On the day of my appointment my husband was rushed into hospital so the appointment with a GP was cancelled and the receptionist offered me an appointment the following day with the Specialist Nurse Practionier after establishing in a confidential manner that this was appropriate. So far so good..

I was called in on time. The SNP could not answer my first question about my records being transferred as she 'was just a locum'. I asked her to remove a dissolvable stichthat hadnt dissolved from a wound. She searched every drawer and basket on every shelf in the room. When I asked her what she was looking for she said that she couldnt find any scissors!

I commented that if she was just going to cut the end of the thread off and leave the stich in, I could do that myself. The SNP then said that that would not be a sterile procedure. I smiled, she shrugged and the appointment was over without the stich being touched. This is NOT a complaint of the nurse herself but more of the conditions that she has to work under. What nurse or GP can operate without sterile scissors? She seemed to have little resources in the room. My appointment was not a complete waste of time as I had gone to ask her for a referral about another matter. This she said she would do without question. But, I had taken a day off work to attend this appointment and it could easily have been a waste of my time. I fear that this problem may be because the surgery is operated by locum GPs and nurses and I am concerned that this might be the norm for this practice. If I had realised I would not have registered by a practice which has only locum medical staff. I realise that this probably wont be resolved at least in the short term but please could someone take responsibility for keeping resources at an acceptable level so that patients can be attended to appropriately. I still have the stich in my kneee by the way!!!!