"Office and reception systems and communication..."

I am the main carer for my 95 year old mother and she has been registered with Marden Surgery for two years. We have found the doctors to be very kind, thorough, and helpful.

However the organisation of the surgery seems to be based on a defensive rather than a welcoming outlook and there is no room for kindness towards the patient. The feeling is always that you are trying to be repelled rather than helped and you must prove your worthiness to be able to see a doctor or qualify for help.

Three times under he old prescription ordering system my mother's prescription has gone missing or not been forwarded and I have met apathy from the reception staff when I have had to go backwards and forwards trying to sort it out before my mother runs out of drugs.

The new order system is very reliable but dreadfully understaffed so that, even in the recommended quiet periods, I have to wait on the phone for twenty to thirty minutes before being able to place the prescription order.

In August my mother developed an infected ulcer in jaw which became very swollen. Quite by chance she had a doctors review appointment booked ( which I had booked nearly a month before as the only available free appointment) , so she was seen by her GP and prescribed a five day course of antibiotics. These ran out on the Sunday of the

Bank Holiday Weekend. By Bank Holiday Monday her jaw was still quite swollen and still very painful and it seemed that she needed to have the medication extended. I phoned the surgery in the early morning to find the contact details of the holiday stand-in medical service and the message said that the surgery would be open later that day at two. I was very surprised but, having worked in a surgery myself for many years I am aware how vital this message can be and I felt confident that it must be correct as it would always be checked by the duty staff when the surgery closed before the break. In short, having believed the message I waited and then from 2pm onwards I phoned and phoned to find that it was, in fact, an error and the only help it offered was another number which led to an answerphone. I did leave a message but, to this day, no one has responded to it. If this had been a true emergency lives may have been lost. I was lulled into thinking that if I waited several hours I could contact somebody with her records and get the situation remedied and those few hours could be critical. Eventually I dialled 111 but as I was travelling outside of the Midlands that came with its own complications.

At the best of times their answering systems are labyrinthine. There is no way to get to talk to anyone or get advice.

While my mother really likes and trusts her GP the running of the practice, the intrusive questioning and triage system barring access to that consultation, the long waiting times and the disorganisation of the running of the surgery have lost our confidence and she is now moving to a different, welcoming, practice.