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todays telephone call

Story from nhs.uk

"todays telephone call"

About: Thorpewood Medical Group

i rang the surgery this morning at 9.40am but the automated service was just for emergencies so i called back at 10.02am as instructed to do so after 10.am

i eventually had my call answered at 10.40am...38 mins waiting,i was very surprised to get a lovely sincere and apologetic receptionst,i nornally receive rude and unsympathetic replies so i congratilatethe member of staff who i spoke to today....but...aftee trying to make an appointment to have investagative treatment for my arthritic hands i was told no appointments were available for 4 weeks,no appointments were allowed to be booked after 4 weeks,i was told to call at 8am (iv done this in past and 30 mins on hold) to see if any appointments are available,im self employed do cant afford time off to sit waiting on the line,i was told maybe i could go to walk in centre...i explained that i did that a couple months ago as i was told the next available appointment was 6 weeks away!! i attended the walk in centre and was seen in under 10 minutes...but...as i have arthritis and unidentified pain i was told i would need bloods done to rule out anything sinister!!

the receptionist agreed with me...but still could not offer me an appointment! she did however say i could become an online patient,and could book via the website and its easier??? how can online booking be easier than talking to a real person?? besides that...i was an online patient but my password would never work and i got fed up of going into the surgery to have it reset....iv still got lots of pain,and no fore seeable appointment,do we have to pre book our deaths aswell...im on the verge oc losing work due to my condition.

not happy at all,cant send emails or texts easy as my fingers lock...i NEED TO SEE A DOCTOR!

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Responses

Response from Thorpewood Medical Group 5 years ago
Thorpewood Medical Group

Submitted on 12/10/2018 at 12:19
Published on nhs.uk at 13:06

Dear Sandra

Thank you for your feedback on this NHS website – on listening to the call recording of your conversation I can understand your frustration on the events you cover.

From the call recording, the receptionist was obviously trying to be helpful to your needs, but I have to say the conversation did not progress as I would have wished. I certainly apologise for the experience you had, which clearly was not ideal.

The aspect that did not become apparent is we will indeed be freeing up more routine appointments over the coming days, but at this point in time they are held to allow for re-booking of pre-booked appointments that need ‘re-jigging’ due to some known sickness absence for one of our GP.s.

The practice has engaged a number of Locum GP.s to cover this absence over the next few weeks, and the process of contacting the affected patients to re-book those appointments in with the Locum GP.s is almost complete. Once that process is finished, we will be able to release further Locum GP appointments for those not already booked in to see a GP, and then future pre-bookable appointments will be available in almost normal quantities.

I am sorry for the confusion caused by the conversation around online appointment booking – as you say, you had chosen to ring up the surgery, and that is a wholly appropriate choice of contact channels to make, but I do understand that the receptionist was trying to be helpful, given your specific comments on the call.

Kindest regards

Ian Wilson

Practice Manager

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