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Poor patient service.

Story from nhs.uk

"Poor patient service."

About: Vine Medical Group

I has become increasingly difficult to get straight forward Doctors appointment. Invariably you have to wait for a Gp to ring you back, which can take a considerable time. Upon receiving his/her call you may be lucky and actually get an appointment to see a GP. My wife and I both have life threatening illnesses and still find we are unable to get a straight forward appointment. The system used to be so much easier for patients , however, due to the cutbacks life is far more stressful and hard to deal with. At the end of the day all I need is to see my GP. I fully understand why more people are abusing the A&E service at the local hospitals mainly because it is impossible to obtain an appointment with your surgery. We find it quite pathetic that any mention of a chest pain is immediately responded with :Call an Ambulance" by your receptionists, this is absolutely stupid and puts an even further load onto an already abused service. Why you cannot revert to your original system is beyond credence.

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Responses

Response from Vine Medical Group 5 years ago
Vine Medical Group

Submitted on 18/10/2018 at 18:43
Published on nhs.uk at 19:05

I am sorry you feel our current system is not meeting your needs. With demand for GP appointments outstripping supply by approximately 7:1 we have had to take some difficult decisions. To ensure that appropriate care is offered to all out patients we have found that a telephone triage step enables those patients clinically requiring a GP to access an appointment. As i am sure you can appreciate , when a patient phones in with "chest pain" this is a health symptom we have to take very seriously and act according to the current NICE national medical guideline, which is to advise patients to call 999. Time is critical in these situations. We are doing our absolute best to ensure that patients are kept "safe" in all situations by using our extended team of practitioners appropriately. If you would like to discuss yours and your wife's individual access to our clinical services in more detail, please book an appointment with a site manager, at your convenience.

Thank you.

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