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Shocking Service

Story from nhs.uk

"Shocking Service"

About: Beacon Medical Group

Tried to speak to a Doctor regarding chronic back pain for 2-days

Phoned on Monday morning but was not even put in a queue, just told that there was such a high volume of calls that I should hang up and call back later

Finally got hold of reception at approx 11-00hrs, to be told that a Dr would call me in around 30mins! Waited all day with no contact from the surgery!

Rang again the next morning only to get an answerphone message telling me that ALL surgeries were closed for Staff Training and to call back after 14-00hrs(Why do all 4-surgeries have to close at the same time? It happens regularly! Surely at least 1 should remain open?)

I called again at 14-00hrs to be told again that a Dr had called me twice yesterday and left a voicemail, and sent a txt to my mobile (Which wasn’t true) and they would call me back in around 30mins!

Waited until 16-00hrs and had to call back again due to no contact,

Eventually after we’ll over 30mins in a queue I asked why I hadn’t been contacted, only to be told that they had tried but I hadn’t answered my phone!

This was getting ridiculous by now, so I also asked them to ring my Landline if they couldn’t reach me on my mobile, which they agreed to do!

Eventually my mobile rang, but due to my incapacity I had difficulty reaching it, but after only 3 rings they had hung up, which gave me no time to answer! They didn’t bother to try my landline as previously agreed.

I called back yet again and had to wait another half an hour to get through and eventually a Dr did call me at approx 18-50hrs.

We discussed my medical problems and she promised to send an urgent prescription for pain relief to the pharmacy at Sainsbury’s, as every local pharmacy had closed,which my wife offered to go and collect for me!

The final straw was that when she got there they hadn’t received any prescription for me, so a totally wasted trip!

Tomorrow, for the third day now, I will have to endure yet more time on hold, to try and get to speak to a Doctor!

I will be putting in a formal complaint regarding this debacle and it seems from all of the other complaints in this website that

I won’t be the only one, so they can hardly say that this was an unusual occurrence!

How much longer can they be allowed to operate such a shocking service?

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Responses

Response from Beacon Medical Group 4 years ago
Beacon Medical Group

Submitted on 19/09/2019 at 14:40
Published on nhs.uk at 15:07

I am sorry to read your feedback.

I would like to investigate this situation further and I will need to look at your details to understand how this situation has occurred, if we have the correct contact details for you, and which GPs were trying to call and why your prescription wasn't sent to the pharmacy.

I would be grateful if you could write to us at beaconmedicalgroup@nhs.net with your name and details so that we can look into this situation.

I apologise that you have experienced long call waits, the situation regarding call times has vastly improved and most patients are not waiting longer than 10 minutes.

Monday mornings are the busiest time, and during peak call times some patients may not be able to get through if all lines are full, you will only hear this message if there are 30 patients in the queue.

The practice closes for 1.5 hours each month for staff training.

Not all practices are closed during this time and patients can still access reception at some branches, however the phone lines do transfer for 1.5 hours each month to all for staff training.

Regards

Operations Team

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