"Appalling service"

Dear Patient

I am sorry to hear that you have felt the service we have provided has fallen below the level you expected.

I have spoken to the Receptionist involved who has assured me that appointments are routinely offered to patients at all of our branch sites - as per our practice policy.

If you log onto our website you will see this is the message we give to all patients www.pwehealthcare.co.uk

I have checked our appointments system and our next available book in advance GP appointment for Rawtenstall is on 4th October, however all patients have other options open to them as follows:

- Call or visit the surgery at 8am for a book on the day appointment - we have appointments reserved on the system where booking on the day is available from 8am

- Register for patient online services (eg NHS App, Patient Access or MyGp (iplato) where appointments can be booked online without the need to telephone the surgery.

Registration can be done by presenting in practice with 2 forms of ID - one of which must be photographic.

I will nevertheless remind my team in our forthcoming team meeting that appointments must be offered across all of our branches.

It must also be pointed out that where there is no appointment availability and a patient problem is urgent, we do have protocols to handle these, including emergency appointments - for vulnerable patients including children under 5.

Any musculoskeletal problems such as yours would usually be referred by us to minor injury units who are better equipped to deal with such complaints.

We have also taken on a new foundation year Doctor and a Physician Associate who will be having their own clinics from October 2019.

At present they are undertaking their induction.

This will provide additional appointments going forward.

The practice does have a policy of only accepting complaints in writing - however this can be done by hand on a practice form and given to Reception - rather than posting something in.

This is because we are axing our fax as per national GP Practice requirements and our NHS mail address is reserved for correspondence from other NHS services regarding patient and clinical care.

We cannot allow this facility to be over-run with patient messages which can be handled in other ways.

I hope this now answers your queries.