I have to partly agree with Tom Frost about this surgery. I have found the doctors to be excellent when I have managed to see them. The problem is getting to see them. For a routine appointment, I always allow a minimum waiting period of at least 2 weeks. If you need an early or late appointment because of work, you can be waiting even longer. I had to wait almost a month last time. As someone who works in another town, and who says this when attempting to book an appointment, I am heartily sick of the receptionists offering me an appointment at 11am and that 2 weeks in the future. No, I need an early or late appointment please! Then there is much tooth-sucking from the receptionists and comments like Early appointments are like gold-dust, they always go fast. It has even been suggested to me, by more than one of their surly receptionists, that I should book a day off work in order to come in at a time when they can manage to see me. I don't think that is at all acceptable. Eventually, they find you something, and when you turn up, the waiting room is full of pensioners, all hogging the early morning appointments! Now, I am not getting at pensioners. I will be one myself, one day, with luck. But with all due respect, people who are not working have all day to go to the doctors; those of us who do work are very constrained. I have suggested that receptionists ask people, when booking an appointment, if they can come in at any time. If they can, funnel them to the middle of the day, and keep at least some of the early/late slots for people who work! I did suggest this to the Practice Manager some years ago, but nothing happened. Things carried on as they always had. Trouble is, of course, with the automated system, you cannot easily do this. People will just ring up and grab the next appointment, regardless. I suspect that, even if they DID has weekend appointments, the same would happen. As for trying to get an on the day emergency appointment, thr phone will be constantly engaged from the minute you ring up. By the time you get through, all the emergency slots will have gone. The same thing happens if you have to see the nurse for blood tests. My Doctor wanted me to have blood tests, then see her again. The whole process took a month, first a 2 week wait for the tests, then a 2 week wait for the doctor. Why the doctors cannot take a blood sample at the appointment I do not know, it takes all of 3 minutes. I raised all this with the last Doctor I saw, and I filled in their survey, but I do not expect anything to change. Citing lack of resources won't do. You can make simple positive changes, as I've shown above, without the need for more money. No complaints about the medical service itself, but the practice is not well managed. They need longer opening hours and more control of appointments, and to remember that they are there to serve their patients, not the other way around. read more
