"Iâve been registered in this surgery for about 2 years and recently moved to another as the service provided was really poor in many aspects.
1) Booking appointments: the system used to book appointments is very obsolete. You only have one slot in the morning and one in the afternoon for calling and book the appointment for the day. During this very limited amount of time, itâs nearly impossible to talk to one of the receptionist until the bookings are all gone.
Iâve managed sometimes to book through the âautomatic optionâ over the phone only by starting calling the surgery 1 minute before the slot was open so that, by the time the registered voice finished listing the options, the booking time was open. Even this way (which I find ridiculous), the maximum amount of appointments stated as available has never been more than 3 and if you are not quick they go in a matter of minutes! Opening slot time is 8am and by 8.10am they are all gone!!
If you want to book a non urgent appointment (not for the same day) waiting time is just too long: last time Iâve tried to book one Iâve been offered a date only 5 weeks after the day I called with the justification from the receptionist that they have a high number of patients and that is the reason why they canât do anything about this long waiting list. Although, every time I had no choice but booking appointments in advance, there was hardly anybody waiting in the waiting room, which make you think: how many appointments doctors actually have in their schedule on a daily base?
2) No follow up at all: unless you have something wrong coming as a result of your tests, nobody will contact you to check on the next step. I understand this behaviour for routine checks: if everything is fine in a routine check there is no need of following up, but in other occasions, tests are the way to find out the cause of your problem and this not always happens after the first test. In this surgery nobody will tell you what to do next or investigate more unless you go through the painful process of proactively trying to book another appointment.
3) Iâve been seriously ill at the beginning of the year, but it all started with something that looked like a normal flu. When I first tried to book an appointment, after telling me that no appointments were available, the receptionist was the one trying to give me medical advice over the phone and then literally telling me that it was better for me not to go to the surgery as it was unfair on the other patients if I had a flu as i could have been contagious! Result was that my situation get worse and worse and I ended up losing 1 month at work. At this point I wanted to be referred for some private checks (as I have a private insurance) but the doctor I talked to over the phone got very aggressive and rude after my request.
These are only the main points, but the list could go on and on. I really think that there is A LOT of space for improvement in the management of this surgery"
–Barbara, 28th November 2018
1) Booking appointments: the system used to book appointments is very obsolete. You only have one slot in the morning and one in the afternoon for calling and book the appointment for the day. During this very limited amount of time, itâs nearly impossible to talk to one of the receptionist until the bookings are all gone.
Iâve managed sometimes to book through the âautomatic optionâ over the phone only by starting calling the surgery 1 minute before the slot was open so that, by the time the registered voice finished listing the options, the booking time was open. Even this way (which I find ridiculous), the maximum amount of appointments stated as available has never been more than 3 and if you are not quick they go in a matter of minutes! Opening slot time is 8am and by 8.10am they are all gone!!
If you want to book a non urgent appointment (not for the same day) waiting time is just too long: last time Iâve tried to book one Iâve been offered a date only 5 weeks after the day I called with the justification from the receptionist that they have a high number of patients and that is the reason why they canât do anything about this long waiting list. Although, every time I had no choice but booking appointments in advance, there was hardly anybody waiting in the waiting room, which make you think: how many appointments doctors actually have in their schedule on a daily base?
2) No follow up at all: unless you have something wrong coming as a result of your tests, nobody will contact you to check on the next step. I understand this behaviour for routine checks: if everything is fine in a routine check there is no need of following up, but in other occasions, tests are the way to find out the cause of your problem and this not always happens after the first test. In this surgery nobody will tell you what to do next or investigate more unless you go through the painful process of proactively trying to book another appointment.
3) Iâve been seriously ill at the beginning of the year, but it all started with something that looked like a normal flu. When I first tried to book an appointment, after telling me that no appointments were available, the receptionist was the one trying to give me medical advice over the phone and then literally telling me that it was better for me not to go to the surgery as it was unfair on the other patients if I had a flu as i could have been contagious! Result was that my situation get worse and worse and I ended up losing 1 month at work. At this point I wanted to be referred for some private checks (as I have a private insurance) but the doctor I talked to over the phone got very aggressive and rude after my request.
These are only the main points, but the list could go on and on. I really think that there is A LOT of space for improvement in the management of this surgery"
–Barbara, 28th November 2018
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