System does not sit well with me
It's very difficult to get an appointment. When you call in to the surgery it's normal to be holding for an hour or more. When you do get through you have to give all your information and symptoms to the receptionist, who then talks to the doctor on your behalf, who then makes the decision about either seeing you or speaking to you. This system does not sit well with me. If the receptionist talks to the doctor on my behalf why can I just not talk to the doctor directly and free up the receptionists time. Sometimes the doctor will call back but you are only given a rough time estimate which then makes it difficult ensuring that you are available and somewhere that you can talk in private. When you call at 8.30am (when the lines open) if its non urgent you are told to call back at 10am but by then all the appointments have gone on urgent patients. The practice often makes changes to the system of booking in which makes things very confusing and they do not inform you of the changes which makes them hard to keep up with. The reception staff and Doctors are generally very nice and helpful but getting in and being treated by an actual doctor is the difficulty. I have to take regular medication but they will not put them on a repeat prescription meaning that every 28 days I have to try and get an appointment to get a prescription so every month I have to go through this horrible frustrating process and honestly the experience is very very poor.