Poor
My husband had symptoms and was seen the following day by the practice which was a good service. However following this he struggled to get the results for his tests after verbally being told they were okay but we wanted official confirmation. He also struggled with non-specific symptoms of tiredness and so given the blood bottle shortage we elected to have some private blood tests taken which was shared with the GP. I am a GP myself and felt as though I was having to be my husband’s doctor because we were unable to arrange an appointment to discuss the blood test with a doctor. Despite going into the Practice on several occasions to arrange an appointment we were promised a call back which never happened. The system that the Practice use it is very frustrating because you are not able to pre-book for non-urgent things. Every contact with the practice requires an 8 am phone call and I had to go to the practice in person because the phone lines simply cut off when one rang at eight. When I tried to book a routine appointment for my husband, I was not able to and was promised this call back which never materialised. In the end we had to make a complaint which being in a GP myself and knowing the pressures my colleagues are under I didn’t wish to do but it seemed to be the only way to get a response. I know some practices are using the system of calling on the day for everything to manage workload and in our experience it was just not workable. On top of that we didn’t receive the callback that we were expecting. For people who work it really isn’t possible to achieve care. Consequently we have lost faith that the practice will be available if we really do need them urgently and are in the process of looking for another practice . Please address this system of not being able to pre-book appointments, it really doesn’t seem to work for patients and please do not promise things that you don’t appear to be able to deliver. It really isn’t a safe level of care