To The Surgery

Feb 6, 2023 by Elizabeth 6 Comments

To The Surgery,

30^th January 2023

re – The impossibility of getting an appointment

Dear Surgery,

My doctor is supposed to be XXX – or XXX.

Like most customers at your surgery, I have had to settle for phone appointments from our doctors. These are sufficient some times IF YOUR DOCTOR KNOWS YOU. But getting a face to face appointment with one’s doctor one has to wait four to six weeks!

XXX is at The Surgery on Monday, but to get an appointment, I was told I had to phone first thing on Monday morning. Has anyone at the The Surgery tried to phone at eight o clock in the morning? Do you know what your customers endure?

Why are there no more staff than the embattled few to deal with that?

Why are there not more doctors? Are the SIXTEEN doctors you employ part timers? Are they earning a better living doing private consultations? Are they off exploring the South Pole?

Where are the doctors?

Recently I was in a crises situation. I phoned early morning for a doctor, any doctor, to phone me. Nothing happened. My daughter phoned to remind you. Nothing. Eventually, in the evening the ‘duty’ doctor phoned. She was as helpful as could be. She advised I should go to Lancaster A&E, who despite a five hour wait and a waiting room full of people, announced we must all go home as there were “no doctors”. It was Friday 16^th December 2022.

I am shocked by my experience, the lack of a surgery doctor until evening when I needed one in the day, and the dreadful conditions at A&E.

Here, At The Surgery, I would expect you to employ doctors who can actually respond to an urgent call and be seen face to face when one needs to see them. One needs to see them when one needs to see them, not in four to six weeks time as you say on your website because you are so ‘busy’. What are you busy doing? What are The Surgery doctors doing? Surely if you haven’t enough staff for your business, you should employ more?

I am a very disillusioned customer, (I think one of many!) Your system is not good enough.

Every Doctors’ Surgery is only a business after all.

NEXT

6^th February 2023 – To The Surgery

Today I got up early to “phone the surgery at eight o’clock in the morning”.

At 25 PAST eight, your number “was not accepting calls at the moment”.

I think your instruction should be “phone after eight thirty”.

There are miraculously only more “than ten” people in my queue.

I have had to endure numerous notifications, which is hateful.

None of the other Surgeries have this. One other surgery, the receptionist took my call immediately. The second was on call back.

As I sit waiting, listening to the eternal notifications, I am doing Math in my head.

In our town, there are almost 30 000 people. Divided by 3 (for three surgeries that we have) each surgery may, or may not, have 10 000 customers. Your Surgery have the most doctors and probably the most customers. And the worst service! The reviews on the web give you the least points stating “the inability to make an appointment” first, and secondly, the “ghastly prescription service”.

Seeing I am still holding on after half an hour, repeating eternal messages to me is pointless as I have already heard them repeatedly.

Ooo! FIVE online in the queue!

Exciting.

Holding, holding – notifications for idiots who heard it all the first time continue…..

Screaming point is approaching…….

I am next in line in the queue!

Notifications continue……

I am next in line in the queue!

9:30 All is settled. A phone appointment with my doctor of choice in two days time, and a face to face in a MONTH.

This is almost miraculous! It took an hour and a half, of suffering.

NEXT

To The Surgery.

I think old people like me, who remember the days when the doctor was almost a member of the family, got invited to weddings and funerals and who KNEW you, prefer to have a doctor who knows them. The excuse given to have a random doctor “because they can just read the notes” is weak.

1. Doctors are reading the notes while you are on the phone, or in an appointment. That is no time for the stuff they read to sink in.

2. Doctors write very bad notes. And summarise INCORRECTLY what you said.

3. Doctors have no spell checks on their computers.

4. Doctors notes are often wrong because they have misunderstood in their hurry, been ignorant of your circumstances, or, in their rush, misheard you.

5. Simply, the notes are skimpy, incorrect, or summarised into a medical word.

Who has given the Medical Industry the idea that in a practice business like yours, other doctors “can just read your notes”?

At The Surgery, we are given a choice to chose “our doctor”, but the way of the future seemingly, is to not bother. Any random doctor will do. In my notes on my recent horrible experience, your receptionist asked me “What do you want to see a doctor for?” Well, actually it’s none of her business. And offensive. When I said “same old stuff”, she read from my notes – “Had trouble eating and swallowing”!

This “trouble eating and swallowing” is a vast understatement. The whole experience was the most terrifying experience of my life. Far worse than the post-partum stroke I had in 1980.

And there was no one to help me.

From you.

Or Lancaster Hospital.

No one at The Surgery has a clue!

Because of my experience that I recount to others, I have heard bad stories from other people. I think you are living in a bubble where your customers are not speaking out.

I am not a “trouble maker”. I do not want to make a “formal complaint”. I am speaking the TRUTH that other people are not telling you – not even in your Patient Group, to which I belong. I cannot attend because it is scheduled at 9:00 am. A time when old people, disabled people, have enormous difficulty attending.

Thank you,