Shinfield Health Centre

I am heavily pregnant with a toddler at home so need to see the GP regularly. The GPs are all fantastic, friendly and helpful and they clearly care about their patients. They're all very good with my toddler as well. The care we receive from them is the main reason we stay on as patients. The way the practice is managed is making things difficult though and reception staff are not always helpful. In recent months I have wasted one trip because phoning several days ahead for a MATB1 form which I need for my work wasn't enough for a GP to actually write one out for me (it takes all of ten seconds, I eventually watched the midwife do it). When I turned up, complete with screaming toddler, to collect the form, a blank one was torn off a stub by a confused receptionist and I was informed that I could request a GP fill it in but that it would take 48 hours and I'd have to come back. So... does my call not count as "requesting one and then collecting it"? Last week I called to find out what I need to do to get a fitness to fly letter from the GP and was told I needed to book an appointment and come in for it. So today I called on the dot at 8 according to the world clock, waited over 17 minutes as "number one in the queue" before being hung up on. Called again, waited another twenty minutes (good thing I don't need to get a toddler to nursery and myself to work at this time of day, eh?) and finally got through to someone who told me I should put a request to the doctor in writing for this. I told her I'd called last week specifically to be told what the process was and now I need an appointment because I'm flying this week. Only appointment left is at 5:20 which means I will need to collect the toddler early from nursery and take him to the appointment, which will presumably be running very late at that time of day. Please, please, please train your receptionists so that they understand phone requests because it's hard enough for working parents to keep up without these situations coming up regularly and sort out your phone queue system or allow people to book at times that aren't either three weeks ahead or at the exact time they're trying to get out of the house with the baby! I really don't need this sort of stress and frustration when I'm six months pregnant.
Original Comment Report...

I am heavily pregnant with a toddler at home so need to see the GP regularly. The GPs are all fantastic, friendly and helpful and they clearly care about their patients. They're all very good with my toddler as well. The care we receive from them is the main reason we stay on as patients. The way the practice is managed is making things difficult though and reception staff are not always helpful. In recent months I have wasted one trip because phoning several days ahead for a MATB1 form which I need for my work wasn't enough for a GP to actually write one out for me (it takes all of ten seconds, I eventually watched the midwife do it). When I turned up, complete with screaming toddler, to collect the form, a blank one was torn off a stub by a confused receptionist and I was informed that I could request a GP fill it in but that it would take 48 hours and I'd have to come back. So... does my call not count as "requesting one and then collecting it"? Last week I called to find out what I need to do to get a fitness to fly letter from the GP and was told I needed to book an appointment and come in for it. So today I called on the dot at 8 according to the world clock, waited over 17 minutes as "number one in the queue" before being hung up on. Called again, waited another twenty minutes (good thing I don't need to get a toddler to nursery and myself to work at this time of day, eh?) and finally got through to someone who told me I should put a request to the doctor in writing for this. I told her I'd called last week specifically to be told what the process was and now I need an appointment because I'm flying this week. Only appointment left is at 5:20 which means I will need to collect the toddler early from nursery and take him to the appointment, which will presumably be running very late at that time of day. Please, please, please train your receptionists so that they understand phone requests because it's hard enough for working parents to keep up without these situations coming up regularly and sort out your phone queue system or allow people to book at times that aren't either three weeks ahead or at the exact time they're trying to get out of the house with the baby! I really don't need this sort of stress and frustration when I'm six months pregnant.
Original Comment Report...