Inefficient process and sarcastic receptionist who lied about available appointments.

The practice couldn’t be less patient centred. The appointment booking system is hopeless. You have to ring at 8 to book an appointment and have to sometimes ring 20-30 times to get through and then can be on hold for another 20 mins. This might be OK for people who are retired but for a working parent, trying to get children out to nursery and school, it’s impossible which makes getting care for anyone in the family a rigmarole. You can book a “non-urgent” appointment but these can be 3-4 weeks away. They have poor record keeping and the admin staff are, from my experience, unhelpful. It’s very much a standard “computer says no” answer. For example, when I was pregnant I was told that I needed additional pre-eclampsia checks by the hospital but the receptionist just told me to leave a message for the midwife on her mobile who wasn’t back at work for a week. As a high risk patient, that wasn’t acceptable. For children’s flu vaccinations, they only do these on certain dates which again, is very difficult for working parents with no flexibility. The practice manager needs to consider the patients as clients rather than someone they’re doing a favour for. The doctors and nurses are generally good and provide good and kind treatment with the odd exception.