Bourne Galletly Practice Team 2023-11-21 Person 3 5 0

My husband has had an ongoing chest infection for several weeks. He has serious heart problems, COPD and has had pneumonia on four occasions in the past. On trying to get an appointment to speak to or be seen by a doctor (someone to listen to his chest and check for pneumonia would be a good idea!) I went on to the online app on the dot of 7am to find that, as usual, I can only book Covid or flu vaccines. Phoned at the precise moment the surgery opened in the morning to hear that all phones lines are busy and the queue full - goodbye! It took TWENTY TWO phone calls to get through to the point where I could leave a request for a call back from from the receptionist. He was eventually seen by an extremely efficient and caring Advanced Nurse Practitioner. Unfortunately, despite three courses of steroids and antibiotics, he’s no better and the whole miserable process of trying to make an appointment has begun again, with the same outcome. The treatment he has received when we eventually managed to make contact has been fine and much appreciated, however the inefficiency of the appointment system is intolerable and we now give up and will be attending a walk-in centre. My husband is a retired GP (or good old Family Doctor as they were in his day) - you can imagine the despair he feels!

PLEASE sort out your appointment system - I hear time and again that it is nigh on impossible to make an appointment, either on the NHS app or by phone. The stress and frustration it causes is intolerable and lets down what could be an excellent surgery.