Churchwood Medical Practice 2017-09-04 Person 2 5 0

I can never get through at 8 for an appointment. I start ringing on the hour and each time it is engaged. I often have to attempt up to to 10 calls, before I am held in a queue. Once through usually around 8.30 I will be told the appointments have gone and that I should have called at 8. I start work at 8.30 so this is all so inconvenient as this is the time I'm meant to be driving. I visited the pharmacist local to my work with with my last medical problem as I didn't want to waste mine or my GPs time if I could be prescribed something over the counter. The pharmacist told me to go straight to my GP. I explained this but as this was now gone 9 they told me to call back at 8 the next day. My problem was getting worse so I was about to visit the walk-in centre when I thought I'd see if they would take me seriously if I came in to the surgery. When I turned up at 2 I was kindly offered an appointment for 4 without any problem at all, which was great so I came back later and I had an excellent experience after that. But if I had been given an appointment when I called in the morning I wouldn't have made an extra journey there and back whilst in that much discomfort.