East Cliff Practice 2018-09-29 Person 4 5 0

The surgery is very busy and although appointments for non urgent matters are often booked for weeks in advance, the new acute care scheme is beyond brilliant. The reception staff are direct and to the point and don't faff around, sometimes coming across as rude but they are trying to make sure that the right people get the small amount of daily slots available. Unfortunately this does not always work, I was told i'd have to wait 2 weeks for an appointment for pain medication to stop me passing out while urinating due to unbearable pain after an operation. I managed to get put on the Acute Doctor call back list where the Doctor will call you when he's got a few mins free and will if possible based on history, records and experience may be able to prescribe any required medication, this saves everybody time, saves appointment slots and works really well. Unfortunately the days of being able to have a Doctor available on the day for non urgent problems is long gone, Pharmacies and pharmacists have now taken over that role and we now have to start using them as the first place to get non urgent advice and treatment. The online services that they provide via Patient-Access do not allow you to send messages which is a pain, I need to order more medication which is not on a repeat so I will again on Monday have to go through the phone at 8AM, be told I can't have an appointment, get on the call back list, then wait for the phone call .... it's a waste of time for the Doctors which could be spent helping others, is the messaging service was working then I could message them asking for more XXXX and the doctors would be able to just prescribe it. Also it is not possible to book appointments online, always shows errors or that no slots are available.