Forge Road Surgery 2018-08-20 Person 2 5 0

It’s now 8.23am and I have called so far 46 times trying to get through but it keeps saying ‘the surgery is now closed’ the lines are meant to open with the surgery at 8am I believe. It’s a battle trying to get a morning appointment as it is, but this delay in opening the lines is likely going to make it even worse. I can agree with what most others are saying about the nurses being kind, they are all lovely, it’s a shame the same can’t be said for a number of the reception staff. One of the main issues is waiting around for someone to poke their head round the corner to check the front desk. I’ve had to stand for 15mins plus just waiting to pick up a script because no one checked the desk. It’s not like they can’t hear patients walking in, the door makes a hell of a noise. I’ve used the bell a couple of times but it doesn’t make them move any quicker. What’s more annoying is when there is someone sitting on the computer on the left side that has full view of the front desk and all they have to do is turn their head to check if anyone is waiting but they don’t, they just ignore you and pretend that they don’t know you’re there. It would make much more sense to have someone constantly manning the front desk computer. That being said there are some of the reception staff who are lovely, but it’s few and far between I’m afraid. The standard of care at this practice isn’t great. The appointments system needs urgent changes. I remember St.Georges Cresent surgery in Wrexham town having a much better emergency appointment system, maybe Forge Road could look at how St. George’s do it and implement a much better and safer system. This is peoples health here and if someone desperately needs to see a GP that same day they should be able to. The current system is not better than the old system they had where you would just turn up and wait. Routine appointments fine, happy so wait a few weeks for those but emergency ones shouldn’t be on a first come first served basis! Because 1 day you’ll turn someone away who was calling since 8am only to be told when they finally got through that all the morning appointments have gone and they may go on to become seriously ill. I understand it’s hectic and crazy busy and there’s budget issues and all that stuff across the nhs but at the end of the day all of the staff working there, are being paid to do a job. If they hate their job they don’t have to be there, but if they are choosing to stay then it shouldn’t be patients that come on the receiving end of their work stress and the poor and unorganised surgery practices. I would like to say thanks to Annabelle one of the nurses, she is an absolute credit to the nhs and a diamond in that surgery. She is caring, kind and professional and really goes the extra mile to help people.