Grove House Surgery 2015-01-07 Person 2 5 0

The only doctor I have seen was great but... After having recently registered with this surgery I feel my access to GP care has significantly worsened, due to the practice's extremely antiquated approach or preference for 'on-the-day'-only appointments and the very limited availability of pre-bookable appointments. At a time when most things can be done online and in advance, I feel like I have been thrown back into a pre-internet era surgery, and when trying to book an appointment today with the same doctor that saw me before, so I can get continuity of care, I have just been told that all her pre-bookable appointments are gone so I need to 'call at 8:30 on the day or queue outside the surgery before 8:30'. Such an approach would be great if I hadn't a job to go to, but unfortunately I do, and I can't spare the time ringing a number that will be engaged for hours on end, or queuing outside the surgery in the hope they will give me an appointment at a time that suits me rather than suiting the practice's antiquated booking approach. May I kindly suggest that you need to increase both the amount of pre-bookable appointments and the length of time in advance that these are available, as all surgeries I have been before would offer appointments 4 to 6 weeks in advance. You should also link this to a web-based appointment system that cut the need for endless phoning for an appointment and for the practice secretaries having to spend lots of time on the phone trying to find the scarce appointments that are available, so a win-win situation for everyone! May I finish by saying that my registration experience with the practice was also less than ideal, and I suspect this might also have to do with reliance on bits of paper being passed around, as I was told to phone for a first appointment after registration, which I duly did and I was given, only to arrive for the appointment and been told I didn't have one and I should book 'another' appointment. Then I attended a blood test which I had to repeat a week later because the original samples were not labelled when collected and were rejected by the hospital. I would like my GP practice to be an organised, efficient, 21st-century practice. I hope this isn't too much to ask.