Share review of New Medical Centre

New Medical Centre 2014-12-03 Person 3 5 0

My designated doctor is most helpful and spends as much time with patients as is needed rather than giving them the designated time slot. This at times results in having to wait passed designated appointment times which, speaking for myself, I have no problem with as I would rather wait and know I can have the doctor's full attention for however long it takes. On the negative side, the time taken to answer the phone is unacceptable - sometime it takes 2 - 3 minutes for a call to be answered and then the caller is very often left holding on for anything up to 15 minutes (speaking from personal experience) which is totally unacceptable - the call could well be for an emergency. Another negative is the practice operates a system whereby patients can come and queue before 8 am when the door opens to get an appointment for that morning. Unfortunately the queue is often 20-30 patients with no shelter in bad weather. Why not open the doors at 7.30 and have a ticket system whereby the patients can then book in for an appointment when the receptionist arrives at 8 am. This system is supposed to be available between 8-9 but because slots are limited they are very often filled by 8.05 - again, speaking from personal experience when arriving at 8.08 to be told all slots for all doctors had been taken. Why state that patients can see a doctor if they come to book an appointment between 8-9?! And yet more negativity. It is virtually impossible (unless it is an emergency when the patient has to ring precisely at 2 pm) to get an appointment for the same day unless have queued earlier in the morning - normally it is 3, even 4, weeks in advance. Again, not acceptable. Too many patients and not enough doctors at the practice.