St George's Medical Centre

Thank you for your kind words. We're doing all we can to minimise the time patients have to wait to speak to someone on the phone.

Thank you for your feedback and your kind words. We are looking at ways to incorporate text messaging and hopefully will be able to do this in the near future.

Thank you for your feedback. I am sorry that this has been your experience but reviewing our data it is not accurate. The vast majority of people are seen within 15 minutes of their appointment time. If people are being fitted in as an extra when all the appointments have been used up (a service not offered by most GP surgeries) then sometimes there will be a longer wait. The number of doctors and the length of appointments are determined nationally. There are not endless resources to increase capacity to meet demand which can vary enormously and unpredictably from day to day. Throughout the working day doctors are dealing not only with patients attending the practice but also liaising with many other agencies such as hospitals, the ambulance service, social services, mental health crisis teams, the police, the coroner, care homes, district nurses and care agencies. Sometimes these calls cannot wait or over run. As caring doctors we need to offer people the time they need. Some problems are more complex to sort out than others and some people need more time because they are distressed. Our patients understand this and that should they one day have a difficult problem then we will give them extra time. Whilst it may be frustrating in a busy day and with paid parking to consider, they understand that in matters of healthcare and people’s lives it is not always possible to run to the exact time.