St Thomas Road Health Centre 2015-04-22 Person 2 5 0

The telephone appointment system is a nightmare. I work outside of Newquay, as I can imagine many people do. I have phone a number of times with something that i KNOW a doctor will need to see/discuss with me in person - however I have to take time off work to just get through to book the phone appointment, on the off chance that I MIGHT get an appointment that day. I have 'risked' it before and made the call from work to be told i could have an appointment in half an hour - when I turned this down, I was told 'well it cannot be that urgent then'. APPALLING!!!! I appreciate that the GP's are under strain due to increasing patient numbers - however, there needs to be some understanding that there will be certain illnesses etc that require you to actually see a doctor, or indeed that are hard to discuss which is made harder, if not impossible to talk about over the phone. When you do eventually get an appointment and the doctor says 'come back and see me in a week', you then go and make that appointment at reception to be told' you will have to phone on the day'....no wonder people are just bypassing GP's and going straight to A&E! Please sort it out!