Willowbrook Surgery 2022-08-25 Person 0 5 0

I am never able to get an appointment when phoning from 8am in the morning. My last experience of this was this week (Tues 23/8/22) when I needed to get an appointment for my very unwell 20-month old who was spiking a fever of 40.3 and had had a febrile convulsion episode. Phoned at 8am and was on hold (in a queue of 15) for 40mins at which point I had to disconnect as my child was in distress. I tried periodically throughout the day to get an appointment and finally, at 5.45pm I got through to be advised the following by the Receptionist: a) No Drs were available b) I should phone the OOH service from 6.30pm c) They could not book me an appointment for the next morning as the "system doesn't allow" I explained time and again that my son was very unwell and that I had been trying all day. She advised that this was unfortunate but I should contact them again at 8am in the morning. At this point I disconnected as my son was vomiting. I phoned NHS Direct 111 and within 30mins had had 2 callbacks from Nurse Practitioners and was advised that my little boy was gravely unwell and I needed to get him to the hospital ASAP. At this point his temperature was 40.6 and rising. Absolutely ridiculous that appointments can't be prebooked in such extenuating circumstances or that there was no GP on site (45 mins before the Surgery closes). The system of appointments does not work and when you do call, the Receptionists often tell you that an appointment is not needed (without any medical qualifications). When you attend the Surgery you can hear every conversation that the Receptionists have - completely disregarding the idea of Confidentiality (and the GDPR Regulation). This is a separate matter which I am now bringing to the attention of the Information Commissioner's Office. The Surgery needs vast remodernisation and someone needs to look into the business processes and look at Quality Improvement methodologies within the Surgery before someone becomes seriously unwell (or worse) because they are unable to obtain an appointment.

- more people to answer phones in the morning if you are going to continue the ridiculous process of calling @ 8am - Receptionists not telling patients they don't need an appointment - More appointments available - Systems to allow pre-bookable appointments in extenuation circumstances