Patient called 200 times to get GP appointment
A FRUSTRATED patient claimed she was forced to call her surgery more than 200 times in a bid to get a doctor’s appointment.
Eva Smith, from Sutton Coldfield, said she was fed up with what she called “extremely poor” GP services in the town.
The Manor Practice patient claimed it could take weeks to book an appointment and demanded answers. General practice is facing “unprecedented demand” with a higher level of calls than before the pandemic.
Manor Practice said it had “taken steps to improve access to appointments”. But it acknowledged there were “still difficulties in reaching the practice”.
New figures show some city surgeries have more than 5,000 patients per GP on their books.
Ms Smith, 40, said she had also struggled to get through on behalf of her 79-year-old mother. She said she was “determined to expose the poor service a regular citizen receives from GP practices”.
She claimed she had grown used to calling between 80 to 100 times to get through. She explained she had topped the 200 phone call mark more than once.
“I can see this is becoming a massive issue for the community,” Ms Smith said. “We are all aware the NHS is having difficulties but my experience with being unable to book appointments goes back to 2017 and is becoming worse.”
The finance worker said she had spoken to others going through similar problems. She added that hundreds of people calling a handful of operators at exactly 8am, when phone lines opened,
made it “impossible to get through” when in the past there was a three-hour window.
Leanne Hoye, practice manager at Manor Practice, said: “We offer in the region of 200 GP or minor illness appointments every day. These appointments consist of follow-ups, routine appointments and on-the-day appointments. Around 60 appointments each day are ring-fenced for urgent or emergency situations that need a GP.
“We have taken steps to improve access to appointments. Our telephone lines have been extended twice, in October 2020 and April 2021, to help manage the volume of calls being received. However, we are aware there are still difficulties in reaching the practice.”
Ms Hoye said that, in order to relieve some demand for the phone lines, the practice was working on a number of initiatives to “improve access to the practice”.