"Bad practice"

Dear Arunraj Mahenthiran

Thank you for your feedback.

We have limited on the day appointments and the demand for last week following a cold spell was very high.

I can see that you have recently registered with our practice, and you may not be familiar with our appointment booking system, I apologise if this has not been explained clearly to you.

Based on your review where you stated we are a “bad practice” I investigated whether my team had been rude and unhelpful to you, I have reviewed the call recording on the 24th April. You rang the surgery for an appointment at 12:50pm, to book an appointment, the receptionist advised you very politely to call at 1:30pm.

You asked, can we come directly and make an appointment, she replied sorry no, there are lots of people already waiting and its first come first serve. You replied ok, then you said so I need to call after 1:30pm, she replied call exactly at 1:30pm. You replied exactly 1:30, ok, she replied yes, appointment times are 8am and 1:30pm, ok? You said ok, ok, thank you and she replied ok you are welcome.

During this phone call my receptionist was extremely polite and courteous to you.

Phone calls at the booking times do get busy, and this is the case across most practices in the UK.

However, you rightly state that you can book advance appointments at anytime during the day, but I would like to point out to you, at no point did you ask for an advance appointment during the call.

During your interaction with the team at the surgery they understood you wanted an appointment on the day. I apologise, if we didn’t fully understand your needs.

I would like to point out the you can get appointments by the following:

1. You can queue to make an on the day emergency appointment, as many of patients do not have phones or prefer this option. (8am or 1:30pm)

2. You can call to book an on the day emergency appointment at 8am in the morning or 1:30pm in the afternoon.

3. You can call NHS 111 when we are closed, if they feel it is appropriate, they will book you in directly on our system as they have allocated appointments on our clinical system.

4. You can book advance appointments.

5. You can if there is more acute situation be provided with a home visit by our GPs or be given an On Call appointment with the on-call doctor.

6. You can complete an econsult, unlike many surgeries we do have any time restriction on this, you complete this anytime you like by going on to our website.

7. For certain clinics you book directly onto our system, we use this for flu vaccination, COVID vaccination clinics, baby Imms, smear clinics, Asthma and COPD reviews.

8. We also provide additional appointments through the Seven Kings Primary Care Network – Enhance Access, these appointments are held at Seven Kings Practice in the evenings Monday to Friday and on Saturday 9-5pm.

I hope the booking process is clear, we will send you our appointment booking guide via text message.

Regards

Practice Business Manager