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Care Opinion

Unable to make an appointment over the phone

Posted By Foreverwaiting

"Unable to make an appointment over the phone"

About: Lerwick Health Centre

(as a service user),

I've been phoning the Health Centre to make a Dr appointment, 2 days in a row it gave a message saying the appointment line was closed due to staff shortages. I tried again a few days later and a new message saying appointment line is closed due to staff training. Tried again the following day and its back to the original message of appointment line being closed due to staff shortages.

Very frustrated that in the 4 days out of 6 that I've tried to phone my health center I can't even speak to someone to make a Dr appointment. Quite unsatisfactory.
Will NHS Shetland be reviewing this and making changes? Maybe an online appointment booking system?
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Responses

Response from Carolyn Hand, Corporate Services Manager/Complaints Officer, Chief Executive's Department, NHS Shetland 5 years ago
We are preparing to make a change
Carolyn Hand
Corporate Services Manager/Complaints Officer, Chief Executive's Department,
NHS Shetland

Submitted on 07/08/2018 at 08:49
Published on Care Opinion on 08/08/2018 at 16:45

I am very sorry about the difficulties you have had getting through. Typically our appointments line is open every weekday from 8:30am to 12:30pm and 1:30pm to 5pm apart from Wednesdays where we are closed in the afternoon for staff training purposes.

Unfortunately recent and unexpectedly severe staff shortages mean we have had to close the appointments line on occasion in the afternoon as we have not had a member of staff available to answer the phone line. We expect this to ease by mid-August. On the occasions where the appointments line has been closed in the afternoon a message is played to the caller asking them to phone our emergency line if they feel they cannot wait until the following morning to make an appointment. This line is always staffed and patients are encouraged to follow the instructions on the message.

Regarding online appointments, we are not currently in a position to provide a full online booking system although we will soon have a check in machine in the waiting room which will have the facility for patients to book their own appointments.

Adam Czarnobay
Lerwick Health Centre Manager

  • {{helpful}} {{helpful == 1 ? "person thinks" : "people think"}} this response is helpful

Update posted by Foreverwaiting (a service user)

4 months from your response and this issue is still ongoing, unable to make an appointment as line is closed due to staff shortages. Again, I’d like to urge Lerwick Health Centre to look at investing in online bookable appointments, as well as an online system for checking test results too.

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