"Cannot make an appointment."

A year ago I changed from one GP service to another as it was closer to where I live. When I registered with them there were notices up saying that if patients call at 8: 00am they would be able to make an appointment to see a GP in the afternoon, I was really pleased when this worked exactly as they said.

However, now I cannot seem to make an appointment at all. The last one was a few months ago – I have depressions and other physical conditions which need management with pain killers. I’ve run out of my prescriptions and I’ve received texts from the surgery to let me know I need to make an appointment but I really don’t know how to do this. I started to phone before 8: 00 am but only got through at 8: 06 by which time, I was told, all appointments had been taken. I walked round to the surgery only to be turned away by the security person who repeated that all appointment had been taken. So how do I make an appointment? This has happened on several attempts to make an appointment – even if I tell them they have sent me a text to make an appointment.

In addition to this when I did manage to get an appointment a few months ago I was only allowed to discuss one thing with the doctor – I had several things I wanted to talk about, including my depression but was forced to decide whether mental health or physical health was to be priority of the day. No acknowledgement that one can affect the other.