"Awful "

I am writing to inform you that I have chosen to leave your practice, and I feel it is important to share the reasons behind this decision in the hope that it may help improve the experience for others.

Trying to access care at your surgery has become increasingly difficult and frustrating. On multiple occasions, I have had to make hundreds of phone calls—up to 300 times—just to get onto the call waiting list for an appointment. It should not be this hard to access basic healthcare.

While I would like to acknowledge that some of your reception staff are kind and helpful, there are unfortunately others who seem to go out of their way to be unhelpful and obstructive. Communication with the surgery is virtually impossible.

This morning was a perfect example: I had a 9:00 am appointment but was stuck in extremely bad traffic. I spent 45 minutes on hold trying to let you know I was running late—no one answered. On arrival, there was no available parking and cars were queuing. Again, there was no way to inform anyone of the situation.

Referrals take far too long, and the lack of basic common sense in the processes is staggering. I’ve had doctors advise me to book a follow-up appointment in a month’s time—only to be told this is impossible as appointments can only be booked two weeks in advance. Test results are never proactively communicated, leaving patients to chase endlessly for answers.

This is not the standard of care patients should have to accept. I do not require a response, as I have already moved to another surgery. But I sincerely hope these concerns are taken seriously and that steps are taken to drastically improve your systems and communication going forward.