Frustrated Preston patients having to make ’80 calls a day’ to book GP appointments

Patients are struggling to make appointments at GPs Pic: Twitter

Patients of The Park Medical Practice and other GP practices around Preston and Lancashire have been struggling to call through to make bookings too see their doctor recently.

A patient of the practice who wished to remain anonymous told BlogPreston: “I’ve been trying to make an appointment with my doctors surgery for weeks and struggling to get through on the reception number.

“Finally got through after making 80+ calls on one day.”

A doctor then requested that they come back in for a blood test and they say they had to make 300 calls over two days to try and get through to the surgery.

They added: “The numbers on the CCG website are incorrect and put you through to the emergency room?!

“It’s a full time job trying to make an appointment at the moment and these bloods are urgent.

“You’ve got Hancock on the telly saying the NHS is open and you’ve got nobody picking up the phone so I can get my bloods done urgently.

“I need treatment and this is delaying things and I’m getting worse.”

When the patient finally got through he was greeted by a lady who is on one phone doing all the bookings who said she is handling 300 booking alone each day.

There have also allegedly been complaints made about the GP on Lane Ends.

NHS Central Lancs CCGs tweeted out that they are aware of the difficulties that patients are getting through to local GP practices via telephone and that they are working hard to resolve the issues with the IT/telephone supplier.

☎️ We are aware of difficulties some patients are having getting through to local GP practices via telephone. We are working hard to resolve this with the IT/telephone supplier ASAP.

Full information at: https://t.co/F1VeefKUwt pic.twitter.com/gnsKXuH6wI
— Central Lancashire NHS (@NHSCentralLancs) June 11, 2021

They added: “You can continue to call your practice at anytime but please bear with us and your practice, particularly during peak periods.

“We appreciate the frustration this may cause you. Please continue to be respectful towards practice staff on the other end of the phone line. Abuse of any kind will not be tolerated.

“You can request repeat prescriptions and book appointments online via your GP surgery website if already registered for this online service or you can also call 111 for non-urgent NHS advice.”

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