As I had been feeling a bit dizzy over the Easter weekend, I decided to seek advice from my doctor at Beechfield Medical Centre in Spalding. I thought it would be perhaps wise to have my blood pressure checked.
I rang early Tuesday morning, to be told I was 38th in the queue.
After almost an hour waiting patiently, I eventually was able to speak to someone.
To my frustration and anger I was then told all appointments for the day had gone. I questioned why I had to wait for almost one hour to be told this. I was informed that there would have been a message stating that all appointments had been taken up. I can categorically state that at no point during this hour long wait was there any message stating this (just another excuse).
I explained I didn’t urgently need an appointment that day but I did need to speak to someone regarding this dizziness, as it has happened before. As I am in my 70s I would have thought they could have taken this a little more serious. But no, I was told to ring 111. This is just not good enough.
Ringing 111 is for people who are really poorly and need urgent help, it was not meant for people like myself with just a minor complaint.
While surgeries are passing the buck and telling patients to call 111, they are putting more pressure on our very overworked and over stretched NHS.
Where are these doctors and just what are they doing? They are certainly not in the surgeries as the waiting rooms are always empty. Why can’t we go back to pre-Covid days, where you could make an appointment for any day? Covid really played into their hands, let’s get back to proper appointments.
These doctors need to go and do a few long shifts in our overworked hospitals, especially in the A&E departments, they would then see how overworked these hospital doctors are. Perhaps after a few hard long shifts they wouldn’t be so eager to pass the buck, and see patients themselves, as they should do, after all it’s what they get paid for.
They take their salaries every month, well let’s see them earn it.
Finally where are the practice managers in all of this? Surely it’s their job to oversee the practices and make sure doctors are fulfilling their obligations to the patients.
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