The Deepings Practice telephone system comes under fire

A patient has lodged a formal complaint about the telephone and prescription systems at their GP surgery.

Lewis Trickey contacted NHS England after an online repeat prescription request system at The Deepings Practice repeatedly failed to fulfil his order without any notification of why, and then he was told prescriptions could only be collected using a machine on the wall outside the surgery rather than in person.

He has also faced problems with the telephone system.

“Everyone is told to ring at 8am and if you can’t get in that day, you have to ring back,” said Mr Trickey.

“I had a letter from my doctor saying he wanted to see me. I phoned and was told there were no appointments for him that day. I told the receptionist there was no urgency and to book me in any day, but was told I had to ring back.

“I had to go through the frustrating system all over again because they would only make an appointment on the day I rang. This makes no sense whatsoever.”

Mr Trickey added that he was so frustrated with the phone system he tried the online ‘e-consult’, but this did not generate a response until 10 days later.

A spokesman for The Deepings Practice said they were sorry Mr Trickey had needed to raise the issues, and that the surgery is ‘following national guidance placed on general practice’. They added that the practice cntinues looking at ways to make accessing GPs as easy as possible.

The spokesman added that the dispensary machine was introduced to offer patients a service that may be more convenient if they are unable to access the practice during normal hours, and while it had proved popular, patients can still request collection from the practice.

According to NHS advice, people can choose to complain directly to their GP surgery, or to NHS England.

Complaining to NHS England

• By post to: NHS England, PO Box 16738, Redditch, B97 9PT
• By email to: england.contactus@nhs.net (please state: ‘For the attention of the complaints team’ in the subject line)
• By telephone: 0300 311 22 33 (9am to 5pm Monday to Friday, except Wednesdays when it is 9.30am to 5pm)

When complaining provide as possible to allow NHS England to investigate your complaint. Include:

• your name and a valid email or home address for reply
• a phone number in case NHS England needs additional information
• the name, location, and postal address (if known) of the service you want to complain about
• a clear description of what you want to complain about and when this happened
• any relevant correspondence

It will speed up the process if you include the following line in your complaint: “I give permission for my complaint to be shared with (insert name of GP / dental surgery etc.) in order for NHS England to carry out an investigation.”