A trial of telephone booking of appointments at The New Queen Street started earlier this month.
The reasons we are told are because the ‘old’ system was unsustainable with the amount of patients and the availability of Doctors.
There is a national shortage of GP’s even though the government ‘promised 3,000+ new doctors 4 years ago, there has been a significant shortfall and not all want to become GP’s
Also NQS has had a 5% reduction in government funding (Why! – we were not told).
As a trial through to September anyone (routinely) wanting an appointment at NQS will have to telephone, leave their details and brief reasons/requirements and ‘A Doctor’ will call you back at sometime to discuss whether you ‘need’ to be seen by a doctor.
If so they will make an appointment for you – the same day or give advice/medication without the need to be seen by a doctor.
At last nights PPG meeting the above was explained and feedback the surgery are getting was fairly positive – and the ‘system’ as Senior Partner Dr Gary Howsam explained was that the surgery was able to ‘see and process’ more patients given the resources available.
It may not suit everyone, and some I have spoken with are very apprehensive – that said they have not yet tried out this trial booking system.
There are mechanisms in place to accommodate frail, elderly, vulnerable and people without telephone availability.
Two members of the PPG commented positively on their experience of using the trial system.
If you have used the system and have either +ve or -ve experience why not tell the Practice Manager at NQS. Making comments on ‘Anti-social’ media does not help the surgery to plan ahead after the trial has run the course.
I am sure all comments made to the surgery will have an impact on their decision making.
