Whittle Surgery

Chaos at the new GP surgery

What an absolute disaster. In the eight years since moving to this area, I've fortunately never needed to schedule a GP appointment until recently. I went online to book one, only to receive a call informing me that appointment wasn't actually available and I'd need to phone on the morning I wanted to be seen. This begs the question - why offer online booking at all? Later, I received another call saying they'd mysteriously discovered a Saturday morning slot. Small mercies. After my Saturday consultation, blood work was required. The surgery's first available blood test was approximately three weeks away (utterly ridiculous), so I had them done at Chorley Hospital that same week. When attempting to schedule a follow-up, I was told certain tests needed repeating - just wonderful. After the second round of tests, I tried booking online again, but the system wouldn't offer any appointments. Instead, I was instructed to call on my preferred day. I phoned precisely at 8:00am only to discover I was the 35th caller in queue. Unable to waste two hours on hold, I opted for a callback when my turn arrived. Three hours later they returned my call, only to inform me all appointments for that day were gone. Complete chaos. I eventually secured a phone consultation two weeks in advance to discuss results from tests completed nearly three weeks earlier. During this call, I was asked if the blood samples were taken while fasting. Not once had ANYONE mentioned fasting was required, so naturally, everything needed repeating... properly this time. I visited to collect the blood test forms AGAIN, finding the surgery practically empty. Someone eventually appeared but disappeared into the back office where I overheard another staff member mention everyone was unavailable due to staff training. You must be joking. The person I overheard clearly hadn't received proper training themselves, as their behavior was appalling. It would have taken mere seconds to retrieve my details and print the necessary forms. So here we are, weeks later, still waiting for correctly administered blood tests for which I still lack the paperwork. I can only hope that as this fiasco has already stretched on for weeks with the prospect of several more before getting definitive answers, nothing serious is wrong. What purpose did spending a fortune on a gleaming new surgery serve if all you provide is disorder, holdups, aggravation and unhappiness? I suppose the parking facilities have improved, if nothing else.