The Vineyard Surgery
JF
Jasmin F. 6 months ago • From Google
Poor
I want to start by saying that the clinical staff at the practice are excellent, and the reception team are equally wonderful and supportive. My previous visits have always been very positive, and I have consistently given the practice five-star ratings, which they absolutely merit. That said, the newly implemented appointment system is creating considerable difficulties in accessing care. In the past, calling at 8:00 AM would typically result in securing an appointment the same day. The current system has become overly complicated and time-consuming: 1. I am required to complete an extensive form with many questions, some of which do not have suitable answers for my situation. If my responses are not exact, the system directs me to attend hospital immediately, and I must complete the entire form again from the beginning. 2. Following submission, a booking link arrives 1–2 days later. Even when I access it straight away, the soonest available slot is two weeks in the future. When I rang this morning about this delay, I was told to check the system each morning for cancellations. Should my health deteriorate in that time, I was advised to attend hospital instead. This is not a satisfactory solution. By the time an appointment becomes available, my health issue will likely have either improved on its own (making the appointment redundant) or deteriorated substantially, necessitating hospital care or emergency services (which has happened to me previously). I consider this new appointment system to be ineffective. Although it may reduce costs for the practice, it appears to be compromising patient safety and wasting NHS resources by directing patients toward emergency departments for conditions that could have been managed more efficiently in primary care. The system is pushing problems up to higher levels of care rather than resolving them at the initial point of contact.
Gill R.