A frustrated Nantwich patient had to make a staggering 520 calls in one day to finally get through to her GP surgery.
The patient, who we agreed to call Sophie, has been registered at Kiltearn Medical Centre in Nantwich for 25 years.
But the Nantwich resident said the incredible number of calls was the last straw and wanted to highlight her experience.
Kiltearn, based at Church View Primary Care centre, has been criticised in the past for its appointments and phone system.
Sophie said: “I’m not sure what could be done so that you could actually get an appointment!
“But doctors’ surgeries, in this specific case Kiltearn Medical Centre, surely need to remedy this?
“I called 520 times and I got through twice and was put on hold – only to be hung up on before the 520th attempt actually getting an appointment!
“Many others have also experienced this.
“We need to get an answer/response from the surgery as to why this is happening.”
Kathryn Bennett, practice manager at Kiltearn, conceded they were aware of issues with the current phone system.
She added: “We have recently signed with an alternative provider which will offer our patients a wider range of options including a call back service.
“Hopefully, the new system will go live next month.
“Last month we handled over 88% of the 5,888 calls that we received from patients, with an average handle time of 3 minutes 33 seconds, booking over 6,000 appointments.
“We would like to apologise to our patients for any difficulties they have experienced trying to get through to us on the telephone, and reassure them that we are doing everything we can to improve our service.”
A GP patient survey in 2018 showed Kiltearn was the worst rated GP surgery in the South Cheshire Clinical Commissioning Group area.
And in October 2021, the surgery blamed a lack of admin staff for a string of complaints from other patients who could not get through to book an appointment on the phone.
At that time, Crewe and Nantwich MP Kieran Mullan pledged to follow up after a “spike” in complaints about the practice to his office.
Today, Dr Mullan said: “I have had constructive meetings with the surgery in the past to raise patients’ difficulties and the feedback I’ve had is that things have improved with changes made to reception staffing.
“Overall, GP practices are seeing more patients than ever, but I know demand remains high. I’m always happy to raise patients’ concerns.
“I would encourage people to take full advantage of all the different people they can now see at GP practices.
“You can get seen quicker by people like physiotherapists, nurses and pharmacists and still get great care.”
A spokesperson for NHS Cheshire and Merseyside said: “NHS Cheshire and Merseyside has been working with all GP practices across Cheshire and Merseyside to support a whole range of measures, as part of national plans for recovering access to primary care which were announced by NHS England in May.
“These plans includes investment into better phone technology for GP teams, which will enable practices to manage multiple calls at once, provide ring backs and redirect calls to other specialists more efficiently – as well as additional training for GP teams, more options for self-referral for the treatment of certain conditions, and supporting the national enhancements to pharmacy care to help ease the pressures on GP practices.”
In the last Care Quality Commissions (CQC) inspection in 2017, the practice was rated as “Good”.
This was reviewed in July this year.
The CQC said: “We reviewed the information and data available to us about Kiltearn Medical Centre on 6 July 2023.
“We have not found evidence that we need to reassess the rating at this stage. We will continue to monitor information about this service.”
See Sideburnrovers comment
Why do they take on more patients money
you cannot now even think of phoning, you or a family member confirmed to act for you has to do it by going into the actual surgery for an appointment. some people have sensory issues, and that dreadful music playing over and over is something outrageous. there should be a system where you can email for an appointment, as it is not always necessary to physically see a dr, another health care worker would suit, but even that is as rare as hens teeth these days, the system is beyond broken and the staff do not really care, remember the cheese counter idea of service where you took a ticket and waited, well they clearly do not have a scooby do, maybe Nantwich Buddies can get involved, its like a third world service
It’s obvious. More houses built in the town means more people. More people means increased pressure on existing services. Unless CEC planners require house builders to increase essential services as a proportion of development, then this is the future for all of us. CEC seem to be content with the house builders making their profits despite the detrimental effect on the town.
True of all the practices in that building . My folks in wales ,you can still phone up and book an appointment for a day suitable to you anytime during the day , not just at 8am as is the case in Nantwich . When you complain you get a snotty response from the receptionists . They know it’s a rubbish service but makes their work load easier so they persist with it . In London I could queue up at 8am and when they opened at 830 you were able to see a dr with in half an hour . It’s a service to suit the practice manager and the reception not the patients .