ON July 7 at 10am I rang Kidderminster Medical Centre for an appointment to see a doctor.
I had to listen to the usual long-winded announcement before I could select the option to talk to a care navigator. What happened to receptionists?
I then had to listen to the same message that has not changed in years — ‘due to the high volume of calls there will be a delay in answering your call’.
You then have to listen to another message trying to get you to use the website because they do not really want you to phone the surgery.
Then there is a message telling me I was number six in the queue.
Eventually someone answered. She listened to what I wanted and then asked me to photograph the area to which I replied I did not have a smart phone.
She said that was not a problem. She could pass on the details to the doctor and I would be contacted later with an appointment date.
Five hours 44 minutes later at 15.44 I received a text saying ‘please use the link below to send photos of the issue’ so I had to ring the surgery again.
Again I was number six in the queue.
When I got answered I pointed out that I had told her in the first place that I could not send a photo.
She said she would again tell the doctor and again I would be contacted.
One hour later at 16.45 I received a text and a voicemail both asking me to contact the surgery to arrange an appointment.
This process occupied the care navigator three times, the doctor two times and me three times and took six hours 50 minutes to get the appointment I asked for at 10am.
How can this be classed as efficient or streamlined?
No wonder doctors’ surgeries seem very busy when every phone appointment results in at least another phone call to the care navigator, the doctor vetting your request and then actually seeing you at a later date.
When the surgery was in Bromsgrove Street I used to make one phone call, experience no phone queuing system, book an appointment to see the doctor and the doctor dealt with diagnosis and treatment. This worked a lot better and was not frustrating.
It seems to me that technology is being used to make things more difficult for the patient and to allow surgery managers to get rid of receptionists.
Paul Dakin
Kidderminster
Send your letters to letters@kidderminstershuttle.co.uk.
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