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Depends how popular your doctor is.The walk in clinic as always been a nightmare.
Quite often you'd get in there at 8.00 and still be sitting there at 9.30 having watched other people who came in after you come and go in half the time.
Depends how popular your doctor is.
Yes, that is annoying when they do that.Apart from Dr Lloyd who I've seen since about 3 years old - I don't mind seeing any of them. My request along with many others is "whoever's got the fewest waiting." What I find is when they tell you, you can see Dr So and so" they fail to tell you he isn't actually here yet, he starts at 8.30!
I took a 98-year-old to a surgery once, to find that he had a two hour wait in a room full of screaming kids* - a simple phone call and we could have attended at a suitable time - for the whole of the two hours, there was a scrolling message that x-number of people had failed to turn up for appointments in the previous month, thus wasting y-hours of valuable time, as if they sat there twiddling their thumbs for the 'wasted' consultation time, rather than just having those who had actually attended wait for less extended periods.Yes, that is annoying when they do that.
What really annoys me is the general assumption, throughout the NHS, not just at the doctor's, that their time is so precious but mine can be trampled over at a whim.
My request along with many others is "whoever's got the fewest waiting." What I find is when they tell you, you can see Dr So and so" they fail to tell you he isn't actually here yet, he starts at 8.30!
Totally understand where you are coming from but the 'closed shop' system Stafford surgeries have means that unless you are kicked off a doctor's list you have to stay with the doctor you are currently with, even if you move right next door to another doctor the other side of town.I always ask for the one who's got the least waiting, and usually end up with the longest wait ! Others walking in afterwards come and go with other doctors, and I end up checking with reception after an hour or so whether my name is actually on the list.
A few times I've got there at 7.30am to queue in the massive line outside for the doors to open at 8am, and reached the entrance lobby to see a sign saying they are short of GP's so only the first 20 patients to book in for each of the 2 doctors on duty that day will be seen . Just about got to be seen on those occassions. One time I arrived at 9am , to be told "Sorry, both GP's and nurses books are full...you will have to either come back tomorrow, or go 'to this place' " and handed a leaflet informing me of a walk-in centre to phone somewhere up north-end of town.
Everytime I go though, and pass my time sitting in the waiting room listening to addresses as people book in, there are a hell of a lot of them living miles away and no-where near the surgery. One woman I was talking to while we waited said that she actually lived next door to the John Amery Drive Surgery...but she likes our Weeping Cross receptionists better , so gets a taxi there instead .
Maybe when it does go to appointments only, some might change to surgeries nearer to their home and there will be fewer chasing the elusive appointment slots....
What I posted earlier has been the policy for the past two or three years, I believe.@proactive I used to be with the doctors on Mill Bank but changed to Weeping Cross Health Centre about 10 years ago. Just went into WXHC and asked to register, they asked who my current doctor was and then requested my records from them. Took about two months for the records to move but I was able to use WXHC once I registered.
It was a very easy process.
Well yes, just a bit.If that is the policy then it goes against the 'free choice' we are supposed to have.
Ditto. Dr Raby was a really top bloke who would have had today's NHS micro-managers having multiple seizures.The biggest problem with Weeping Cross is they've ourgrown the catchment area. When Wildwood doctors closed down it all went to pot.
I remember going to a lovely quiet doctors attached to Dr Raby's house on the corner of Stockton Lane