The Grange Group Practice

I am sorry to hear about your experience, and the way in which you were advised how our appointment system works. Our receptionists are encouraged to provide options to patients and I am disappointed that you do not seem to have been presented with any in this instance.

Our receptionists are trained to ask about the nature of the problem, so that they can direct patients to the most appropriate person, in the most appropriate timescale. The majority of our appointments are protected, and released daily from 8:30am. Unfortunately, this can lead to a large volume of calls first thing in the morning. Our telephone lines are answered by several receptionists and calls are generally queued until answered. The practice has 10 telephone lines, and when these are all in use patients will hear an engaged tone. I understand this can be frustrating. Patients can also enquire about appointments by presenting at the surgery from 8:00am each day, and the practice offers an online booking facility to provide patients with options when trying to book an appointment.

Routine appointments are available to book in advance, however it seems at the time of your call, the following month's appointments had not been added to the system. In this instance, our receptionists should inform patients when those appointments would be made available. We generally aim to have appointments available to book up to 6 weeks in advance and I am sorry this was not the case when you called.

The recorded message on the telephone will be reviewed, to ensure the quality of the recording is satisfactory.

I will discuss your comments with my team in the hope that we can improve the patient experience in future.