Springwood Surgery

At present we are struggling to meet the demand of patients wanting to book an appointment with a GP. We have had an increase of 150% of patient activity in comparison to this time in 2019 and we are also running the COVID-19 vaccination programme through the surgery.

We are aware that patients are frustrated about the wait to get through by telephone to the surgery, so we have now installed a prescription query line to try and free up some of the reception lines.

Most of our patients are very supportive during this challenging time but there are a small cohort of patients who are verbally abusing the reception staff on a daily basis and this is very demoralising and upsetting to our reception team who have worked every day throughout the whole pandemic to try and offer our patients the best healthcare possible under these restraints.

The abuse has now got to the point that the doctors have informed the staff that if a patient becomes abusive they have the doctors permission to inform the patient that they are ending the telephone conversation and they will end the call, if the patient is abusive in the surgery and shouting and threatening the reception team they will be asked to leave the premises.

Thank you for your support