"Worst practice"

I am a consultant in the nhs for 21 years and well aware of the horror stories related to gp practices these days. Inspite of my very busy schedule, I managed to take some time out and go to the surgery physically to collect a letter long waiting to be collected. I was overdue for my diabetes test (of course no one bothered to remind me) and since I have other medical conditions which require regular blood monitoring, I wanted to book all the blood tests at the reception when I was informed that I would need to call back the gp at 2 pm I for these blood tests or explain this to the lady who would call me back to book my diabetes blood test.

I phoned gp surgery at 13:55 today. I was 6th on the queue. At 13:59 I moved up to 3rd in the queue. Sharp at 14:00 the line got disconnected from their side - ?that’s how they are reducing the queue? I phoned back immediately, this time 12th on the queue. I did not wait long till the call was picked up and before I could say anything, the lady at the other end (the same lady who was due to call me back at some point tomorrow) said if the call was to book telephone consultation with the gp, all appointments have gone for today. She was prompt in offering the email address of the surgery, where I could complain when I expressed my discontent.

I explained her everything and informed all what I wanted was to have all my blood tests together along with my diabetic blood test. She said she would talk to her supervisor and get back in touch with me regarding the blood tests.

She did keep her promise and informed that her supervisor (Team Manager) had said that the rest of the blood tests were not due till August and hence I can only have my diabetic blood test.

I live both in Birmingham and London and have a very busy private practice in both cities plus work in nhs in Birmingham. I explained to her that I would only live in Birmingham for the next 3 weeks and would have some availabilities over these weeks. It would not be possible for me to come back in August to have the rest of the blood tests because of my circumstances. I wanted to speak to this Team Manager, practice manager and literally begged to fit me in for a telephone consultation with the gp just to have my blood tests sanctioned. She could not help me with my request as team manager was in a meeting, practice manager was not in and gp did not have any slots left for no fault of mine. She could only advise me to call back the following day at 8 am when my own clinics start at 9 am.

I know gp surgery these days have become appalling. However my previous experience with this surgery had not been particularly bad especially with the gp but it was totally unacceptable the way my personal circumstances were not taken into account by the team manager. From the unfazed attitude of the lady at the sound of my intended complaint, it was obvious that complaints go unanswered and are not worth anybody’s efforts. Will wait to hear back to prove myself wrong